Stock Civic Type Rs Score Top 10 Finishes at 25-Hour Race
Faced with stiff opposition, two lightly-prepared Type Rs run flawlessly to log more than 1,500 miles each at Thunderhill.
We’ve seen the brand new Civic Type R take on the Nurburgring to prove its incredible pace, but a flawless run in the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill demonstrated the 2017 Civic Type R’s reliability December 2 and 3.
Team Honda Research West (THRW) entered a pair of mostly stock Civics in the annual 25-hour slog and both cars ran flawlessly. The few changes included some minor changes to the air conditioning system, brake pads, tires, and interior to meet safety requirements.
The #18 and #17 Civics finished eighth and 10th in Class E0 and 21st and 25th overall. That might not sound impressive until you learn that the Civic faced more than a dozen fully race-prepared cars in the class. The Civics qualified 31st and 38th while their quickest race laps ran fell three to six seconds slower than the class front-runners.
All told, the two THRW cars beat a number of much quicker cars by simply running cleanly. That comes as no surprise to those who have followed the 25H of Thunderhill.
The team has shown up every year for several years. Comprised largely of Honda and HPD employees, THRW runs an officially sanctioned road-racing team that has campaigned Honda Fits, Honda Accords, and an Acura ILX in the past.
Deep driver roster
This year found a driver roster anchored in each car by a Honda Performance Development driver from Pirelli World Challenge. RealTime Racing Acura NSX racer Ryan Eversley drove the #17 while Shea Racing driver Tom O’Gorman drove in the #18 Civic Type R.
Joining the pros were the following: (in the #17) Lawrence Hwang, Douglas Chan, Brian Shanfield, Sage Marie and (in the #18) Scott Nicol, Calvin Tam, Jeremy Lucas, Michael Tsay.
THRW also entered both cars in the Hankook 24H of COTA in early November. Eversley also co-drove at that race. Along with Lucas, Nicol, and Chan, he helped steer one of the two Civic Type Rs to a second-place finish in the A2 class. Chan also managed to wow the Radio Le Mans commentators at that race with a spectacular four-wheel drift:
[Photo: TOMO Racing]