NASA 3
hour enduro
It came down
to a battle of hound chasing hare.
The NASA three hour Enduro February 22 at Thunderhill
saw one of the closest finishes in its history, with a pass
for the win coming on the back straight in the final lap.
Jim Hamilton
of Addiction Motorsports recently hooked up with Elephant
Racing and installed a set of their new Bronze Control Arm
Bearings in his Toyo Cup 911 (#68). The 1968 chassis-based 911
is equipped with 930 front suspension and brakes, 1988 Carrera
rear suspension, 915 transmission and a stock 3.2 motor.
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Jim
Hamilton's #68 Toyo Cup car |
Jim came out
to shake out the new bronze bearing setup. He wasn’t
planning to enter the three-hour enduro and didn’t bring a
pit crew or second driver.
But given a chance to enter, Jim opted to simply fill
his 27 gal fuel cell to the top and drive until it was empty.
Car #68 is
classed Super Unlimited (ES) by NASA and, being a late entry,
had to grid behind the other ES cars. After the green flag several cars opened a gap with a mix of
spec racers (ESR), American Stock Cars (ASC), and an enduro
dedicated RX7 out in front.
The more powerful ESR and ASC cars are capable of
turning sub two-minute laps at Thunderhill and have a big
advantage over the Toyo cup legal cars. The fastest Toyo cup
legal cars turn 2:05.
The new
suspension setup was working for Jim. He had turned 2:14 as a
personal best last year, but was now turning 2:10s.
He found himself in a hotly contested battle with John
Fisher II in his M3, car #12. The cars exchanged the lead
every few laps and put on a good show as the tightest battle
in the field.
At the
one-hour mark car #12 pit for fuel.
With 18 gallons remaining #68 continued.
One-by-one the ESR and ASC cars pulled into the pits
providing Jim a commanding lead he would maintain for the next
two hours, pounding out the laps and setting up the hound and
hare battle to come.
Chris
Strom’s ASC car #28 was in second overall and anxiously
awaited a #68 refueling stop. Chris’ team feverishly scanned
the hot pits for the car #68 pit crew to find out when the car
would pit, even timing and scoring was busy looking for the
pit crew.
Then the
realization came; car #68 had no crew and wasn’t going to
pit! Car #28’s team went into action, measuring every
interval in the final hours, working toward maximum efficiency
in the pits, planning splash and go pit stops.
Car #68
continued cranking laps, oblivious to the frantic action in
the pit lane. Jim just kept doing what he knew how to do; turn
lap after lap at a consistent pace until his stint was over,
this time, a full three hours.
At the two
hour and fifty six minute mark in the final lap car #28
finally caught car #68, on the back straight of Thunderhill,
less than one mile from the finish. Car #68 crossed the line
just 18 seconds behind car #28.
Certainly one of the closest finishes in NASA enduro
history. The third place finisher was over two laps back.
Position 1
car 28, Chris Strom, Class ES, 78 laps, total time 2.57:101,
best time 1:59.227. Position 2 car 68, Jim Hamilton,
Class ES, 78 laps, total time 2.27:50.440, best time 2:10.698.
Win interval 18.339 seconds.
Congratulations
to Chris for the overall win and to Jim for an outstanding
solo performance.
Addiction
Motorsports.
|
With
all the moving parts it seems impossible that an engine can
last 300,000 miles, yet they do. The reason is that in
normal operation the moving metal parts do not actually
contact each other!
catalogfeb03.pdf
