The Butte College automotive department, through their motorsports dynamics class, has entered the 7th running of the 25 Hours of Thunderhill taking place on December 6 and 7 at the three-mile road racing course in Willows.
The team, composed of students in the Automotive Training Program under direction of Department Chair Tom Baird, will field the car for the nation's longest automobile race.
The team will race a 2004 Honda S2000, donated to the college by American Honda through their Professional Automobile Career Training (PACT) program. Over 80 teams are expected to take the green flag on December 6 at 11 a.m. and continue, non-stop, around the three-mile, fifteen-turn, Thunderhill road course until noon on Sunday. This competition is the longest non-stop automobile race in North America.
Butte College drivers in the grueling contest include David Vodden, Brad Dressen, Ali Arsham and Craig Evans. In the past two years, the Butte College team has won back-to-back championships in the Touring 3 class, of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), and placed 11th in the national runoffs in Topeka, Kansas.
"This is a great opportunity for students that are either interested or enrolled in our automotive program to learn real facts and experience the automotive performance industry first hand," noted Baird. "We are only one of a few community colleges in the nation to have a motorsports program that fields a winning race car."
The 25 Hours of Thunderhill will be presented by the National Auto Sport Association (NASSA), in partnership with Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows. The action will begin on Friday, December 5 with testing.
Thunderhill Park is located just seven miles west of I-5 on Highway 162. Information can be obtained by calling 934-5588 or by accessing the track's Web site at www.thunderhill.com. NASA can be reached by accessing www.nasaproracing.com or by calling (510) 232-6272.
Admission for the Saturday start of the 25-hour contest is $10 per person and includes access overnight, as well as admission on Sunday.
Race teams from all over the world are expected, along with many celebrities from the entertainment and racing world.
