[Blainefab]

Anybody else here going to be at the 25hr? I'll be working tech Thurs and Fri, and will stick around at least for the start Sat.

Stop by and say hi - tech will be set up under the permanent canopy. I will have my usual collection of hardware with me.

If anyone needs any Blainefab parts/equipment etc, I can deliver. Call now 831 427-3296

[Blainefab]

Quite the deal, my first one - I teched cars from Noon Thurs till 10AM Sat. We had 3 main guys in tech plus a handful of SAE students for helpers: 74 cars, 400ish helmets, 40 or so pit stalls - each had a tech form to fill out. Cars ranged from the usual Spec Miatas to a Crawford Daytona Prototype (Oall winner, btw). Lotsa GrandAM, WC, etc sanctions. If the car met the requirements of its logbook sanction we waived deviations from NASA specs. Still sent a lot of cars off to have stuff welded/tightened/bolted/etc. BF had a truckload of stuff and sold a good bit of it. Got to meet, however briefly, the who's who of US club racing. I have to admit feeling starstruck at times.

There were some tense moments after I found a serious tech issue with one of the higher profile cars, a bit of discussion before they realized I wasn't gonna budge and we figured out how to fix it. They had video cameras all over the place so I'll probably make the newsreel.

I strolled out to the hot pit Fri night just after dark - the sight of 40 EZups lining the pit wall crammed with gear, bristling with light booms, fueling rigs, etc under the floodlights was otherworldly. Saturday morning the cars were gridded on the front straight an hr before the start - the lineup streched from Start/Finish all the way back to T15. ALL the teams were out there, all the crews/drivers/friends/staff/etc - probably 1000 people getting pumped up for the start.

7yrs ago when I heard that Jerry wanted to do a 25hr race, in Dec, I thought he was crazy... but he got this one right.

[NickS]

I strolled out to the hot pit Fri night just after dark - the sight of 40 EZups lining the pit wall crammed with gear, bristling with light booms, fueling rigs, etc under the floodlights was otherworldly. Saturday morning the cars were gridded on the front straight an hr before the start - the lineup streched from Start/Finish all the way back to T15. ALL the teams were out there, all the crews/drivers/friends/staff/etc - probably 1000 people getting pumped up for the start.

To give you guys an idea what Alan is talking about here, I I took this picture at the front of the grid about just before the national anthem was played (I just held the camera above my head and squeezed the shutter):


(IMG:http://gallery.noid.org/albums/2007-25hour/DPP_0546.jpg)


The sight of 70+ cars on the grid with everyone milling around, anxious yet nervous, waiting for the start was quite a sight to see.