2007 NASA 25 Hours at Thunderhill

The tow crew consisted of Jeff Mohler (the boss), Jacob Thomsen and myself.  For several hours, we were
helped by Mark Van Middie.  I took my break between 0200 and 0700 Sunday Morning, otherwise I was on duty
the rest of the race, and qualifying Friday night.  Jeff was on-duty the whole time, and slept on the way home.

Overall, there were 35 tows during the race, about 10 were partial lifts, 2 were full lifts and one roll-over.
During the qualifying, there were 3 tows.  We also moved 3 improperly parked vehicles in the paddock.

Some of these photos are not mine, but ones of tow-related interest I found of the event.

Before race, I got a few pictures off.  The Lotus was supposed to be the pace car,
but there was a problem mounting the light bar, so it was not used.  The Mustang
had just come off of running the Panamerican, and was just ran for promotion.

Here are pictures of the safety vehicles.  Safety 1 was the Chevy 3500, Safety 2 was the Ford F-350. 
Safety 1 had just gotten back from being repaired after suffering from a rear-end collision on the track
from a competitor's Porsche during the cool-down lap.  Also pictures is Tow 1, a Ford F-550 with a
two cable hydraulic winch boom.

Here is the safety crew giving the "Thumbs Up" to the pack at the end of the parade lap.
I'm the short guy in the middle.

The first tow of the day, which was about 5 minutes into the race.  I'm in the cab for this one, Jacob
is in the read seat.  This was when it was warm, probably about 40 degrees.

Here's the before and after of an incident that happened around 1pm Saturday.  The #5 car got sandwiched
between the #83 car (BMW shown) and the #15 car (Mazda Protégé not shown).  This happened on the
straight-away between turn 12a and turn 14 (there is no turn 13).  Safety 1+ was dispatched to turn 14 to remove
"metal debris" from the middle of the track, and Tow 1 was dispatched shortly afterwards to help/block
for Safety 1.  I was in the rear-facing passenger-side seat on Tow 1. The race cars must not have been paying
attention to the yellow flags, as they were coming over the crest at the bridge three abreast and having to
immediately move to the left of the track to avoid hitting the back of Tow 1.  These three were in about
the third pack of cars to come over the crest then the #15 car hit the brakes hard, and was flipped on the
front bumper by the #5 wedging under it, with the #83 car bring up the rear of the #5.  The #15 landed on it's
wheels, and was able to drive away, while the #5 was lifted to the cold pits, and #83 was pulled by one
of the safety trucks to the cold pits.  #83 was able to return to the race but #5 was finished.  I'm on the
driver's side rear-facing seat in the photos.

Here Safety 2 and Tow 1 respond to a roll over near turn 5a.  Safety 1 was dispatched elsewhere
in the track by the time these pictures were taken.  The driver was unhurt, and the car only suffered
suspension damage on the rear left wheel.  This was a little after 2pm Saturday.

Here's the last tow of the race.  This was one of two full lifts that we did at the race.  This car had
a blown tire on the driver's rear, and was replaced and back out on the track to finish.  This was
probably about 10:30am on Sunday.  I believe this was the #28 car, which had the fastest lap
time and speed, 1:43.416 and 104.433 mph.  This car finished third in class.

After the last tow, we returned to "the base" at turn 7, and packed up the truck for the drive home.
Here we've finished prepping the truck, and are ready to head in and check out.  Looks like the
"tow boss" was getting ready to say goodbye to the rest of the safety crew before heading in.

Here are the last two pictures that I snapped before we drove off into the sunset.  This is the overall
event winner.  This Daytona Prototype, from Parallax Racing, LLC, finished with 661 laps in 24:41:48.052
with a best lap time of 1:44.210 and speed of 103.637 mph

Many thanks to the Nor Cal NASA folks and the entire Official/Safety team for making me feel like
a real part of the safety team.  This was a lot of fun, and if things work out, I might come back next
year to reprise my role of chief "tow flunky".

For more information about NASA Pro Racing, or the NASA 25 Hour at Thunderhill, please visit:

www.nasaproracing.com

www.nasa25hour.com

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