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| Race - Boise Runs 12 Hour Race |
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| By Flion de Wall |
The 12 Hours of Boise XI
May 13, 2006
Race Report
It wasn’t the fastest car on the Track, or so it would seem, but it was fast enough. Team Shearmanator’s Castrol Jaguar XJR-8 went around the Shearmanator Raceway 5,596 times en route to setting new 4-, 6-, and 12-hour lap records at The 12 Hours of Boise XI and emerge the Champions.
Thursday, May 11, 2006. We welcomed Team Yakima: Captain Don Jump, Stan Cleaver, and John Miller. This year the trip took only six hours as opposed to the twelve hours it took to get from Yakima to Boise for Race IX in 2004! Unfortunately, the Team’s fourth Driver, Mike Neeley, couldn’t make it at the last minute, so it was a three-Driver Team. More unfortunate was the fact that Mike had all of the Team’s Race parts: the motors, chassis, tyres, the works, and couldn’t get them to the Team before they left for Boise.
Team Yakima showed up in Boise with a box of miscellaneous parts and two Datsun 240Z bodies hoping to not only master the challenging Shearmanator Raceway but also to build a car which would be competitive and last twelve hours. Thanks to the generosity of the other three Teams, Team Yakima would have a car that ran quite well under the skill of its Drivers.
Friday, May 12, 2006. The final preparations and practice came and went. Everyone is in town and ready to race. The soda pop is in the fridge, the pit stations arranged, the racecars have passed Tech and are in Parc Fermé, and the Shearmanator Raceway is clean and ready for another competitive 12 Hours of Boise. It is time to get some sleep.
The Teams were as follows. Defending Champion Team Jaguar, with Captain Mike Pope, Jarom Shearman—now racing with Mike for the 10th time (only Race IV was not together)—and Chad Taylor. Only Jeff Hurley from last year’s Championship Team Jaguar X was missing. Driving the Team’s traditional Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9, testing had shown that the car was fast and handled well. With these Drivers, maybe the second ever Title defense could happen.
Team Fireball brought Captain Stan Fuller, Brady Fuller, and Jim Terry. Jim came in as a last-minute replacement for Flyin’ Ryan Hansen, who was out of town at a wedding. Brady had painted a Porsche 959 Fireball Red and the Team had great looking Tee-Shirts for the Race. With all Drivers having won this Race twice in the past, and with a blindingly fast car, Team Fireball was poised to challenge for the Championship.
Team Shearmanator, Captain Sam Shearman, Phil Malone—departing from Captaining his own Team and car building for the first time in six years (Races V-X)—and Aaron Shearman, brought their Castrol Jaguar XJR-8 to the Track ready to Race. The “practice” cars were running low 7’s on all four lanes, and Aaron took the “Race” car on Green to 6.4 seconds after only three laps during practice, so we knew it was going to be a good car!
The aforementioned Team Yakima and their Datsun 240Z was now ready as well. Thanks again to Sam Shearman, Brady Fuller, Stan Fuller, and Mike Pope for donating and selling parts to make a competitive racecar for Team Yakima at the last minute.
Saturday, May 13, 2006, 6:00am. Mike Pope awakens to get ready for the Race and pick up the much anticipated Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and get to the Track by the 7:00am Practice time. Sadly, he found out the hard way that Krispy Kreme doesn’t take checks!! So a mad dash to get some donuts from a place that takes checks and get to the Track. For the first time since this Race’s inception, Mike is late for the start of the final practice session!
It is now 7:30am and time for the Drivers’ Briefing. Since this is the first Race since probably Race II that did not have a “Rookie” Driver, this went fast. The Rules were explained, Team Photos were taken, and Starting Lane Assignments chosen. The cars were placed on the Track and precisely at 7:48am, the command “RACE’EM!!” was given. The 12 Hours of Boise XI was on.
A few things to explain about this Race before the narrative of segments and performances. First, this Race was run completely in Sunlight!! All past Races were run in November or January, so we usually started or finished, or both, in darkness. The 24 Hours at Les Bois in January 2005 was run in fourteen hours of complete darkness. Second, it was warm!! We had the garage door partially open and the side door open the whole Race. A much welcome change from the freezing temperatures normally accompanying these Races. Thanks to Sam Shearman for suggesting the change to a Springtime Race Date! We may never go back to winter racing again!
Segment 1 started out as a precursor of how the Race was going to run: Team Shearmanator and Team Fireball slugging it out for segment wins with high lap totals. With Sam on Yellow and Brady on Red, Segment 1 ended with only one Lap separating them. Sam was on pace to break the Segment record on Yellow of 471, but ran into some car problems part way through the segment. He still came up only nine laps shy of the record with 462 laps. Brady was only twelve laps shy of the record for Red having rarely driven that Lane with 461 laps.
Segment 1 also showed how Teams Jaguar and Yakima would fare throughout the Race. While fast during testing and practice, Team Jaguar’s car was fast and handled very well. However, it didn’t have the kick once the Race started. Chad took the car to a respectable 426 laps on Green. Team Yakima’s car just didn’t have enough track time to work it in and to have the Team get used to it, but Stan Cleaver drove 400 laps on Blue anyway. Anything over 400 laps is always good in this Race
Segment 2 was a mirror of Segment 1. Remembering that only a few Drivers had surpassed the 480-lap total, Aaron set out to show why he is still considered one of the best Drivers in the world, and why Brady is not too far behind him. Prior to Segment 2, Mike had a conversation with Aaron about what they considered to be the “maximum” number of laps a car could do in an hour. Mike postured that no one could do more than 480 on Red because it is the most difficult Lane on the Shearmanator. So, Aaron sets out to prove him wrong by driving a record 494 laps, twenty-one laps over last year’s record of 471 also set by Aaron. It was scary to see how well that Jaguar handled in his hands.
Back to Brady. Driving for a second straight Segment and now on Blue, again not a Lane he drives in these Races, Brady puts up a Race high total of 468 on the Lane to keep second place for Team Fireball. Mike on Yellow for Team Jaguar forced the car to 462 laps. John Miller crashed his way to 378 laps on Green. In Johns own words, “I crashed the car every way I knew how”. He sure did!!
Segment 3 started Brady’s quest for 500 laps on Green. Recognizing that only Brady and Mike have been over 480 Laps on Green since Brady’s “perfect” segment of 480 laps during Race IX, Brady’s car was running well and it was only a question of whether Brady could drive as well as he had for a third straight hour. Brady got to 490 laps and won the Segment over Phil by 39 laps. Phil’s 451 on Blue, a Lane he had not driven for years in these Races, was a personal best for him on any Lane in these Races. Team Jaguar’s car was starting to show signs of fatigue, but Jarom drove it to 410 laps with a motor change during the Segment to stay in third. Don Jump met his personal goal of surpassing 400 laps by getting to 406 on Yellow.
Brady had now driven the first three Segments for Team Fireball, for a total of three straight hours and 1,419 laps. Research of all prior Races found no consecutive three-hour lap total which came close to this total. Only three other Drivers [Sammy Shearman III (Race I), Mike Pope (Race VII) and Jeff Hurley (Race X)], had ever driven three straight hours prior to Brady’s effort. Brady beat Jeff Hurley’s total by 129 laps. A truly excellent driving exhibition by Brady Fuller. It would continue as the Race wore on.
Segment 4 came and Aaron showed that Team Shearmanator was here on business. Aaron became the third Driver to surpass 480 laps on Green by taking the segment with 491 laps. This gave Team Shearmanator three Segment wins in the first four and also set a new 4-hour lap record with 1,898 laps, 23 laps over the past record set last year. Team Fireball, with Stan Fuller driving the difficult Yellow Lane which he has not driven in a while, added 426 laps for a Round total of 1,845; only 20 laps shy of the previous 4-hour record. Team Jaguar, with another motor change, got 399 laps with Chad driving on Blue, for a third place total of 1,697 laps. Team Yakima’s Stan Cleaver drove the Datsun to 371 laps and a Round total of 1,555.
The middle four hours were much of the same. Aaron and Brady, driving Red and Green for their respective Teams, won each Segment they drove during this time. Unfortunately for the rest of us, they never drove against each other after Segment 2 or we would have surely seen some incredible racing action between the two!! After six Segments and half way done with the Race, Team Shearmanator had set a new 6-hour lap total by 13 laps with 2,807, a whopping average of 467.83 laps per Segment. Team Fireball was in second with 2,718 laps, all but 837 of them driven by Brady. Team Jaguar, after another motor change—now having used all three allowed motors, was in third with 2119 laps. Team Yakima was in fourth with 1913 laps.
It is well known that Mark St. Clair’s Teams went through some sort of issue during the first six hours of the Races in which he built the car. However, Mark’s expertise would find the problem and the car would run “lights out” for the rest of the Race. At least one Team in the past ten Races has eventually succumbed to the horrors of bad motor performance during the Race. Every Team that is, except for Teams Jaguar and car builder Mike Pope.
Mike’s Teams and cars had escaped bad motors and had always competed during these Races. Entering Race XI it looked like it would be no different for this Team Jaguar. It was way different. After six hours and four motor changes, going back to the first motor used to start the Race, Mike noticed that the rear half of the motors were shiny compared to the front. Upon further inspection, it was found that the motor magnet/traction magnet clip was bent, was not holding the motor magnets away from the motor, and thus the magnets were rubbing against the motors. A new clip solved this problem, but the damage was done. The motors were already spent from all the extra friction and the car never really got its speed back in the final six hours. You just never know when the “motor bug” will attack your Team. Despite Jarom, Mike and Chad’s best efforts, the car required too much maintenance and only topped 408 laps once in the final six hours, finishing in Third Place with 4,939 laps.
Brady’s quest for 500 laps almost culminated during Segment 7. We found out that Brady started the Segment with the Team Firerball Porsche 959 right in front of the Green Lane’s driving station about four feet past the Start/Finish Line. This meant that Brady had to do a full lap before he scored his first lap for the Segment. Referring back to his “perfect” segment in Race IX, even Brady had bested 480 laps many times after Race IX, but this Segment seemed even more “Perfect” as the car never fell off the track and the lap times hovered just below 7 seconds. As time wore on, it looked like Brady might get close to 500 laps. Down to the last minute it was going to be really close. Eight seconds left, enough time for one more lap and a little more. Time expires and the power is shut off. Where is Brady’s car? Two feet short of the Start/Finish Line on the 500th lap!!!! Brady came two feet short of 500 laps with his incredible driving. There is no doubt that he will break it in the coming Races. Congratulations, Brady!!
As the Race wore on it was apparent that Team Yakima’s car was not going to help them out, but they bravely drove on in the spirit that is The 12 Hours of Boise. Don, Stan, and John fought through new and untested motors, chassis problems, and a tough Track with smiles on their faces. Don went over 400 laps in three of the four Segments he drove. Stan showed how good of a Driver he is with very respectable lap totals every time he drove. John seemed to be driving every time something went wrong with the car! In the four hours he drove, it is estimated that he stood around for at least thirty minutes of that waiting for the car to be fixed. John is a very good Driver and took it in stride, but it had to be frustrating to have the car perform as poorly as it did despite the efforts of Brady and Sam to keep the car running. Team Yakima vowed to come back with better knowledge of the car and with tested parts to be more competitive in future Races. They certainly have the skill to do so. Team Yakima continued to fight for every lap and finished in Fourth Place with 4,443 laps for the Race.
Team Fireball continued to try and catch Team Shearmanator during the entire Race. Jim Terry, who literally did not see the Track until the night before the Race in sixteen months since The 24 Hours at Les Bois, drove the minimum 2 hours on Blue to 411 and 415 laps respectfully. Stan Fuller drove only Yellow and did very well on that difficult Lane. Brady’s 482 lap effort in Segment 11solidified Second Place for the Team and they finished with 5,370 laps. This is 152 laps better than the Race IX 12-hour record of 5,218 laps, which is still a very difficult total to reach. Congratulations to Team Fireball on a great Race.
But this was Team Shearmanator’s Race. Phil Malone, driving Blue, totaled 451, 452, and 446 laps respectfully, many laps above his previous best segment totals. Captain Sam Shearman kept the car on the Track with his quick and skillful pit stops while also driving to very high lap totals on the difficult Yellow Lane. Aaron, driving the Red and Green Lane drove like Aaron always does, fast and proficiently. Like Brady, the car never came off of the Track when Aaron drove. In Segment 12, Aaron drove on Green. Going for a new 12-hour lap record, Aaron drove with little error to 490 laps—the third highest lap total of the entire Race in the Final Segment! A tribute to Sam’s great car maintenance and Aaron’s driving.
The 12 Hours of Boise XI is now over and the Sun is still up and we are still warm!!! The final lap totals are tallied. Team Shearmanator wins the Race with a new 12-hour lap total of 5,596 laps, or a blistering Segment average of 466.33 laps. This new record bested last year’s record by 65 laps and showed that, with the right car and the right Drivers, 5,600 laps is not an impossibility. Two Races ago, beating 5,218 laps seemed difficult to approach much less surpass. Look out next year!!!!
This is the third win for Sam, Phil, and Aaron, with Sam and Aaron for the first time since Race IV, and also for Phil having won every other Race since Race VII. This is also the third time Sam and Aaron have set new 12-hour lap records (Races I & IV) and the second time Phil has been on a record-setting Team (Race IX).
Team Shearmanator Captain Sam Shearman was awarded the Shearmanator Trophy. The traditional Race Plaques were handed out and congratulations to all Drivers were given.
A fitting and emotional Tribute concluded this great Race. In the past, there have been Teams named “Fireball” (Races VI & VII), with the Team winning Race VI with the only victorious Tyco chassis to date. Stan Fuller has always Captained Teams Fireball in tribute to his real-life racecar driver father, “Fireball Fuller”. After the Race ended and all other formalities had concluded, Brady presented Stan with the Team Fireball racecar as a tribute to him in carrying on the “Fireball” legacy. The car is Fireball Red with flames and the traditional #13 on the livery. It was a great way to end a great Race. Congratulations, Stan.
The Shearman Garage was cleaned up and everyone went home. And the Sun was still up!!! Thank you to all of those who helped to make The 12 Hours of Boise XI a success: Peter and Tony Baldock of Kent, England, for donating the funds to purchase the Race T-Shirts; Wendy Christensen for providing “real” food by way of her famous heated ham and cheese sandwiches; Sam Shearman for providing his house and garage for the Race as well as being a Race Director for the eleventh year; Mike Pope, the other Race Director; and Phil Malone of Lee/Malone Enterprises & Mountain Man for all the snacks we enjoyed during the Race.
Next year brings us The 2nd 24 Hours at Les Bois, May 11-12, 2007. Peter Baldock brings a full Team from England to contest for the Shearmanator Trophy and take it back across the “Pond”. It is likely Team Shearmanator and Team Fireball will be back to battle it out as well. With the individual and Team lap totals set this year, next year’s Race can only promise to be competitive and as exciting as ever!!!
