AFTER ROCKY JOURNEY TO MAKE GRID, SAKER TEAM ENCOURAGED BY ON TRACK PACE
Dec. 14, 2004

Subaru powered Saker makes Western Hemisphere debut at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance road race.
Thunderhill Park, Willows, Ca. - Dec. 5, 2004

The Saker SVS GTA made it's Western Hemisphere debut at the 2004 running of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. While the car did not complete the race (the engine expired after 10 hours / 254 laps), the speed of the car on track left the Saker Motorsports team optomistic about the car's potential in the future.

After battling with setup problems on the car that resulted from an earlier engine testing accident, the team was only able to turn 8 laps on the practice/qualifying day Friday and managed to only qualify 50th out of 59 cars. Not sure if the car would be ready for the race on Saturday morning, the team rallied very early before the race to make enough repairs/corrections to roll out on the grid. Having had no suspension testing or setup and a driver team with virtually no time behind the wheel of the car, the Saker took the green flag with the rest of the field.

Once the green flag fell and driver Ralph Warren was able to get clear of slower traffic, it was evident that the Saker was one of the fastest cars on the track. The Saker turned a 1:58.74 on lap 14 and only 4 teams were able to post a faster lap. The car moved steadily up the field even though the car stopped numerous times to cycle in drivers that were new to the car while it was still daylight.

When evening came, that was when the Saker team really went to work, putting Neal Looney in the car. As other cars slowed for the darkness, the Saker kept putting up laps a few seconds over 2 minutes and there were only 2 cars on the track the Saker could not run down. Reeling in competitors at 10 to 20 seconds per lap, the car was ran as high as 5th before a pit stop to change drivers. Once on the track again, the car had moved back up to 7th and was on a pace to overtake the 3rd place car when the engine retired.

But the Saker Team left with a sense of accomplishment considering the adversity the team faced, how many components had to come together (many never having met each other before that weekend) and how well the car ran with no real setup, sorting or even driver practice. Nick Richards, Saker Marketing Director said later, "I’ve worked with teams under tremendous adversity but I have to tell you, this team was/is one of the most dynamic and effective teams I have ever had the chance to work with."

The Saker Motorsports team was sponsored for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill by Easy Street Motorsports (ESX), Bullet Motorsports, Avon Tyres, Irvine Subaru, B&M Racing, AFE Filters, StickerCity.com, i-club.com, Moton Suspension, Hypercoil Springs, DataLabs, RaceTech, TurboSmart, Casa Ramos Mexican Resturaunt, South Bay BMW, Oakley and Subaru of America

First laps video:

http://www.evosport.com/public/misc/...-%20Medium.wmv

 

On track at high speed

 

Team Picture

 

Engine compartment

 

In a corner

 

during a pit stop:

 

The team had a tough day on Friday and we weren't sure we were going to make it in the race

 

Much better day on Saturday when we were one of the fastest cars on track:

 

a photo album from driver Ralph Warren:

http://www.amazon.ofoto.com/BrowsePh...de%3dtrue&Ux=0

 

As photos come in, I've been placing them in this album:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/sho...y.php?cat=3093

Once we got rolling, this is how most of the teams saw the car. Those 2 white rectangles on each side of the rear are reflective material to make the car more visible to other drivers. The crew chief calls them "spec Miata targets"

 

I haven't gotten the final word yet - lots of people taking a much needed break at the end of the year. But I should know something next week.

A few pics of us on TheRaceSite.com:

http://www.theracesite.com/index.cfm...e=pa&pa_id=606

Here's one at night: