Thunder Bunny Racing is one of those hardcore grassroots racing teams that for the second year in a row is competing in The American Endurance Racing series. Their 350z is driven and supported by their 6 person group of hardcore enthusiasts consisting of the owner Justin Fouts, Derek Leonard, Kale Fortenberry, Donnie Isley, Laura Hayes, and Spencer Leonard.
This passed weekend TBR (Thunder Bunny Racing) took their team to Watkins Glen to take the Glen. However, in this case, like sometimes racing does…the Glen took them 🙁
Here are some words from the team! Keep a look out for these guys and follow them!
“After a poor decision to go out in the rain during practice, the car hydroplaned resulting in a major impact with the guardrail. We had major damage to the front of the car, including bending the frame in front of the strut towers. We thought our weekend was over before it even started. While considering loading it in the trailer, a few other teams came over encouraging us to fix it.
With their help we spent the next 12 hours rebuilding the front of the car – using stock aluminum from the hardware store, a few spare parts we brought with us, and a lot of gorilla tape. We worked well into the night to get the car to grid on Saturday morning. During Saturday’s race, the car was off pace due to a bind in the steering and trouble controlling engine temp. By the end of the day Saturday we had those issues sorted and were excited for Sunday. We started Sundays race feeling better about the car even though it was not 100%. The car ran strong all day and we were able to finish 4th in class and 6th overall out of a 70+ car field. We were able to complete 18 hours of racing even after the disaster in practice. We won the AER Majors Award for coming back and completing both races after the incident. Not the weekend we hoped for, but as a team we made the best of it.”
These photos were taken by the great photo-magician aka photographer Dave Burnett. Make sure to check out his WEBSITE and follow him on INSTAGRAM. DAV
The THUNDER BUNNY follow info:
Thunder Bunny Racing: WEBSITE
Thunder Bunny Racing Instagram: INSTAGRAM
The American Endurance Racing (AER) series was born out of a desire for an inclusive endurance racing series with simple rules. AER’s goal is to provide a fun, safe environment for experienced drivers to participate in endurance races using almost any production based race car.
All AER races are multi-class races with cars competing against other, in-class cars and for the overall win based on laps. Cars are classed with other cars with similar performance based on qualifying times posted during designated sessions.
AER is a series that keeps the enthusiasts absolutely in mind because they have thought of a way to keep the racing affordable for these grassroots teams. AER does their best to provide competitors an excellent value and to keep the entry economical. AER’s simple, all-inclusive fee covers the event costs for one car; all driver and crew and all practice, qualifying, and race sessions.
The best part of all of this is as a driver / team you see a lot of track time, the best tracks, minimum car prep rules all at very reasonable costs. If you’re interested in learning more about the American Endurance Racing Series check out their website here: AMERICAN ENDURANCE RACING WEBSITE
You can also follow them on the GRAM —> https://www.instagram.com/americanenduranceracing/
