First, congratulations to Mercer Motorsports – they were the overall winner of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill with 628 laps. They were driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RS (I think). It was German. It was fast.
Second, and more importantly, thanks to this team (I’ll name them later). I was here at the beginning, but it belongs to others now – they did the work and allowed me to share in their success. I am lucky to have been here.
Team Miatacage.com (aka Sean Hedrick) proved that 3 times is a charm – or, more accurately, that hard work pays off.
We ended up 8th overall in a field of over 70 race cars, using the rule set for what is supposed to be the “slow” ones. We completed 590 laps (38 fewer than the Porsche) We also successfully fended off an attack from a group of very talented guys with huge, global car producer, kind of money behind them. We got some serious bang for the buck…
We won the “Under 2 Liter” trophy (which we hadn’t known existed), and would have won E2, the class above ours, if we had bothered to fill out the paperwork. We missed the podium of ES (the fastest production car class), by one lap. We would have won ESR (Sports Racer), and been 2nd in E1 (2 classes above ours). I write this to tell you about how extraordinary my friends are. I am very proud of them.
The Honda Performance Development team, with which we battled, is full of gracious gentlemen. They are professional racers, and my feeling after meeting them, is that they are truly happy for us. I am grateful that they made this hard – they were coming for us, and if not for a bunch of guys that love to race (and are good at it), they would’ve had us. Our margin of victory was about one half lap.
Racing is often about “luck”, and we’ve had our share of the bad kind at this place. This day was ours – more often than not, things went our way. I’m not particularly superstitious, but I decided sometime after midnight that it would be best if I stayed awake for this one. I haven’t closed my eyes since 5am yesterday morning – I’m not alone and I’m glad I did it.
I’ll share more stories and photos in the next few days – there are lots. Thank you to everyone who sent messages, texts and emails or looked at this blog. It means a lot to me and the members of the team that wanted to share this with some important people.
We are on our way home!!!
I am looking forward to the full story in book form. You are a writer that I would gladly read. Thanks for doing the blog, Brian. It was all we had to keep up to date and I really appreciate having more than lap times and stats. Your words reveal the heart behind all that was done. What an amazing team!
Just excellent work. Contracts to all Team Miatacage!
Brian, Have u considered a career in writing? Much safer than bike racing. Might keep u awake tho doing Enduro stories. Have to say the only thing that kept me sane during 3 days of SCCA BoD meetings was reading your blow-by-blow updates. Again contracts to all!
Good job to all. I knew you could do it.
Thanks Brian for all the updates and for staying awake! You are wonderful support for the team and I’m sure an integral part too. Drive safely.
Fran
Great job boys. Now get home safely please. See you soon
Way to go Boys!! Good writing Brian!
Congratulations guys! Way to kick some ass down there. Funny to hear that there was only some paperwork between your feet and more asses being kicked.