Jalopnik: 25 hours of thunderhill

The NASA 25 Hours Of Thunderhill Overload Gallery

Murilee Martin — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

As we know, nobody was shocked to see Mazdas dominate at the 25 Hours Of Thunderhill over the weekend (go here for the results page), but it wasn't a Mazda-only deal by any means. Mustangs, Golfs, 911s, M3s, a lone Scion, and many others were in action as well, and you can check 'em all out by making the jump!

Mazdaspeed MX-5 Takes Overall NASA 25 Hours Win, Evil Genius Miata Wins E2 Class

Murilee Martin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:00:00 EST

I'm paying the price for going up to Thunderhill yesterday (and officiating at the first-ever LeMons Scavenger Hunt today) while still reeling from the 1918 Flu, so I'm unable to slog through all the race photos and give you a nice gallery today (you can rely on our friend Señor Lavrinc to provide some excellent coverage). Instead, the breaking news: the overall lap winner of the NASA 25 Hours Of Thunderhill was the #19 Mazda MX-5, run by- you guessed it- Mazdaspeed! The E2 class trophy will be riding home with our pals from Evil Genius Racing, who piloted their #64 Miata to a best-in-class win. Check in tomorrow for some 25 Hours gallery action!

[NASA 25 Hours Timing]

Four Hours Down, 21 To Go: Welcome To The 25 Hours Of Thunderhill!

Murilee Martin — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:30:00 EST

Our friends from Evil Genius Racing are running a trio of Miatas here at the 25 Hours, so I'm here with the Loverman to watch some racing and shoot some photos; meanwhile, nose-to-grindstone Damon Lavrinc from Autoblog is hard at work belting out live coverage. I'll have a whole bunch of photos of the action later on, but for now I'm enjoying the LeMons reunion here; we've got Rob Krider, who's now writing for NASA, and members of Team SCHWING and Driving While Awesome. Check in later!

Evil Genius Racing To Take On 25 Hours Of Thunderhill

Murilee Martin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST

Even though Sacramento's Evil Genius Racing might be best known around these parts for its role in the Black Metal V8olvo LeMons car, owner John "Evil Genius" Pagel actually spends most of his time building nice race cars. You know, the kind that cost more than 500 bucks, go fast, and tend to hold together for long periods without any need for duct-tape/beercan intervention. In this case, Evil Genius has assembled three Miatas to take on NASA's 25 Hours Of Thunderhill race next month. I've seen and heard these cars in person, and I plan to be at the track to watch them run on December 6th. Make the jump for more photos and info.

Here's what John has to say about his past experiences and future plans in NASA endurance racing:

I’ve been competing in the NASA 25 hr race since its inception as a 12 hr back in 1995.. Usually with a first generation RX7.. last year we raced a Miata and the old warhorse RX. Some simple math says that that RX has 1500 hours of racing on it… that is a huge amount of time for a racecar… it has been put into semi-retirement, it is now eligible for vintage racing and will probably be used for just that.

This year we are going after the 25hr in a big way, two brand new ITA spec 1.8L Miatas and a third Spec Miata 1.6. Three cars, yes, I’m crazy. We’ve teamed up with Miller Motorsports, a team that has been a perennial contender for the E-2 class win, as we have been. Rather than race against them, we’re racing with them this year.

Our build up started back in June, we bought a 200,000 mile 1.8L Miata on Craigslist, acquired another one from one of my customers and started stripping them down. I’ve always liked the Lotus green/yellow combo. So we painted them half and half, then mixed up the parts. So the cars have a yellow/green—- green/yellow mashup. Our first test of the new cars was at Thunderhill at the end of October. We had many issues, no oil pressure in one car… some loose nuts and bolts, but in the end our drivers got us a 1st and 6th in the ITA race, a 3rd and a 6th in the 4 hour enduro and we won the Improved Touring cup, as the fastest Improved Touring (IT) finisher in the enduro. This past weekend we tested at Thunderhill again, both cars are down on power, so as I write this the engines are coming out, we are hunting for more power… let’s hope we can find some………. I will update you guys at Jalopnik as I have time.

If you can, come to the race. The start is quite a scene, with F-16 flyovers, bagpipers, and lots of other pageantry, and of course you can cheer for us boys and girls from Evil Genius. It is only $10 to get in as a spectator…… 11:00AM on Saturday Dec 6th is when it starts, ending 25 hours later at noon on Sunday.