The effort for the race began the Monday before the race. Everything needed to be loaded up, spares lists needed to be checked off, and any last minute stuff need to be handled. Team owner, Mike Quan arrived at the track Thursday early in the morning to get a good paddock spot. The Gates to the track opened at 10:00 am. Mike with the truck and trailer along with the motor home following right behind grabbed a great paddock spot. Thursday the weather was horrible with pouring rain and strong winds, everyone was hopeful that this would not be the way the whole weekend went. Despite the rain and strong wind, the truck and trailer were unloaded, the garage and paddock area was was setup. That night we ate dinner, chatted about the race weekend, and normal daily life. We tried to get some sleep early but it didn’t work out that well, as everyone was very excited about the race. Around 1:30 am we all got to sleep, and in what seemed like 5 minutes in sleepy land, we were woken by the wake up call.
We could all see through the blinds that the sun was blazing, which we were all very excited about. After eating breakfast, we get to the track around 9:30. The crew and drivers all arrived shortly after. The early part of Friday was spent finishing setting up everything that wasn’t set up on Thursday because of the rain.

The later part of Friday was spent letting drivers get seat time, and scrubbing in one last set of tires. Pete Fowler and Andrie Hartanto all took some seat time on Friday to get better acquainted with the car and the track. The official practice started at 4:30, and qualifying was to start at 5:15.

At 4:30 Tom Lepper jumped in to take a few laps around the track to make sure everything was ok, as he has driven the car in sprint races previously. Tom takes 3 hot laps and come in. At this point the team is ready for qualifying. Around 5:00 o’clock Roger Foo is strapped into the car and takes 3 hot laps, comes back in and waits for qualifying to start. 5:15 rolls around and Roger heads back out, takes one warm up lap, the following lap clicks off a 2:10:xx, at which point he decides to take one more lap and clicks off a 2:09:xx. These times are respectable endurance times for the car.

The team brings the car back to the paddock, where the final maintenance is carried out. Watching the team work together was pretty awesome. The 2004 PDQ motorsports team crew all returned to help out again this year, with a few new additions. Watching them work on the car was impressive to say the least. I had to keep reminding myself that these guys are all volunteers, out here doing it because they love it. Everyone on the team knew what they had to do, and did it. There was no chaos, no disorder, just a well oil machine that was using this non-crunch maintenance work, to prepare for the crunch time maintenance work that would be required. The work was finished promptly, and then the team started practicing more for the race. At 7 o’clock all work was done, the team was packed up and ready to head into Willows for some pizza with fellow competitors GOTO: racing. The team really enjoyed the pizza, as did I, and if you ever in Willows and looking for some good pizza I would defiantly check out Downtown Pizza. We were also lucky enough to have Johnny Mac join us, him and the crew enjoyed much B.S.

After every one ate tell there bellies were full, we all rolled out and headed to the hotels. Every one made an attempt to get to bed earlier and get some good sleep but I think every one was very excited and nervous, so I know sleep was minimal.

Saturday everyone arrived at the track at 8:30, James Chin one of two crew chiefs makes the call to nut and bolt the car again. “Curly” and Joseph were going over the car, when Joseph discovered a questionable passenger side rear wheel bearing. James was called over, checks it out, and quickly made the call to replace it. At this point Jimmy jumped in to help Joseph with the rear wheel bearing, Curly continues to nut and bolt the rest of the car. Jimmy and Joseph replace the wheel bearing and check out all wheel bearings once again. Thunder hill race track is a track that goes counter clockwise and has a lot of left handed turns because of this. At last years 25 hour race, the team had to replace the passenger side rear wheel bearing during the race. caught a passenger side rear wheel bearing on its way out, around hour 5. This year the wheel bearing that was replaced only had the half day Friday practice and qualifying on it, during this time there were no off track excursions nor did the driver bang on the curbing. The team hoped that the second new wheel bearing could make it threw the whole 25 hour race. The rest of the car was checked over and everything was ready to go.

Around 9:30am, the car is warmed up and the engine is checked over. Around 10:15am the team roles the car out onto grid. Roger Foo managed effortlessly to grid the car in the 22nd position. The team was happy about this, and when Roger was asked for a comment on the starting position he said, “I wanted to be up near the front, because now we won’t be mid-pack and surround by a lot of cars on the first laps. I will have to watch my mirrors though, there are a lot of cars with more horse power then our car behind us, and they should come up threw the field quickly.”

Due to circumstances beyond NASA’s control the normal US Air Force F-15 fly by would not happen before the start of the race; however it did happen about 40 minutes in. The Air Force Honor National Guard presented the colors, marching down the pitlane. The National Anthem was sung, and the most famous words in motorsports were announced “Gentlemen start your engines!” Lee, an experienced driver changer, belted Roger in, and the call was made to clear the track and hot pits. The cars circled the track once, then came threw the pits, back on to the track and took formation. After the field disappeared onto the back side of the track all attention turned to turn 15, the cars came around down onto the straight away and more cars kept coming, finally the green flag was dropped, and the 2005 25 Hours of Thunder Hill presented by the US Air Force was under way.

From the drop of the green all attention turned towards turn 1, everyone hoped all the drivers would remember that this is a 25 hour endurance race, that can’t be decided on the first turn. The drivers all remember this and the first lap was clean. Roger settled in quickly, and started the race off great. He quickly started running consistent lap times. At this point the Wheels America #03 Miata started running very quick laps times. Both crew chiefs James Chin and Derek Ramsey (PDQ had two complete crew ‘teams’) along with team owner Mike Quan sat the team down, and explained how things would work, and how the most important part of the race was to have fun. Some of the crew mentioned that they were worried that we were running to slow. Mike echoed the thoughts of James and Derek when he said, “We will race our race. We are not going to race against any other cars, we have our game plan, and we will stick to it.”

The time came for the first pit stop, every one was very nervous, and wanted to get the first stop over with. Mike pulled everyone together and said “remember again we are having fun. Take your time, don’t rush, everything will be fine.” That seemed to calm every one down, until the call came over the radio from Roger, “I had a sputter in turn 2, I’ll be coming in this lap.” Jimmy and Shawn were doing the fuel, Mike T. was on the fire extinguisher, Curly and Joseph would do a fluid check & Ponce cleaned the windows. Lee was in charge of the drivers change, he has done many races in GAC so he was experienced in what needed to be done. He would be strapping Tom Lepper into the car.

When Roger brought the car in, refueling started immediately, along with window cleaning which may be done while fueling. Everything else is prohibited by the rules from being done. As soon as fueling was done, Curly and Joseph checked engine fluids, a little oil was needed, and then the hood was shut, hood pins locked, and Tom was gone. There was some controversy/confusion about fueling rules, but the team did everything correctly and did the pit stop according to the rules.

Roger got out of the car, and was very thirsty and a little sore, this stint lasted for just over 2 hours, which is longer then the team figured on. When asked for comments about the first stint Roger said, “Well like I said earlier the start was crazy, a lot of the high hp cars made there way by me quickly. The way I look at it, if a car comes up on me its fast, so I was letting a lot of cars by, and just trying to stay on pace. Also this year, the drivers are very nice, and understand it is a 25 hour race, I didn’t see any stupid stuff.” When Roger got out of the car it was in 3rd place in class, he commented that “We just need to keep doing what we are doing, stay focused and maintain our pace. Everything will work out if we can do this.”

Tom Lepper’s stint was pretty uneventful, which he liked. Because of rules the team can only put a max of 10 gallons of fuel in during one pit stop. Tom was able to drive the car around for close to an hour and a half, before he radioed in and reported “Ok I am coming in, turn 8 and the car has sputtered.” The same crew that did the first pit stop does the second pit stop, everyone keeps the same jobs. Tom would be getting out and Mike Davirro would be getting into the car. Just like the last pit stop this one was flawless.

Tom didn’t have much happen on his stint but he did run consistent times that were right on with the teams plan. Tom commented this about his stint, “I just started cruising, got into a really smooth rhythm, and kept an eye out for any other E2 cars. I didn’t ever see any close in front of me, and none passed me. Other then that, the car was great, still very fresh, and easy to drive.”

By the end of Mike Davirro’s stint the team had inherited the lead. With the #03 WAR car having issues and forced to go back paddock for some major work. Most of the other E2 class cars had to pit a little before PDQ Motorsports did, so that gave them the lead. Again pit crew team 1 was till on duty, all normal duties were still carried out, with the addition of the light bar being added. For this Jimmy and Pat were on duty. Orlando took over fueling duties in place of Jimmy. It was still very fast, organized and chaos free.

Mike Davirro’s stint was the first one with some issues, as he drove the car during the days setting sun. Mike had this to say about his stint, “Well there were a few eventful moments. The first one came when one of the new ’06 Civic’s spun in turn three, as I was following him through the corner, I was able to get around without issue but it was hair raising to say the least. Because of the setting sun, turn 9 was killer, I had sun glasses on but still I was pretty much blind coming over the hill, to add to the difficulty a lot of other drivers seemed to be very daring here. Because of the sun being so bright I couldn’t see anything in my mirrors. Other then that, we are right where I thought we would be, we have stuck to our plan, and it is paying off.” At the end of Mike’s stint the team had planned to do fuel, check fluids, driver change, and a tire if needed. When Mike D. brought the car in, Mike made the call for the tire. Sean was on jack duty, and Mike Q. was in charge of changing the tire. This pit stop was a bit longer due to the tire change put like all previous pit stops, the team showed an unparallel level of professionalism and focus

When Pete got into the car, the sun was down enough that glare would not be much of an issue. He would also be the first to drive in the darkness. Pete commented that “When the sun went down everyone slowed down a lot and in the corners mostly. This made it difficult as I am very comfortable driving at night and can stay on regular pace. It was interesting getting around the track, and difficult to stay ahead of the high horse power cars, that were suddenly much slower in the corners. Pete’s pit stop was flawless, and for the sake of repetitiveness, every pit stop was flawless, and executed awesome, the team had no penalties for mistakes on pit row.

Andrie Hartanto drove the fallowing stint, at the end of his stint the team had planned to bring the car in for front brake bad change and 4 tires. Despite the fact the tires and brakes were about out on Andrie’s stint, he said “The car was great, breaks are still awesome, the car is still very easy to drive. There is a wide range of driving out on the track though, some very good, and some not so good. Also I was caught off guard when the steering wheel dropped down; I quickly realized that the tilt wheel adjuster had come loose. After that every few laps I would check to make sure it stayed up.”

At approximately 7:00 pm the car stuttered on Andrie and he brought it in. He first stopped on pit lane to get fuel; Jimmy, Sean, and Mike T were there to take care of the refueling. From the pit lane he went back to the pits to have the 4 tires and front brake pads changed.

The team was extremely well prepared for the stop. Every one had a job, and they knew what to do. The entire stop, from fueling to getting back onto pit lane only took seven minutes. This was truly impressive to watch. The front end came up first, and before the car was all the way the front tires were off. The car was then lowered onto the jack stand and the rear was jacked up, and the rear wheels pulled, and then replaced with new wheels and tires. The rear was then lowered back down, and it seemed like by the time the jack got to the front of the car the brakes were done and the wheels were being put back on. All the time this was going on Andrie was getting out of the car and Mike D. was getting back into the car for his second stint.

At this point the team was still battling in the top three. Mike D. quickly settled into a rhythm, turning consistent times lap after lap. At around 8:30pm he came in for a pit stop and driver change, Tom Lepper was getting back into the car. Again Tom drove a great stint, still hunting for E2 cars, and making sure he was not being passed by any E2 cars.
Following Tom Lepper would be Roger Foo doing a double stint. Last year on Roger’s night double stint the team was amazed by his consistency. He was able to run 2:09:xx for close to 3 hours. Well this year his driving was right on again, not needing to push the car as hard Roger settled in at a 2:10:xx pace. At the end of Roger’s double stint the team again had planed a front brake change and 4 tires. Just like the previous stop, this stop was just was perfect.

This time Mike D. would take over driving duties and also run a double stint. Like Roger he quickly settled into his pace, and ran consistently the whole 3 hours. Mike D. drove the car until about 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning. At this point the team had held the lead since around hour 12, some time coming close to loosing it to TC motorsports, but with the teams consistent pace, and error free pit stops, they were always able to come out on top. Mike D handed the car over to Pete who had another exciting stint.

When Pete got into the car he had the unfortunate luck of coming out into a long line of traffic. He new we only had a small lead over 2nd place team TC motorsports, so he was trying to get some clear laps and run consistently faster lap times so get a bigger lead. After struggling threw the traffic he strung together many 2:09:xx laps times. This came to an abrupt end when a MX-5 came together with a factory five racer on the back side of turn 5. Pete came up on to the incident shortly after it happened and because of high barriers no one exactly saw what was going on. The combination of these circumstances meant that Pete did not have time to slow down coming over five. And to his surprise when he crested the hill he saw debris all over the track. He managed to squeeze by the large peaces of debris without incident. The track went to a full yellow and the pace car came out. This full course yellow couldn’t have came at a worse time. All of the time Pete had put between him and TC motorsports was now negated. Also the car was low on fuel, and in need of a pit stop. Because of rules you can not do any work on your car if you come in during a full course yellow. Pete was coming onto the front straight away and thought it would be a good time to check the gas gauge to get an accurate reading. The next thing we see from the pits is a big could of smoke and the yellow hatch swerve to miss the car in front of him that had abruptly came to a stop. After the smoke settled and everyone realized every was ok they all had a good chuckle. Pete came over the radio and said “Wow didn’t think every one was going to stop on the front straight. Sorry about that guys. And btw we are fine on gas.” The safety crew cleaned up the accident and the track went green again. Pete worked again to try and link together 2:09:lap times, which he did before handing the car over to Andrie. Andrie’s last stint was uneventful, but he did run very consistent lap times of 2:09:xx. Combine his and Pete’s lap times with the super fast pit stop, throw in an extra pit stop for the second place team and the team had close to a 4 lap lead.

Andrie would hand the car over to Mike Quan, the team owner. The pre-race plan was for Mike to take the checkered flag! By the time Mike had got into the drivers seat the team had built up a 4 lap lead over the TC motorsports team. Mike decided to just take it very easy and make sure that we held onto the lead. And he did exactly that, Mike brought the Team PDQ motorsports across the finish line first place in E2 and 5th overall. In a display of brand pride, 4 of the Honda entries got together and planned a group run across the finish line. The two 2006 Honda Civic Si crossed the line together, and Team PDQ motorsports crossed the line with GOTO: Racing, right behind the factory effort.

In summary what can be said? Well it is very clear that Mike Quan puts together one serious endurance race effort. Not only does he bring a solid car that every driver says is easy to drive, but he has a group of 20 guys who came out and volunteered there weekend because they love doing it. At the team lunch late on Sunday one of the driver’s Pete Fowler said “I have a question, I know why I come out here, I get to drive its awesome. But why do you crew guys come out? I mean most of you stayed up for the entire race in the freezing cold and preformed flawless. So why do you do it?” The crew responded all responded with the same answer at the same time. “We love it!” I think it is more then that though, this whole effort really shows what can be done when a bunch of guys and gals get together and are passionate about something. No one on this team has an ego, everyone just loves racing.

The unsung heroes of the team were Robin and Lisa Lepper. These two ladies provided hot, fresh, delicious food for the crew and drivers the whole weekend. I know I echo the whole team’s feelings when I say “THANK YOU”.

So Team PDQ Motorsports has won two back to back E2 championships, finished top 10 the first year and top five the second year. So who wants to see a 3peat, with an E2 car one the over all podium???? Or will the rumors that started of Mike putting together a E0 Honda and going for the over all win? What ever the team decides to do, I’m sure they will succeed at, and that it will be in a Honda.

To be continued…