I’m going to try to blog through the 25 Hours of Thunderhill this year. Try and keep everyone up to date here and let you know how our weekend is going.

We’re way ahead of the game already. Last year by this time today we were wrapping up a rebuild of the MPME Scion Racing tC after it barrel rolled in practice on Thursday. So far, zero barrel rolls. We’re going to try to keep it under 3 inversions this year. Fingers crossed.

Today was my first time in the car since the last 25 Hours. Dave McEntee had the car out at Buttonwillow last weekend and the team got to shake the car down a bit and uncover a couple of issues. Yesterday, Mark Hotchkis and Rob Holland got to drive, as did Dave. All got to turn at least a few laps and start to get acclimated to the car.

Overnight the team made some suspension changes. Dave, Mark and Rob got in this morning before I got in. I really only got one flying lap before the session was checkered. We all grouped up in the motor home and downloaded to our engineer, Marshall Pruett. Some minor alignment changes, shock can pressure changes and raising the throttle pedal were all done during lunch.

I got a good 10 laps after lunch and the car felt much improved. It also gave me some time to get reacquainted with the car, since it had been so long. Compared to last year, there is no comparison. Grip overall is much better, as we’re running 255 front tires and 235 rear tires. The car has quite a bit of aero this year as well. We’ve got new Fwings (front wings) and a very aggressive rear wing. Aero grip is very impressive right now! The car has none of the instability it had last year and is very easy to drive.

In my session I got the car down to a 1:56.9. That’s a full second and a half faster than last year. I know I’ve got a little bit left in me and I’m pretty sure the additional changes we’ll make to the car will help as well. Very impressive!

OK, I have to get ready for qualifying. I’ll write more later….

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