5 Cars and 13 Hours at VIR
RALEIGH, N.C.—For Long Road Racing, this weekend’s 13-hour enduro at Virginia International Raceway is a numbers game. The team is entering three of their own Spec Miatas in the race and prepping two more cars for Freedom Autosport. Five cars racing for 13 hours is a daunting task, but one for which Long Road Racing is well prepared.
The SCCA’s Charge of the Headlight Brigade 13-Hour Enduro will include more than 60 cars on the starting grid. Over 20 of the entries are Spec Miatas, and four of those were prepared by Long Road Racing. The team has also prepared an STU-class Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 for the race.
Over the course of 13 hours, those five cars will wear out 80 tires, burn through more than 500 gallons of fuel and require over 25 crewmembers.
“Five cars is the largest number of entrants that any team has brought to this race before,” says Long Road Racing owner Glenn Long. “The crew is absolutely critical in what we do here. We need everything from people who ensure that the fueling rigs are always filled to my wonderful wife, who will be cooking for 40 people. Also, we have to ensure that all the spare parts are ready, organized and in the right place at the right time. It’s a lot of pieces and parts across three full pit setups. The crew at Long Road Racing are the ones who orchestrate all the pieces for this.”
Those crewmembers have been orchestrating Long Road Racing’s participation in the enduro for the past five years. The team has supported winning cars and finished second three years in a row in the Spec Miata class.
Even a task as simple as driving to the race track is a logistics challenge. Long Road Racing will have two haulers carrying cars and spare parts, as well as a third trailer for the pit carts, equipment and fueling rigs.
And then, of course, there are the 14 drivers for the race. “Our drivers are coming all the way from Ottawa, Canada, down to Orlando, Florida, and across to California. So they’re coming from all over North America for this race,” says Long Road Racing manager Tom Long.
In the Spec Miata (SM) class, Long Road Racing cars will include the No. 75, which will be shared by GRAND-AM Rolex Series driver John Edwards and his father Mike, as well as Greg Strelzoff.
Matt Graham, Richard Foegele and Bruce Gregory have teamed up to drive the No. 76. Meanwhile, Tyler Cooke returns to the No. 74 in which he’s won numerous races this season. Cooke is co-driving with Phil Mather and Jonathan Czarny.
The No. 56 of Tim Anderson, Chris Long and Jim Taggart rounds out the list of Long Road Racing-prepped cars in the Spec Miata class. Anderson is a CH-53 Helicopter Pilot in the Marines, which is fitting since the car is entered by Freedom Autosport. Long is an engineer and aerodynamicist in NASCAR, so he’s taking the opportunity to get on the other side of the window net this weekend.
The No. 25 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 driven by Derek Whitis and Rhett O’Doski will compete in the STU class. The Long Road Racing-prepared car is a veteran GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competitor and winner in the ST class. Now, the car will be tested in an enduro that is five times the length of the standard Continental Tire race.
The race begins at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday, October 29. When the checkered flag waves, Long Road Racing hopes to play another numbers game: one that includes the number one in both the Spec Miata and STU classes.
Keep up with Long Road Racing’s 13-hour enduro and other events at www.LongRoadRacing.com.