The 24 Hours of LeMons race last weekend was an unforgettable experience. This was my first event and first time being part of a pit crew for Team Rice Rocket Racing. As a newbie I would like to share my thoughts/photos on the various race cars and our team’s performance and later we will hear comments from the drivers.
We arrived at Buttonwillow early Friday morning to choose/setup our pit area. They don’t call this the “Arse Freeze-a-Palooza LeMons” race for nothing. It was seriously cold. Friday was test/tune day. The goal was pretty simple: run through everything beforehand so the actual race can run smoothly with no(or minimal) surprises, but it rarely works that way!

Our team consisted of 4 drivers(Josh C, Wade W(captain), Scott S, David O) and 3 pit crew members(Rob F, Scott A, myself) and even Josh’s folks were kind enough to lend a hand. Pit stops for driver changes and fuel are critical. They can cost several laps and positions so we practiced this several times. Wheel lugs were torqued, oil checked, tire pressures recorded/adjusted. It might seem trivial but getting a driver in/out with multiple seatbelts and communication wiring is tough to accomplish quickly! Scott A was an expert at this.  Communication was very important, not only with the driver but with everyone else on the team. When the Z was out on the course we had several spotters at different turns to radio in hazards and flag situations. Fueling was also a controlled event. Only 2 people(wearing approved safety gear) are allowed near the car while filling.

All drivers familiarized themselves with the course and the car, and each one was amazed with how well the Z accelerated and handled. We knew that we could make a top 10 or better finish. Friday was also the only day to get a Tech/BS inspection to officially run in the race. Each car goes through a normal technical inspection for safety, then a “BS” inspection to ensure that entrants truly have a $500 car. If not, the judges give BS penalties for anything over that magic number. It was fun to hear all of the stories and bribes! Can’t convince them by word? Try alcohol, sweets, more alcohol, or show some skin 🙂 Here’s the bribery table, and a judge spray painting the seal of bribery. Oh, and our Z passed both just fine:

This was also my opportunity to capture some of the craziest cars you have ever seen. Here are my highlights, there are about 100 more in the gallery. The Cowboy car was my favorite, seeing it on the track made me laugh with every lap as the horse and rider became more raked backwards from speed. The Most Interesting Car in the World was also one of the fastest BMWs. The Geo Metro done up as a ladybug actually had a mid-mounted motorcycle engine…it was nasty. Not one of my favorites but entertaining nonetheless was a pink limousine with a mannequin coming out of the sunroof…very slow on the track. Bob Klemme’s BMW 2002 came equipped with a functioning beer tap on the trunk. Our friend Ron Carter piloted the Killer MG Bee(Hey Ron I thought Lucas was the enemy!). The Maximum Overdrive pickup, the Nissan Sentra Mario Bros. car, the 240sx/’vette, and the total mish-mash car(can you figure it out?), and the Team America Miata. There were about six Z31s and another BRE-themed 240z!

 

Back to the racing! This will be an abbreviated report, I want the drivers to give you their view.

Saturday: Race Day.  We woke up to rain. I was worried but Rob was optimistic, even happy. His thought was that we could capitalize on the weather and turns out he was right! Scott S was the first driver of the day and we planned on doing 2hr stints.  We got him out on the track and there he was with 160 other cars waiting for the green flag to drop…it looked like chaos and the race had not started yet! Scott was brilliant out there.  The weather cleared by 11am and Josh and Wade did awesome but put a few wheels down and had to come in to the penalty box(pic top right).  We escaped trouble-free, but penalties for contact or putting 2-4 wheels off track range from “finding the key to life” to building a jigsaw puzzle. These cost precious time. Wade ran a team best lap of 2:16.459 on lap #52 which was only several seconds off the top5 cars!   Here is short video clip just after the green flag showing the number of cars out on the track:

David O was our last driver and was driving the Z’s heart out running very consistent laps.  Towards the end of his session he radio’d in some crunching sounds from the transmission especially on the 4-5 shift, but he finished.  The team did spectacular for first day and we were in 13th place!  We brought a spare ZX transmission, and Rob and Josh proceeded to do what ZCG does best: Fix Z’s!  It was almost bed time but the dynamic duo removed and replaced the transmission in just over 1hr. The culprit in the crunchy tranny? A common failure is 5th gear backing off the countershaft.  Note metal shavings on drain plug. It will be rebuilt.

Sunday: Final race day. With the new transmission in and 4 talented and excited drivers were ready to run. While Josh was warming the Z up/checking oil he heard a pinging/knocking sound. It sounded like it was coming from the valvetrain so he pulled the cover. A plug fell onto the ground, it was the oil gallery plug on the back of the cam! We were minutes away from the driver’s meeting and quickly tightened the plug back in place.  Josh went out first they announced that the race would be run counter-clockwise instead! Josh got into the groove and holding our position. He made minor contact with another car and had to come in but again we got lucky with no penalties.

Here is Josh coming through off the front straight into the esses…you rock!

Scott S was next and he made a heroic effort to move us up through that coveted top 10 finish. I watched as he battled a Mazda RX-7 and eventually passed him, then gained minutes on other cars around laps 200-205. It was epic. Our next target was car #84, a E30 BMW that was ahead by 1 lap. Scott was in pursuit but tried to go 4 cars wide into turn 16, hitting 2 cars and damaging the front suspension. Thankfully he was unharmed. It was very scary to hear it over the radio. The Z was towed back to our pit area. The T/C rod was bent and the strut separated from the spindle. We did have those spare parts on hand but there were other issues so we called it a day. We finished 72nd overall, not bad for a car that didn’t run the last half of the day.

 

With roughly 3 hrs of race time left we packed everything up, visited the results booth and took one last tour around the paddock. It was an incredible effort that we all learned from and look forward to applying our experience to the next race. If you have chance to help out at a motorsports event don’t pass it up it is truly fantastic.  Remember, it’s not always about winning, it’s about being consistent: just watch the little Fiat 500 below. See you at the next 24 hrs of Lemons!

Click for photo gallery below!
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Costumes and decorated vehicles. Sounds like a parade? Ummm…sort of. It was actually the May 8-9 running of the 24 Hours of LeMons at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, CA. This is a nationwide endurance race series for $500 cars. Teams must purchase and prep their vehicles for no more than $500. The limit does not include safety items like roll cage, brakes, wheels and tires. This event was 16 hours of racing over two days. Some LeMons events are a full 24 hours.

Teams “themes” are part of the fun, but the series is so popular that a good theme is often needed to get a team accepted to an event. This race included:
Two Starship Enterprises

A Supra with Tiger and Elin Woods on the roof

A Ford Ranchero wagon (built from an E-30 BMW)

And a beautiful 1958 Plymouth Fury (also built from an E-30 BMW)

There were many good drivers, but also many with little or no track experience. To make the race as safe as possible, the series prohibits even a hint of poor driving. Putting two or more wheels off the track, tailgating, not allowing faster cars to pass, spinning, etc. will get a team black flagged, whereupon they must go to the penalty area. The penalties, however, are hilarious. They might include writing a phrase on the car 100 times, reading a passage from a book “revival preacher style” to their team, or the parading through the paddock confessing their on-track sins. Regardless of the type of punishment, they keep the perpetrators off the track while the rest of the field adds to their lap count.

The bad news: Z cars typically don’t do well in this series (I think it’s because Z cars are so cool they need to be in pretty sad shape mechanically to fall to a value of $500). The organizers award a special prize, the Z Cup, to the Z car team that does the least poorly. This event’s prize went to The Underground from Tempe, Arizona, driving a 1985 Nissan 300ZX Turbo. They finished 19th out of 108. Not great considering the 18th place car was a Mazda 323.

The good news: This event’s winner was a Nissan. The winner on laps was team Rogue Squadron with their Star Wars themed Nissan SE-R. Way to go!