America's Rising Racing Star Closes 2015 at North America's Longest Sports Car Race
The standard distance for the longest international endurance race is 24-hours. So, 13 years ago, when that was just not enough to show America's commitment to sports car racing, west coast racers invented the 25 Hours of Thunderhill presented by Hawk Performance. And, like for all of the competitors, the National Auto Sport Association (NASA)-sanctioned race is a challenge Sean Rayhall simply cannot pass up. For the second consecutive year, the elite driver among America's rising stars travels to Willows, California's Thunderhill Raceway joining ONE Motorsports to close his season with North America's longest endurance sports car race. The Winston, Georgia-native, who won the IMSA Cooper Tire Prototype Lites championship in 2013 in a car of similar concept to the No. 67 ONE Motorsports Radical SR3 he will race December 5-6, is targeting another prestigious victory to add to his season tally of two Indy Lights Championship wins earlier this year.ONE For All
Rayhall is joined in the No. 67 by co-drivers John Falb, Todd Slusher and Jeff Shafer. The quartet performed well in 2014's edition of the enduro of enduros, earning a podium result despite retiring early. With a year to fine-tune the prototype, ONE Motorsports returns to challenge for the ESR class win. The Las Vegas, Nevada-based group has long campaigned the popular open-top racecar with this core group of drivers. Despite his young age of 20, Rayhall is the lead driver on the effort and has been instructing Falb and Slusher in graduated Radicals for some time. The driver pairing has competed together in the highest spec-car class prototype racing, the IMSA WeatherTech Championship's Prototype Challenge (PC) category, as recently as this October's Petit Le Mans.The Race Entering its 13th running, the 25 Hours of Thunderhill has taken on a life of its own. The race, the largest and most prestigious on the NASA schedule, has drawn 67 entries across its six very divergent classes. Cars ranging from full racing prototypes to GT entries and smaller club racing category cars make up a field peppered with professional and amateur drivers alike. Rayhall, a "Gold" level driver in the international sports car racing arena, is among the professionals who use the event as a way to get in one last "battlefield" training session before the holidays. The Radical SR3 that Rayhall and his co-drivers will flog for 25-hours around the 2.86-mile, 15-turn track located north of Sacramento is among the quickest in the race. By design, the ESR cars are unlimited in the range of speed modifications, but must have adequate safety equipment for their speed potential. The challenge, beyond keeping the car on the track, are the differing capabilities of competing cars and drivers alike over the course of the daunting race distance.Details Testing for the 13th-annual 25 Hours of Thunderhill begins on Thursday, December 3 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) and continues until 4:30 p.m. That schedule repeats on Friday, December 4 before qualifying sessions for the race take place at 4:45 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. the same day. The dropping of the green flag begins the race at 11:00 a.m. PT, Saturday, December 5. 25-hours later, the checkered flag brings Rayhall's 2015 race season to a close at Noon on Sunday, December 6.Live timing can be viewed at www.nasa25hour.com. The official Twitter handle of NASA is @nasproracing while the hashtag for the weekend is #thunderhill25. Visit the track's official web site at www.ThunderHill.com.Quotes from Sean Rayhall
About Racing At Thunderhill
"I am delighted to take on the challenge of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill again this year with One Motorsports! I think they will provide one of the best cars on the grid as usual, and I'm sure my teammates and I will keep it flat the entire time! Hopefully, we follow up last year's podium with a win! That is always the target."
About His Partners:"This close to Thanksgiving, you have to count your blessings. Silver Arrow Technologies and Bass Egg are right towards the top of my list. They have, literally, kept the wheels on our programs this year. I'm looking forward to going out to Thunderhill and closing out the year on the best note we can for both of them."Quotes from the Team |John Falb, Driver: "We have been preparing for this year from the moment we crossed the finish line last year. Entering this weekend's race, we are more prepared than ever and we know we have the team to get us onto the podium. ONE Motorsports has evolved into a well-honed group of dedicated professionals willing to do everything to achieve the best result. I can't wait to get this show started!"Todd Slusher, Driver:"I'm looking forward to hitting replay with Team Vegas again this year at the 25 Hour of Thunderhill. I think we're all a bit more experienced, both drivers and crew, and there's no doubt our car has been significantly improved over last year's version. We fully expect to be competing for the overall win. I see no reason why Team Vegas can't take home the win this year! Go Vegas!"
About Sean Rayhall |Sean Rayhall, 20, is from Winston, Georgia. Starting in go-karts at the age of seven, Rayhall's resume to-date is an impressive list of "youngest ever" to: win a formula car race in North America, win the Skip Barber Series and win a Skip Barber National event. He has competed and won on road courses and ovals in open wheel, prototypes and GT cars earning the 2013 IMSA Cooper Tire Prototype Lites Championship. In 2015, he secured two Indy Lights wins - the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course - in his rookie season. The success garnered him a test day with Chip Ganassi Racing running times competitive with Scott Dixon, recently crowned for the fourth time as Verizon IndyCar Series Champion, in Dixon's own Dallara-Chevrolet.
