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| Team Herbalife / SP Tools SRF #58 ESR Race Report |
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 I decided I would run my SRF in the 25. I called some of my racing buddies who I thought would make a great team and they decided we would give it a go. I have never run any Enduro before, not even a 3-hour Enduro, but we did our best to prepare as well as we could think of, and really took it seriously.
We got off to a little bit of a rough start. Our team had 4 drivers, one decided last minute not to drive however because he was getting sick and had to go out of the country on Monday, that was too bad because he his a skilled driver who I’m sure would have held his own, thankfully he did come to the event and was VERY important to the team as a crew member. My car was being worked on in LA by one of the drivers (Eric Messley) and he ran into some extra issues with worn suspension parts found at the last minute, so it didn't make it to the race until 10:00 p.m. Friday night! Needless to say we missed practice and qualifying. Not a good thing since one of the drivers never had been in my car and I had NEVER been on that track. My best friend and I decided to get up at 5:00 am on Sat. morning to unload the car and install the radio harness, and sort out a few things. The 2 drivers (Chad Schley and Eric Messley) had driven the car up from LA that night and hadn't slept, so we told them to sleep in till 8:00 am. My crew consisted of my best friend, (Keith Simmons) one of our drivers who had come down ill (Paul Schley, SP Tools) my 2 sisters, their husbands, 2 other friends (who are retired and in their late 60's) and a niece and nephew. All of which (except Paul) knew NOTHING about racing, (Not exactly a High Dollar, high profile race team).
We got the car together just in time to make the grid, we hadn't tested it one bit since replacing wheel bearings, and multiple suspension parts, Which was done by EMI Racing 714-713-9096 (Eric Messley), tip - have him set-up your car, he is a perfectionist who does unbelievable work. The motor and trans. we never touched except for an oil change, and a thorough visual inspection, the SRF's have sealed motors and mine has about 5 years of racing on it. We started the race at the back of our pack since we missed qualifying and we were not on our rain tires, we only had 1 set and we decided to keep those for the night stints when we would need the extra traction due to poor visibility and a lack of sleep! We never used them; the rain finally quit a few hours after it got dark. Our first driver, Eric Messley, got out of the car with us 2nd in class and 8th overall. Let me tell you, Eric Messley is a real talent and should be driving for some factory ride! He was turning some incredible lap times in the rain and in the dry, man can he drive and prepare a race car! I got in the car in pouring down rain for the first time EVER on that track. Eric told me to “Be careful, it was like driving on a frozen lake”, and oh yeah, “Don’t go off!” When I got done with my stint, we were still 2nd in class and 8th overall, I was pleased, I hadn’t lost us any positions! Chad then got in the car, first time ever in my car, and it was still pretty slick. He drove very clean and was also posting some impressive lap times. He kept us 2nd in class and 8th overall, great job Chad, no lost positions either. All the teams were getting quicker with the drier conditions but now it was dark! Neither Chad nor myself had ever driven a racecar in the rain or on the dark, oh well, we held our own in the rain so we figured the dark couldn’t be much worse. Eric had built a light bar for the car, but we never had a chance to test it or adjust the lights. Chad was the first one out in the dark and said he couldn’t see a thing, the lights were adjusted too high and he couldn’t see the apexes. Eric told him on the radio to “live with it till the next pit stop, we couldn’t afford to stop!” Again Chad did an outstanding job with the conditions. On the next stop we adjusted the lights and from then on the light bar, like everything else Eric had built, worked flawlessly! We decided to double stint through the night now that we had been on the track somewhat. Our crew was performing unbelievably, no mistakes whatsoever, and our crew chief, my best friend Keith, was monitoring fuel usage and planning pit stops perfectly!
We had quite a scare about 9:00 that night, they black flagged us for too much noise, they said we were at 100 dbs and we needed to be at 98, Panic set in, I only had an old muffler from an old VW dune buggy. We make it work with about 7 minutes lost in the pits, but we are now under 98 dbs, yew, thanks to Paul and Keith for that quick fix! We lost a few spots overall and fell to 2nd but manage to make the spots up within about 3 hours from just plain driving hard and not making any mistakes! If Eric would see our lap times start dipping below 2:10’s he would tell us to “save the brakes, the race really starts with four hours to go and we will need brakes!”
At 4:00 am another big time scare. We hear the officials on the radio calling to black flag us again because we have lost our taillight! Seventeen hours of racing and we might be parked because our taillight burnt out? I didn’t bring a spare and it is a sealed unit, not just a light bulb. We radio to the driver to hit the switch on the dash a few times then we start building a taillight in the pits out of a flashlight and some red duct tape. Our plan is to zip tie and duct tape it to the roll bar. Fortunately we don’t need it, the light mysteriously starts working again, “thanks dad!”
At 8:00 am we need to make a tire change and most of the crew have never done that. Oh well, we devise a plan on how to fuel the car, remove the light bar, change 4 tires, check the oil and replace the radio battery. At this time we are only 2 laps ahead of 6th place overall but about 11 laps ahead of 2nd in class, we HAVE to be fast! Incredibly enough the pit stop goes off without a hitch and our driver is in and out in 1 minute 20 seconds with 4 tires, 3/4 of a quart of oil, removed light bar, cleaned mirrors fueled and replaced radio battery, We are high-fiven like crazy! For the next 4 hours we swapped off 1 time each, all of us stay fast yet clean and we finish 1st in class (ESR), 5th overall! Not bad for a bunch of rookies (who never went to bed the entire time) and a 100 hp car!
What a great time! I would highly encourage all of you who thought about doing it this year and didn't to do it next year, that’s right they already announced the event for next year. NASA was a class act and did a fantastic job with this event.
I am awfully proud of my co-drivers and crew, and want to thank our sponsors, Herbalife, SP Tools and EMI Racing. On a personal note, this one was for my dad who unfortunately is not alive to see it but I know was still there in spirit helping us every second along the way!
Sincerely,
Brett Bartholomew
Team Herbalife / SP Tools
SRF #58 ESR
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