Dirty Duck Racing - 25 hours of Thunderhill

To: All you loyal Dirty Duck Racing fans, others that wish to be DDR fans, and some of you who couldn't care less about DDR but have found yourself on Mr. Unruly's race report distribution list, hangers-on, passers-by, and assorted other deadbeats and riff raff!

The second race on our 2025 schedule is at Thunderhill Raceway, located just west of Willows in the northern Central Valley of California. This race has historically been held on Memorial Weekend, but this year it was a week later. Additionally, the race was changed from two separate days of racing to a non-stop 25-hour event. Well, not exactly 25 hours, 25 hours plus 1 minute, 25:01! Why?

Annually, in December, a race called the 25 Hours of Thunderhill is held for semi-professional teams and purpose-built race cars. The promoter, NASA, referred to it as "the longest closed-course endurance race in North America." NASA decided to move the race to the Ozarks in Missouri, who knows why? So, the leaders of Thunderhill, LeMons, and our DDR driver, Ted (now running marketing for Thunderhill), brainstormed the idea of replacing the lost 25-hour race and doing one better: 1 minute better, reclaiming the title of the longest closed-course endurance race in North America. Voila, 25:01 of Thunderhill.

Now, completing a 25:01 non-stop race requires a variety of preparations. Meanwhile, Ted convinced the team that we must install a fuel cell in the Magic Rabbit. Replace the stock 10-gallon gas tank with a 22-gallon fuel cell. A significant upgrade and a substantial project. Here is the finished product.

To race all night we needed lights and illuminated numbers. So here you go! Baja Design blasters and LED wire around the numbers. Which proved to be a PITA to wire!

Looking at the weather forecast for race weekend made us cringe!! 106 degrees! So we added a water bladder and an insulated pouch to hold the water. It was a lifesaver!

Each driver had a bladder that we would change out at each pit stop. Fish the tube under your helmet, bite down on the valve and suck in some initially warm but then cool water.

Now we are ready. Drove up to the track on Thursday, got settled in, and powered up the RV air conditioning; it ran constantly ALL weekend! Son Ted (Tedders) flew in from Sydney, Australia! He had marketing meetings with Thunderhill management on Thursday. A jet setter for sure!

Friday, we took the Magic Rabbit through the safety and then BS inspection. Here is Chief Safety Inspector John Pagel giving our new fuel cell system a close inspection. We love the LeMons staff t-shirts, "This Is Our Circus, These Are Our Monkeys!"

Passed safety inspection, now the BS inspection. The BS Judge said we had won Class B too many times to still be a B car. We argued that our Class B wins, four of them, were all small fields, unlike the 118 entries at this race. The judge said we had to move up to Class A, but we would have no chance of winning Class A; that meant winning the race overall. So we lobbied the BS Judge hard. Finally, he said we could run Class B with some penalty laps, i.e., you start the race with negative laps on your scorecard. We said OK, then the Judge said pick a car that is also being inspected, and they will use the last number of their VIN as our penalty. So it could be 0 to 9. I pointed to the car next to us, and the BS Judge walked over, peered into the car, and just shook his head, saying, "Oh Shit, It's 1." Victory! We got just one penalty lap and could race in Class B. Tedders was elated.

A couple of very interesting race cars showed up. First, an outrageous Pontiac Firebird with a monster engine. This was from the same team that had run a huge Pontiac Bonneville at previous races. Check it out.

Another great car was #41, a 1941 Ford Tudor by the Distilled Racing Team. This car was remarkably quick and nimble, considering its size. The body was sitting on a race-prepared Corvette chassis and engine! Only at LeMons!

Speaking of Corvettes, there were two of them at the race. First the Batmobile, love the bat wings!

And a Prince's "Little Red Corvette"

Let it be known that our Magic Rabbit GTI beat all four of these behemoths, no problem!

And two race cars, which haven't been seen in years, made an appearance for the 25:01 race. First is the #2 Cerveza BMW, which has won overall 15 times at West Coast races.

Now for the race. The race would run from 11:00 a.m. on Saturday to 12:01 a.m. on Sunday. I was the first driver on Saturday, and it was already hot, well over 90 degrees by 11 am. Sitting in the RV AC just before the start.

Green flag, then the furnace

From here the day blurs into the thing every endurance racer knows: heat, pit stops, water bladders, and the slow realization that a 25:01 race is mostly a patience contest with occasional lap times. Thunderhill in the sun turned the whole paddock into a slow cooker. Mid-day we were basically turning into jerky.

Track action was surprisingly clean, at least by Lemons standards. One car barrel-rolled in Turn 1 and the driver walked away fine, which is the best possible outcome of a very bad idea. Mostly it was just good, ugly, honest racing among about 118 cars.

Night shift

Then the sun went down and the lighting project paid off. Neon numbers, blasting headlamps, slightly cooler air, and drivers running on fumes and Red Bull. If you ever wonder why people do this, night running on a track full of glowing numbers is a big part of the answer.

The result: Class B, finally

The Magic Rabbit took the Class B win, with a one-lap penalty from the VIN lottery and all. After 15 years of Dirty Duck Racing, that one meant something. The grind, the heat, the fuel cell, the wiring we complained about, all of it paid off with a family win.

What this means for your own gear bag

Nobody photographs the boring stuff, but a day like this is where gear matters: a helmet that fits for hours, a suit sized right, and a plan for the heat. If you are building your own first endurance setup, start with helmets, suits, and helmet accessories, and use our size guide before you order. Check the current rulebook for whatever series you run before you buy anything.

We'll be back. Bring water.

- Ted, FastLap Supply