25 HOURS OF THUNDERHILL COMPLETES SEVENTEEN HOURS DUE TO FOG

by David Vodden

The last time the event was impacted by fog was in 2008 when the event ran for eighteen hours and again ended at 3pm Sunday afternoon instead of at noon.

When the tire dust had cleared and the beautiful Sunday sun shown over the green landscape in Willows California One Motorsports was the overall winner completing 531 laps at the checkered flag. The team driving a Radical SR3, also won the ESR class which was the category in which they competed. “This is a fabulous race,” noted team owner Jeff Shafer. “It is pure endurance at it hardest with tough competition and conditions that far exceed that which one encounters at other, more well-known endurance auto races. To win the 25 Hours of Thunderhill you have to be on top of your game and you have to finish against all odds. We did that today and I could not be more-proud of the achievement.”

There were five other classes of cars competing for top honors in their class as well as top overall finishes. In the EO class Spoon Sports won completing 455 laps over second place DIG Motorsports. In the E-1 class, Funduro Racing topped the charts finishing 46 laps ahead of their nearest competitor Tazio Ottis Racing.  In E2 the winner was MooreWood Creative White completing 467 laps. Next up was the E3 class where Silver Fern Racing took top honors lapping the track 406 times.

The all-electric vehicle from Entropy Racing of Pennsylvania took the checkered flag logging 346 laps in the effort and winning in the EM class.

Thirty-eight cars started the grind that attracted drivers from Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Japan Europe, Belgium, and many other US states. “This is a global event,” noted NASA promoter Jerry Kunzman. “We are better known around the world for this event then we are in America and certainly more than in Northern California,” he said. “This is the event that no one knows about that everyone wants to race,” he added. With the event absent last year due to COVID, Kunzman was incredibly pleased with the turnout and how things went. “I know we had to go through a bit of a restart for the 25,” he said, “but we are back and next year promises to be the best 25 hour endurance race in the eighteen years of running the race,’ He promised.

There were no major shunts in the event not counting numerous spins and some mechanical breakdowns along the way. In addition to NASA and Thunderhill Park the event is sponsored by the US Airforce, Hawk Performance Brakes and Toyo Tires. The 2022 version of the 25 will run on the first weekend in December of that year.