Team Durka Drivers - Loose Boy Racing take 3rd

May 19, 2007

Phoenix, AZ

Preparing for the 25 hours du le Thunderhill:

Loooseboyracing.com in its sophomore race, enters the annual 90 minute night endurance race hosted by Club Racing AZ and NASA Pro Racing, at Firebird raceway.

Drivers for LBR, Dan and Jeff Sturla, along with long time driving partner and friend Mervin Tan, team up as co-drivers for this long and hot event.

Prep work was limited to just some night time driving rally lights from KC and the guys at Desert Rat Motor-sports. Fresh Toyo rubber with endurance brakes and the car was pretty much set up. FIR raceway is notorious for its very long drag strip that is incorporated into the road track, and this long and tire cooling stretch that makes it a little tricky getting tire pressures dialed in.

Driver Mervin Tan enters race practice with zero laps under his belt in the car. The car is set up very neutral, and Tan has no problem adjusting back to his FF roots. Ten practice laps later, Tan jumps out and D. Sturla gets into the car for a 20 minute qualifying race before the enduro. Tire pressures were difficult to dial in, as the rear pressures never moved. LBR figures out to just set them where they wanted them and this is only change made before qualifying.

Gridded P23 out of 23, D. Sturla takes a 4 car jump at the start, and drives well to the finishes. Passing 14 cars, D. Sturla brings the LBR Honda to P-9th. Qualifying position is determined and no changes made to car after qualifying. D. Sturla says, “CAR IS RACE READY!”

Rookie driver, Tan, gets suited up and ready for his stint behind the wheel. Decided previously, driving stints would be 35/35/20 mintues, with Jeff driving second, and qualifier Dan batting cleanup. 11:00pm and the flag drops, Tan holds onto position through T1-4 and survives the start. Radio problems prevented the team from communicating with the drivers, but a dry erase board in the pits with large print fixed the communication problem. Lap after lap, M. Tan’s experience at his home track pay off. His lap times are consistently within a tenth of each other. 20 minutes into the race, a 993 cup car spins in a blind tower turn. Tan gets around it no problem, as the team was holding its’ breath. At the 33 min mark, PIT IN is displayed, and driver stop 1 is underway.

Special guest, Matt KARTOZIAN plays re-fueler for the Loooseboys. Tan quickly jumps out of the car and Kartozian dumps in the petrol. J. Sturla hops in and takes off at the 36 minute mark. Zero laps were driven by J. Sturla before the start, with emphasis on seat time given to rookie M. Tan before the race. Strategy was to drive smooth and not to break anything, “I’m just going to stay out of trouble!” says Jeff. At the 60 min mark, the LBR crew, Chris Schwartz and M. Kartozian, look at a more than full fuel jug, and decide that there can’t enough fuel in the car. Schwartz makes the executive decision to pull J. Sturla in 8 minutes early. Not a lap too soon, as J. Sturla gets out, he yells to Kartozian to dump all we have left, “This thing is dangerous low on fuel”.

Batting clean up, D. Sturla, suited up again jumps in and takes off for the final stint. In the Honda Challenge field of drivers, the 2nd place driver pits in at 85 minutes when it runs out of fuel. Moving up to the 2nd position Honda, D. Sturla drives the last few laps to finish. At 89 minutes, D. Sturla passing under a waiving white flag- LAST LAP.

Hazards quickly flash as the car passes under the flag. No radio contact and the team watches their stop watch anxiously, waiting for the car to come around the last turn.

The car never makes it. A thrown rod halfway through the last lap, keeps the car from completing lap 62.

A tough finish for a very tired team, but experience is won. A third place finish in Honda Challenge, the team is pleased. Goals were to finish the race, and the finish was close enough. Data from the race goes towards preparing for the December endurance race at Thunder Hill.

Looooseboyracing.com would like to thank:

Durka Durka Digital Media - Matt Kartozian

Crew Chiefs- Chris Schwarts and Tim Flahart (Team Durka Desert Racer and Crew)

Durkee Racing- Kenton Durkee

Desert Rat Motorspots- Tim

Club Racing Arizona- Jason Boles