After 25 continuous hours of racing at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California, Toyo Tires and Flying Lizard Motorsports not only emerged as the ES class victors, but as overall champions of the longest endurance event in North America.

After months of private testing and tire development, Toyo Tires and Flying Lizard Motorsports put their hard work to the ultimate test in the 25 hour sports car endurance event. The #45 Audi R8 LMS was one of 58 entries to take the green flag, featuring an all-professional driver lineup of Program Manager Darren Law, Tomonobu Fujii, Guy Cosmo and Johannes van Overbeek. All four drivers had previously driven for the team, with Law and van Overbeek as teammates in Flying Lizard’s opening season in 2004. Cosmo and Fujii drove for the team starting in 2015, gaining valuable experience in the Audi R8 LMS. Law started the race Saturday at 11:10AM in 6th position, and impressively climbed to 3rd place by the time he exited turn one. From there, the Audi R8 LMS never left the top three positions on the charts. Each driver ran double stints, running two full tanks of fuel and using two sets of tires before passing the baton to the next driver. The No. 17 Davidson Racing BMW, running in the faster ESR class proved to be strong competition for the Lizards in the opening hours. The Audi and BMW fought hard early in the race but with clean racing and the No. 45 Audi’s reliability, the team moved to the top of the overall charts.

By 4:45PM, the sun set and the skies turned black, beginning the 14 hours of night racing. On a sparsely lit track, the Toyo Tires/Flying Lizard Motorsports drivers expertly maneuvered through lapped traffic of the multiple slower classes. Narrowly avoiding multiple incidents, the durability of the Audi R8 and the reliability of the Toyo Tires Proxes allowed the team to continue to expand the lead over the field.

As Saturday turned to Sunday, the skies opened, bringing light sprinkles and heavy rain for the following 12 hours to the race’s end. With just one hour remaining, the Audi R8 LMS made its final pit stop, leading the field by an astounding 30 laps. After the Audi covered a distance of 1,973 miles in 690 laps, Fujii brought the car to the checker flag 35 laps ahead of the competition, earning both Toyo Tires and Flying Lizard Motorsports their first ever overall wins in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill.