The United States Air Force (USAF) National Auto Sport Association (NASA) 25 Hours of Thunderhill was won today by the No. 75 Mercer Motorsports Michelin Porsche at Thunderhill Raceway Park.
Mercer’s win gives the team from Los Altos, Calif. their third USAF NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill win in a row, getting the hat-trick. Drivers Johannes van Overbeek, Jon Fogarty, Tommy Sadler, Rich Walton and Wolf Henzler had only one small incident in the 25 hours of running. That was when they had contact with the E1 Class Scion at 4 p.m. on Saturday, resulting in a broken right rear wheel. The Mercer Porsche covered 691 laps, 2,073-miles at an average speed of 101 mph, and, amazingly posted the fastest lap of the race on circuit 641 with a time 1:45.036 on their way to a 41 lap win.
“Three in a row for Scott Mercer and the team is great,” Jon Fogarty, driver said. “He puts together a great team for this event every year. All of our stints were good, and we had great weather. Most of the drivers out there were very heads-up, using their mirrors, which meant no drama for us. We really had a clean run, except for that slight brush with the Scion early on.”
“It is a wonderful day for us,” Scott Mercer, team owner said. “We have great drivers, great crew, and great teamwork all the way around. It was a fun day. We had one incident on the track. We were so fortunate. We had that little accident at 4 p.m., but we fixed it and just kept on charging. The drivers did a great job, not putting a wheel wrong for 25 hours. The Porsche ran strong and fast for the full run. A great win!”
Second place in the ES Class was the No. 29 Porsche of G22 Racing/Truspeed, with the No. 161 BMW M3 of Team Stammer Inc./Bavarian Performance finishing third.
Source: NASA
