THSCC Forums

A few of us current and past Tarheelers braved the trek up to northern Ohio this past weekend for The Longest Day, a 24 hour enduro at Nelson Ledges race course. Holy cow what a blast!

We ran Kirk Knestis' ITB Golf (as seen at many of THSCC's track events over the years.) The drivers were Kirk, former member and wacky Canadian Matt Graham, Fred Snow, and me.



Car support was provided by Conover Motor Sports out of Burlington, NC. The crew was a motley group of folks who know each other from http://www.rr-ax.com including former THSCC member Tom Hoppe.


photo Cameron Conover

Friday was the test day, followed by qualifying and night practice. We had some electrical gremlins in qualifying (in a VW? Never!) but Cameron and the guys were able to get everything sorted out in time for night practice. I was able to qualify us 2nd in ITB and 24th overall out of about 35 cars.



The race started Saturday at 3pm.



I started the race and got us into first in class before the first lap was over. We then settled into a steady pace and pulled away from the rest of our class. Having a 25 gallon fuel cell and a GREAT crew helped us a ton, as we could go up to 4 hours without having to come in, and when we did we could fuel, change tires and change drivers in less than 4 minutes!




We cruised through the night, steadily gaining ground on the other cars in ITB. Of course, the fact that team driver Fred Snow is head of motorsports for Hella USA didn't hurt us at all.



We were 65 laps up at 9 am when disaster struck! The transmission puked a seal and we had to come in for repairs. This is when the Conover Motor Sports guys really proved their worth: from pulling into pit lane to pulling back out on track with a new transmission in the car took 1 hour, 7 minutes and 10 seconds. Ever heard of someone changing a transmission and never losing the lead? When this man heads up your crew, anything can happen!



Of course after the swap he looked more like this:



At that point it was academic, and we cruised home to an easy ITB win, with a 25 lap lead over our nearest competitiors!





What a blast this was! I am already making plans to go back next year... maybe even taking my own car this time for a two car Conover Motor Sports effort! Anyone want to join us?

All photos credit Tom Hoppe, except as noted.

_________________
Bowie
President, Conover Motor Sports
http://www.raceconover.com

Ok, does anyone know why the pictures aren't working throughout the post? I can't figure out why they aren't.

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Bowie
President, Conover Motor Sports
http://www.raceconover.com

I just checked the site the photos are on...if you edit your post and change all the file extension from ".htm" to ".jpg", I think you'll be set.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

I fixed it for you.

Actually you was using a URL for a web page in an image link. The page showed the images you wanted, but was not the image itself. So the extension (.htm vs. .jpg) was wrong as well as part of the URL (pages vs. images).

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Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Just finished reading and looking at the photos. Congratulations! It does look and sound like you guys had an excellent time!

_________________
Richard Casto
1972 Porsche 914
2013 Honda Fit Sport
2015 Honda Fit EX
http://motorsport.zyyz.com
Money can't buy happiness, but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than a Kia.

Thanks for fixing it for me. I messed with it until I just couldn't stand it anymore.

I am still completely worn out from it.

_________________
Bowie
President, Conover Motor Sports
http://www.raceconover.com

Bowie sucks at the interweb.

Congrats again to you guys!

_________________
-Jeff

R1 Powered Locost 7
ITB '90 Honda Civic under construction
2004 F250 Super Duty
http://www.project-seven.goof.com/

Hella sweet.

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

Great job!