Alliance Financial Wins ESR after 25 Hours

Photographs by Mary Seelhorst.

After qualifying second overall, the 2005 Mazda-powered Sport Racer of Alliance Financial/CSR Performance finished first in class and third overall at the forth annual NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill at Willows, California.

At the eight-hour milepost, approximately one-third the distance, the Alliance Financial Mazda sports racer was heavily pressuring one of the two Car and Driver BMW 335 turbodiesels, after making a comeback from a lengthy stop for mechanical repairs.

A second hand report said that "the team was running a Drummond build Mazda RX-8 Renesis engine", and that the team was "in 2nd place until they sheared off the CV bolts at the gearbox. It took them about 20 minutes to repair."

After the long repair stop early in the race, the Alliance Financial Mazda ran consistently fast even with numerous minor problems and come on strong at the end, winding up just only two laps shy of the previous race record. 56 cars took the green flag with some 48 cars (of 56 starters) running at the finish.

The Alliance Financial Mazda-powered sports racer was the second-fastest car on the track, which despite niggling problems, allowed the team to finish with a very strong third place overall finish.

Photo and story information is paraphrased from
[ Car & Driver's 25 Hour Update 6 ]

[ NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill ]