Life is Good Racing

Hi guys,

We just posted some video with parts of the Start and 1st hour of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Check it out here:

www.lifeisgoodracing.com

Click on the link at the top for "Race Start '08"

Sorry it's not too pretty a video, as it was my first edit and I just focussed on cutting it short enough to post easily for people to see. Maybe nice fades and music to follow in the future...enjoy...

Steve

mikahb

Good video Steve - what a great time! That PorVette carves through traffic like a hot knife through butter.

You guys had a lot of speed, really hate that you had engine trouble, but I'm glad to hear you'll be back with a dry sump and more reliability.

The #4 ES GTM is getting numerous upgrades for 2009 as well, look forward to seeing you guys on track in December.

Life is Good Racing

Thanks. That was Dan Pina driving and he's very smooth indeed. I was pretty impressed.

Congrats again on the GTM finish!

I was happy to see it as I have spoken with the builders a number of times and we're of a similar exploring spirit. What were the issues that you had before the fog red flag? Didn't you guys luck out by being in the pits to work on it the whole time? I think I heard that, but not sure.

s

DarkMastyr

Damn that is quick! Nice vid!

mikahb

Yep, we did luck out. Our left-rear suspension (lower shock/spring mount) failed about 6 laps into my first stint in the car - see pic below of me going through Turn 8.

About 1:30 into my stint, the right-rear tire blew going in to Turn 1. I brought the car in and they did a driver change. With the wheels off, they adjusted the coilover in the left-rear to compensate as much as possible for the badly bent shock mount. I think it was around 5:15pm when I got out of the car. They sent it back out with a new driver and all fingers crossed. David limped it around in the dark and was making decent time, when on the first lap of yellow-flag for fog, the mount failed completely (from badly bent to broken in half). Our crew chief made a great rules-maximizing call to get the car into the paddock before it went red, and we came into the paddock just as the race was stopped. So, we got lots of time to put a new, reinforced lower left and right shock mount on, change brakes, reset ride height, etc.

In the end, what cost us an overall win was an alternator that got hungry and ate itself alive around 9:00 AM Sunday. So, our stints went from a planned 2:30 to 3:00 hours to 1:30 which was all the battery would do before it gave up. Then, during every pit stop, we had to put in a brand new battery - I think they did 4 battery changes in the last part of the race, which included installing both of the Optima Blue-Cell batteries out of my fathers 5th wheel in the car!

All in all a great experience. The team that built and races this car are a great bunch of folks and were all sorry to hear you guys had motor trouble. Next year I'll have to swing by and say hello to you and your team - car looked great, and very fast!

burners

Cool video and I like your web site with all the photos. Your car is stinkin fast.

Life is Good Racing

Thanks, it's coming along very nicely.

So on the GTM, was it the GM alternator that went bad? We had a rebuilt bosch that went bad within 4 track hours last year during a 3hour shorter race. The previous year at the end of the WERC season and about 30 track/race hours, we were hearing a squeal above 4k rpm or so, which turned out to be the alternator. Luckily it still lasted through the 25 hours in '07.

Do people have issues with their LS alternators?

That is a very cool shot with the sparks in turn 8, though the left rear tire does seem pretty far off the ground. That was a great call indeed to pull in before it went red. We and a lot of cars were drooling over the potential Overall Victory once the Daytona Prototype got knocked out of the race and the Norma lost so many laps.

It was up for grabs...

Anything can happen, so can't really get your hopes too high. I think a Zen-like attitude is essential to enjoy the weekend, meaning you have to enjoy each moment, hanging with buddies, racing, the minute by minute challenges, since the wait to find "end result" is so long. If I just thought of that for my pleasure, so much can go wrong, and I miss out on so much. Just some reflections I had in the first 12 hours of the race, while waiting in the pits...