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.