Toyo Tires and Flying Lizard Motorsports return to the USAF 25-Hours of Thunderhill on December 3-4 to defend their 2015 overall win of North America’s longest endurance racing event.
Competing on Toyo Proxes Slicks, the No. 45 Toyo Tires / Flying Lizard Audi R8 LMS covered a distance of 1,973 miles in 690 laps and finished 35 laps ahead the second place team.
The 25-Hours is run on the undulating Thunderhill Raceway Park located in the foothills near the town of Willows in Northern California. In the month of December, weather is often a variable, and that certainly was the case in 2015. During the final 12-hours of the race, wet weather conditions alternated from light sprinkles to heavy rains throughout the night and into the next morning. The Flying Lizard Audi R8 LMS still managed to beat a field of 58 cars while also winning Class ES.
Flying Lizard Motorsports Program Manager, Darren Law will return once again behind the wheel for the 25-Hours along with Johannes Van Overbeek. New to the driver line-up this year, but not to Flying Lizard Motorsports, are Dion von Moltke and Mike Hedlund. Currently a Sportscar Brand Ambassador for Audi of America, von Moltke's extensive endurance racing resume includes wins at the Baltimore Grand Prix, the 24 Hours of Daytona and Twelve Hours of Sebring. American Mike Hedlund is an experienced endurance racer, having earned wins in the European Le Mans Series, and the IMSA United SportsCar Championship, including the Six Hours of the Glen. In 2016, he joined Flying Lizard Motorsports for select races in his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car.
“We look forward to facing the challenges of this year’s 25-Hours, and to proving once again that Toyo tires are for drivers looking to dominate on the track,” said Marc Sanzenbacher, senior manager, motorsports, Toyo Tire U.S.A. Corp. “The race conditions at this event are notoriously unpredictable and we welcome the various technical challenges it presents our engineers. We have some new cool weather tire compound options to evaluate for this event and we look forward to gathering important development data while pursuing another overall victory.”
“We are excited to return to the 25 Hours of Thunderhill with Toyo Tires and defend our overall win from last year,” said Darren Law, program manager, Flying Lizard Motorsports. “We now have another full year of development work completed in our ongoing partnership with Toyo Tires. There has been a lot of progress and this is a great opportunity for both of us to put all of our hard work to the test with a long endurance event. Of course our ultimate goal is to win but what is most important is to showcase the speed and durability of the Toyo Proxes racing slick in extreme conditions. I had such a blast doing this event last year and can’t wait to race it again.”
