This weekend was the 49th running of the Illgen Enduro, this time a 4-hour affair at Thunderhill.

The only endurance race I’ve ever driven in was the wacky “24 Hours of LeMons“, a play on the world-famous french race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  In LeMons, however, there is a spending limit of $500 on the car (i.e, they are all crapcans that aren’t likely to be able to make it through to the end of the race, in other words, “lemons”, and our race took place on the tiny “road course” at Altamont Raceway.

With the help of the LemonLappers team though, we were able to win that one.   But it wasn’t so clear that my Go, Dog. Go! Racing team, with me, Rod McLane, and Ali Naimi, would be able to win this one.  Because we were running in the “O” class, which stands for Over, which consists of all production-based cars with an engine larger than 1.7L.  In other words, a supercharged Corvette would be in the same class.

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This weekend was the double-points season finale for the San Francisco Region’s racing season.  Also this weekend was the 49th annual Illgen Enduro, which I’ll cover in another post.

I was looking forward to the weekend even though it was way up at Thunderhill, primarily because the track was repaved this summer and this would be our first chance to drive on the new pavement.  Quick review: the track is smooth and quite grippy.  The exit berms are also very gentle so they are easy to use.  Some of the apex berms are a little taller than they used to be, but nothing too dramatic.  In any case, I figured that most classes would set a new track record, although with the high air temps (upper ’80s) and new very black pavement, perhaps conditions weren’t optimal.

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My friend (and boss), Kausik, is a private pilot, and he is planning to fly up from San Jose to Willows to hang out and watch the enduro on Sunday (10/26).  He’s always open to taking passengers.  Let me know (via the form below, or directly) if you would like a free round-trip ticket to Willows!

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The entry list for the season finale and the RDC enduro at the end of the month has been posted.  252 entries for the regional, and 32 for the enduro.

Specifically for my races, James will be there to compete in ITR (although he has already clinched the 2009 championship, due to me missing two double weekends), and in the enduro, well, our class (”O”) is the largest of the classes with 12 entries.

Of course, the entry deadline has not yet passed, so the numbers will probably climb a little.  I’m really looking forward to the weekend!

EDIT 10/21: Regional is up to 287 entries, and 38 in the enduro (13 in “O”).  Unfortunately James has chosen to switch to ITE in group 1, so that he could run his car in a different configuration.  Well, I’ll still be having fun, and the enduro should be a blast!

I have uploaded the videos from all three races this weekend. You may have already read the race report, in which case you already know what happened, but the videos add a nice new element to it.

Saturday’s race was made interesting because it was a little damp.  But for Sunday’s races, I turned the camera around and faced it out the back window, which is really where the action was happening.  I’d say that the first race on Sunday was the most exciting.

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The San Francisco Region has published the entry list for the upcoming race weekend.

For me, looks largely like “same stuff, different day.”  I’m looking forward to another knock-down-drag-out with Doug, and hopefully with James, who kicked butt at the last Laguna race (which I missed).

269 total entries thus far.  That’s not very many for a double weekend at Laguna Seca, although most other racing groups would be thrilled to get that kind of turnout.  But this is the weekend before the Runoffs, which could be part of the reason.  I think the last double at Laguna had over 350 entries.

UPDATE 10/2: The revised entry list has 293 entries.  Rain is forecast for Saturday.  Too bad I don’t have rain tires.

As I mentioned in when I told you about my updated season schedule, the new plan includes running the 49th annual 4-hour RDC Illgen Enduro at Thunderhill on October 26th.  This race follows a regular SCCA race on Saturday.

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All season long, I’ve been planning on trying out a couple of BMWCCA races this year. There is one coming up (with SCCA Vintage) at Infineon on September 20-21, and another at the same track October 25-26 (with NASA HPDE).  But … after consulting with the family, I’ve decided to change the plan.

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By now, I think a lot of you have already watched the video from the 2nd of the two Labor Day weekend races.  That one was quite the spectacle, a truly constant battle between me and Doug Makishima for the overall win.

I have also just added the video from the first race from that weekend.  It was a great start with a couple of passes on the first lap, but after that it settled out.  There were two full-course caution periods, so not much traffic to contend with (I think I only passed two lapped cars), but there was a nice moment with a big oil slick in T4.

Enjoy the videos!

EDIT: Just because I figured out how to do it, here’s the excellent Race 2 video, embedded right here on this page. To see it full size, click the link above. You’ll need Microsoft’s cool Silverlight browser plugin to see it.

The entry list for the Labor Day weekend Double Regional at Infineon has been posted, and it’s gonna be a huge turnout. It’ll probably get even bigger, but at this point there are 345 entries. Group 7, the Spec Miata group, has an enormous 76 entries (and it’s now closed to new entries.) 2nd biggest group is my group, group 5, with 61 entries, roughly half of which are actually Spec Miatas with a 2nd entry in ITA.

The paddock is gonna be nuts, but I’m really looking forward to the race weekend!

EDIT: The entry list has been updated.  Up to 366 total entries.  I went up to the track early this morning to secure a paddock location.  If you want to come to visit, drive along the back side of the main grandstands, then turn left when you get to the end, and I’m paddocked with Rod McLane on the right hand side of that row … near where we usually are.