Thunderhill Major April 8-10

[ghickman]

The Majors race at Thunderhill will be run on both the 3 mile and 5 mile tracks. Two races on two different tracks. This should be an epic weekend.

I'm fairly certain this will be the first time this has been done at Thunderhill.

Anyone on the fence about going...this is a no brainer.

[Diamond Level Motorsports]

134 entry's

Thought there would be a better turn out than that.

[Diamond Level Motorsports]

140 now.

I remember the 2014 Major race at Thunder Hill had so many cars that some were pitted outside the track. I understand that the runoffs were at Laguna that year but still......

The Major race groups, compared to the regionals, are so much better for the class that we race in (FV)

Oh well, we do have 9 cars entered for this race which by today's standards is a lot.

[Tony Moore]

Thunderhill Race Report

Friday's practice and qualifying for the 3 mile course was on an unusually warm day for T-Hill. By qualifying time, it was up to 80 degrees.

Qualifying times were: Larry Vollum 1:41.239, Gary Hickman 1:41.472 and Randy Cook 1:44.230.

Weather reports were predicting Rain Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday morning, we kept one eye one the sky and the other on the doppler. Grooving iron and intermediate pattern marked tires were on standby. Race start saw Hickman challange and pass Larry at turn one.

Full course Yellow came out for 3 laps after 2 laps. Unfortunately, Vollum was out and had a fire. No injury other than the car.

Restart was fast and clean with Hickman catching Davenport's P1 car on every corner. Lap nine saw Hickman set the new track record of 1:40.042 ! Lap 10 interval was looking to be almost a second faster! Hickman had a half lap lead and uncharacteristically went off turn six, mowed 50 yards of grass and eased back on the track. He ended up spinning off backward in turn 8 due to a mechanical from the off track excursion.

Hats off to JRO for owning T-Hill for 4 years! He broke Nicolas Woodman's record in 2012 with a 1:40.931. Just when we got close to JR in 2014, he whittled it down again to 1:40.546. Hickman's goal was to take the track record. Mission accomplished and that's 3 in a row now. On to Mid-Ohio!

We have some work to do on the car but we were happy with a new track record of 1:40.042 and a 2nd place. Congrats to Randy Cook for 1st both days.