Newlyweds

Brett & Barb Gieselman

Married on December 23, 2006

Chilliwack, BC

Merry Christmas

End of Day 1

Jeff & Larry_2

Last Minute Rush

Blue Acura

Looking on...

Ready? Set...

SHIFT_hope

Checkered Past?

Team Car&Driver/BMWCCA #2

Team Car&Driver/BMWCCA

Moton

Suby Doo

Broken Miata (one of many)

Scott & "Bitch!" Morton

Team Wheels America

Team C-Note/Highlander Motorsports

1/100th of Thunderhill

a small taste of what Thunderill was like. you could watch this 100 times, throw in a 2 minute pit stop every two hours, and go with no sleep, and that was what i did! and i'll be there again next year!

i still haven't gotten through anymore pictures. i blame laziness work christmas the whole holidays. that's what you should be mad at, not me.

Days Before the Thunderhill 25 Hr.

Friday Set-Up

Dad and I, with Manfred and his wife, had arrived to the track on Thursday evening, after the other drivers had. They all had travelled later into the previous night looking for and trying to catch us. Therefore, they beat us to the track on Thursday, and had most of the pit area setup up. There wasn't much to do befare the day long practice Friday - aim the headlights, apply a few 'DE'-cals, and have dinner. Once Dad and I met up with Manfred and Margie, we were set. Food was always paid for or prepared for us. Sweet! Looking back, everyone on their end put in an amazing amount of preparation beforehand - bringing food and planning meals, rebuilding/freshening the car before hand, packing and towing down TWO trailers... all we really did was show up and crew.

We were always one of the first cars ready. First through tech inspection, first on track Friday for the practice. Everything went quite smooth considering we all jsut showed up and had no real game plan except to run the ol' Z-car 25 hours plus some. But it worked out amazing well. No one had an ego, no one tried to be boss. We all had respect for Manfred and his decisions, as it was his car, his gas, tires, and money. We all stepped in when we could offer help, and everyone else was eager to assist. We all just had fun!

The Friday practice brought out a couple issues, but nothing a couple minutes couldn't fix. Loose wires, radio issues. After the practice though, during a post dinner "nut&bolt check", we discovered some stress cracks caused by the sway bar. It was starting to get late, but we decided that it was still an easy enoguh fix, and with a 25 hour race ahead, we shouldn't take any chances. We started taking the front end apart to make things easier for the welder, clean the areas in question, and let Larry fly at it. He finished within 30 minutes, I had hte car back together, and we were all in bed just before the large, bright, flood lamps turned off at 11pm.

Resting Giant

zoom zoom

Sun Spot

When we arrived at the track, the Forsythe Indeck Atlantic team was finishing up 2 days of driver practice. They had three cars running around a shortened version of the course, and three drivers battling for the final seat for next season. With them being there before us really added to the magnitude of the weekend. They then cleared out by Thursday afternoon to make room for the rest of our competitors. They paddock area was quite full this weekend - 64 teams registered. Out little team still had 2 car trailers, 2 motorhomes, 2 large pickups, a couple cars, and the racecar. And a measly 15 people...

Klamath River Rest Area

still sinking in

i'm back! will post more later, just need to catch up on sleep and work and the 510 club and... then i'll sift through the 450+ pictures!