Lynam Racing Jagermeister Super Truck 66 finishes Second at Thuderhill
(Much more info and pictures here)
In a stunning come from behind effort from Lynam Racing, the Jagermeister Silverado Super Truck finished second in class and 5th overall in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance race. The team recovered from a 20 lap deficit to finish second in ES (open) class of the 2010 edition of the NASA season ending event.
Who said a Truck cannot finish an endurance race in the rain?
Driving the first four hours, Troy Lindstrom moved from 12th on grid to 6th overall before a yellow flag infraction at hour 1:45 resulted in a 15 minute penalty. "15 minutes sitting watching everyone go by is an eternity" The team dropped to 42nd out of 75 entrants and re-entered the track in full attack mode. Lynam Racing had to finish 1st or 2nd in the first 6 hours of the race to win the Western Endurance Racing Championship. (the first 6 hours was a separate race) By lap 79 just 25 laps after the penalty the truck had move up 18 places back into 24th place. On lap 110 the team recovered back to their starting postion of 12th. At this point a light rain was falling, with daylight slowing ending Scott Herrmann got in the truck for his shot behind the wheel. On slicks with just enough rain to make if very slick but not enough for rain tires, Scott safely kept the truck on the track while the smaller and more nimble front drive cars got the best of the lumbering truck. Still he managed to move up to 8th overall. On lap 168 Scott came into the pits for the second driver change, new tires and 28 gallons of fuel. The entire exchange took less than 1 minute 18 seconds. The Lynam team had 5 former NASCAR crew members do the full NASCAR style pit stop in amazing time. Lucky for the team all the other 6 hour contenders had big issues that ended their day early and Lynam Racing Secured the WERC championship by placing 2nd in the 6 hour portion of the race.
For the next 200 laps (7 hours) the team managed to stay in the top 10 while hanging on in horrible conditions. Rain, mud, and poor visibility made the driving extremely stressfull. Many of the slower BMW's, Mazda.s and other Front wheel drive cars went by us like we were dragging an anchor. At one point Troy said he was just passed by a Honda Fit!!! At about midnight Troy was following the stunning supercharged Team Copa Ford GT. The GT was running in second place overall at the time. " The window was completely glazed over with mud and all I could see were the round taillights of the GT, he went off the track and I just followed him right into the mud". The cars slid 50 feet off the track banging a few times as they slid to a stop with no damage. Just a few seconds later a Miata came screaming off track with the pair just missing the Truck by two feet and plowing into the Ford GT ending their day. "I just started the truck and drove away, counting my blessings", Troy said.
Nathan Swartzbaugh climbed in around 1:00am just as the rain turned heavy and went out on rain tires. Rain tires and stock cars are not exactly a matched set. The team has no windshield wiper as the Lexan window would easily scratch. Rainx works fine in the rain but the dried mud and road grime when the rain would stop made the vision absolutely zero. It was hard to even find pit road to get the window cleaned. This problem resulted in several off course excursions for both Troy and Nathan. Somewhere around 1:30am we were black flagged for no brake lights, then after a quick fix Nathan had a little (BIG??) off track that required a few minutes of repair to the front splitter and lights. He re-entered the track in 20th position.
All this time the Crew was amazing. Catching a little quick rest here and there but jumping to action whenever needed. An amazing array of food from pulled pork at 4pm to 5 gallons of Chile at 8pm to hot quesadillas at midnight, and even some warm chocolate cake and Hot chocolate at 2am. This team knows that a well fed crew is a happy crew. Of course the Jagermeister refrigerated tapper in the hauler helps a bit too!!
Troy jumped back into the Truck on slicks about 3am with light misty rain falling and just single tire width of a dry line emerging on the track. We were currently 14th overall and 4th in class. With the track drying just a bit for the big racing tires to go to work, the team quickly made up ground. Between laps 400 and 450 the Jagermeister Silverado moved solidly into 8th place and 3nd place in ES. Then it was stress time again. With just 6 hours to go and only one hour until sun up, Troy comes on the radio, " Clutch is on the floor!!! Pitting now!!" But then he motors on by the pit. "Ok Clutch is gone but I think I can shift the Jerrico without the clutch". He motored on with pit stops causing us to restart in 2nd gear with a push from the crew and a little help from the starter motor. About 7am with just an bit of daylight Troy had a small off in turn 11 avoiding a spinning Mazda. When trying to get back on the track he hit a ditch that pulled back the rest of the splitter dragging it under the truck. The splitter was already damaged from earlier incidents and a quick call on the radio with a panic " splitter is gone....get out the spare bumper". The spare bumper has no lights but hey, it was almost daylight. As the pit crew threw on the new bumper, race control came over the radio announcing that "lights were no longer required". Perfect timing again!! Total stop time was only 1 minute 30 seconds.
From 8am to race ending 12pm Scott and then Nathan both ran on slicks as the rain tires finally came off for good after a long night of switching back and forth. Scott held his own in the early morning with fog and mist on the track and very slick conditions. The entire race Scott had no damage to the truck and no big off course excursions, but all his sessions were wet. Nathan took over with just 2 hours to go and a shot at the top 5 and the first dry track in 17 hours. Nathan then clicked off the teams fastest laps of the race, after 1740 miles on lap 579 Nathan ran a 156.347. On lap 580 we moved into 5th overall and 2nd in class, finishing the race running 597 laps over 1790 miles.
The event was an amazing experience. The driving in a race like this gives you more action in one hour than an entire season of sprint racing. Drive 10 hours and you get more experience then some amateur sprint race drivers might get in a career.
The Lynam Team was truly a team at this event. It really takes a big effort to make something like this work and still be FUN.
In a stunning come from behind effort from Lynam Racing, the Jagermeister Silverado Super Truck finished second in class and 5th overall in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance race. The team recovered from a 20 lap deficit to finish second in ES (open) class of the 2010 edition of the NASA season ending event.
Who said a Truck cannot finish an endurance race in the rain?
Driving the first four hours, Troy Lindstrom moved from 12th on grid to 6th overall before a yellow flag infraction at hour 1:45 resulted in a 15 minute penalty. "15 minutes sitting watching everyone go by is an eternity" The team dropped to 42nd out of 75 entrants and re-entered the track in full attack mode. Lynam Racing had to finish 1st or 2nd in the first 6 hours of the race to win the Western Endurance Racing Championship. (the first 6 hours was a separate race) By lap 79 just 25 laps after the penalty the truck had move up 18 places back into 24th place. On lap 110 the team recovered back to their starting postion of 12th. At this point a light rain was falling, with daylight slowing ending Scott Herrmann got in the truck for his shot behind the wheel. On slicks with just enough rain to make if very slick but not enough for rain tires, Scott safely kept the truck on the track while the smaller and more nimble front drive cars got the best of the lumbering truck. Still he managed to move up to 8th overall. On lap 168 Scott came into the pits for the second driver change, new tires and 28 gallons of fuel. The entire exchange took less than 1 minute 18 seconds. The Lynam team had 5 former NASCAR crew members do the full NASCAR style pit stop in amazing time. Lucky for the team all the other 6 hour contenders had big issues that ended their day early and Lynam Racing Secured the WERC championship by placing 2nd in the 6 hour portion of the race.
For the next 200 laps (7 hours) the team managed to stay in the top 10 while hanging on in horrible conditions. Rain, mud, and poor visibility made the driving extremely stressfull. Many of the slower BMW's, Mazda.s and other Front wheel drive cars went by us like we were dragging an anchor. At one point Troy said he was just passed by a Honda Fit!!! At about midnight Troy was following the stunning supercharged Team Copa Ford GT. The GT was running in second place overall at the time. " The window was completely glazed over with mud and all I could see were the round taillights of the GT, he went off the track and I just followed him right into the mud". The cars slid 50 feet off the track banging a few times as they slid to a stop with no damage. Just a few seconds later a Miata came screaming off track with the pair just missing the Truck by two feet and plowing into the Ford GT ending their day. "I just started the truck and drove away, counting my blessings", Troy said.
Nathan Swartzbaugh climbed in around 1:00am just as the rain turned heavy and went out on rain tires. Rain tires and stock cars are not exactly a matched set. The team has no windshield wiper as the Lexan window would easily scratch. Rainx works fine in the rain but the dried mud and road grime when the rain would stop made the vision absolutely zero. It was hard to even find pit road to get the window cleaned. This problem resulted in several off course excursions for both Troy and Nathan. Somewhere around 1:30am we were black flagged for no brake lights, then after a quick fix Nathan had a little (BIG??) off track that required a few minutes of repair to the front splitter and lights. He re-entered the track in 20th position.
All this time the Crew was amazing. Catching a little quick rest here and there but jumping to action whenever needed. An amazing array of food from pulled pork at 4pm to 5 gallons of Chile at 8pm to hot quesadillas at midnight, and even some warm chocolate cake and Hot chocolate at 2am. This team knows that a well fed crew is a happy crew. Of course the Jagermeister refrigerated tapper in the hauler helps a bit too!!
Troy jumped back into the Truck on slicks about 3am with light misty rain falling and just single tire width of a dry line emerging on the track. We were currently 14th overall and 4th in class. With the track drying just a bit for the big racing tires to go to work, the team quickly made up ground. Between laps 400 and 450 the Jagermeister Silverado moved solidly into 8th place and 3nd place in ES. Then it was stress time again. With just 6 hours to go and only one hour until sun up, Troy comes on the radio, " Clutch is on the floor!!! Pitting now!!" But then he motors on by the pit. "Ok Clutch is gone but I think I can shift the Jerrico without the clutch". He motored on with pit stops causing us to restart in 2nd gear with a push from the crew and a little help from the starter motor. About 7am with just an bit of daylight Troy had a small off in turn 11 avoiding a spinning Mazda. When trying to get back on the track he hit a ditch that pulled back the rest of the splitter dragging it under the truck. The splitter was already damaged from earlier incidents and a quick call on the radio with a panic " splitter is gone....get out the spare bumper". The spare bumper has no lights but hey, it was almost daylight. As the pit crew threw on the new bumper, race control came over the radio announcing that "lights were no longer required". Perfect timing again!! Total stop time was only 1 minute 30 seconds.
From 8am to race ending 12pm Scott and then Nathan both ran on slicks as the rain tires finally came off for good after a long night of switching back and forth. Scott held his own in the early morning with fog and mist on the track and very slick conditions. The entire race Scott had no damage to the truck and no big off course excursions, but all his sessions were wet. Nathan took over with just 2 hours to go and a shot at the top 5 and the first dry track in 17 hours. Nathan then clicked off the teams fastest laps of the race, after 1740 miles on lap 579 Nathan ran a 156.347. On lap 580 we moved into 5th overall and 2nd in class, finishing the race running 597 laps over 1790 miles.
The event was an amazing experience. The driving in a race like this gives you more action in one hour than an entire season of sprint racing. Drive 10 hours and you get more experience then some amateur sprint race drivers might get in a career.
The Lynam Team was truly a team at this event. It really takes a big effort to make something like this work and still be FUN.
