The 99th race in LeMons history is in the books, and it saw the largest number of entries for our series (sadly, not quite to the 185-car level required by the Guinness Book of World Records people to establish the record as the biggest road-race in history, but we’ll keep trying) with plenty of on- and off-track drama. We saw the Saturday standings shaken up by surprise dyno tests on the top five cars in the standings , and black flags knock a couple of class contenders out of the running on Sunday. Here’s how it all went down in Northern California over the weekend.
Overall and Class A winner, once again, is Cerveza Racing. This team won the West Region season championship in 2012, and it’s safe to say that they’ve become the toughest team to beat in all of LeMons racing. We’ve learned that their engine doesn’t seem particularly hot-rodded and their 533i wasn’t the quickest thing on the track (six teams had better fast laps), but Los Cervezas just keeps running their fast, trouble-free laps like clockwork, all weekend long. When checkered-flag time arrived, they had a two-lap edge over the Eyesore Racing Miata.
In Class B, the automatic-transmission-equipped Eagle Talon of Chimp Ganasee Targee Racing took the trophy by two laps, finishing an astonishing (for a Mitsubishi product in LeMons) third overall.
With its 24th-place finish and 19-lap cushion over its next-best class competitor, the 1982 Mercedes-Benz 300SD of The Dirty Little Freaks got a hard-earned Class C win… and a promotion to Class B in its next race.
The Most Heroic Fix award for this race had to be changed to the Most Heroic Fixer award, because this guy’s heroism wasn’t quite enough to get the Team Toaster Too Scion xB working in time to turn any laps. Isaias Iglesias showed up with the Evil Genius Racing crew, offered some advice to the Toaster Too guys when their supercharged Scion digested its own engine on Friday, then wound up volunteering to wrench non-stop on the car for all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He stayed in good spirits the entire time, turned just about every fastener on the car, and provided a nice contrast to the teams that pack up and go home at the first sign of mechanical problems.
We really wanted to give a great big happy trophy to the members of Team Sputnik, running the NSF Racing 1987 Plymouth Reliant-K wagon, which was dragged out to Northern California from Maryland (via Florida) for this race (as part of the lunatic “K-It-FWD” program). Once again, however, this car proved that it is The Worst Car In 24 Hours of LeMons History, earning what must be the third or fourth I Got Screwed award for the K.
The Mitsubishi 3.0 liter V6 that had held together for the last few races decided it had had enough after 36 laps of racing on Saturday, and it shot two rods out both sides of the block and the oil pan. No problem, said the team, this engine is easy to find in all manner of Chrysler and Mitsubishi products in every junkyard in the country.
So, off to Pick-N-Pull Chico went Team Sputnik. Hey, this Mitsu V6 looks good!
Then it turned out that the oil pan on the new engine was cracked… and the water pump was bad… and all the bolts kept snapping off… and the members of Team Sputnik were being overwhelmed by a tide of rabid daddy longlegs spiders, and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Much frenzied thrashing later, the team had the new engine buttoned up and installed in the Reliant with 30 minutes to go before the end of the race on Sunday, at which point they discovered that the engine had no timing belt. Screwed! But hey, we’re sure the K-Car will be just fine at the upcoming straight-24-hour race in Houston! And when the 2013 season is all over, we may just drop this thing off in front of Lee Iacocca’s house, keys in the ignition, ring his doorbell, and run.
The LeMons rookies of Team Glum Not were pitted next to the track exit, and they spent the entire weekend helping to push cars that crapped out while trying to limp off the track. This was such a huge help to the tow-truck crews that we created a special Doing Our Work trophy for these guys. Thanks, Glum Not!
For the furry ’86 Olds Cutlass Brougham of Team Pony Keg, we designated the region-specific trophy as the Swissvax Polishing a Turd Award, in honor of the team’s attempt to make a profoundly terrible car into a thing of beauty.
The Pony Keg Olds turned a mere 23 laps and finished in P178, with plenty of busted parts and overheating woes.
Still, we love this car!
For Judges’ Choice, the LeMons Supreme Court chose the two twin-engined Toyotas of Volatile RAM Racing. This Utah-based team converted their cars into covered wagons and dressed as “LeMonite pioneers” for the weekend.
When the “FX32″ twin-engined FX16 Corolla GT-S flipped over near Turn 3, the car did several full barrel rolls… and then the driver drove it back into the pits, under its own power, after the dust settled. Nobody hurt, and the team modified their oxen appropriately.
The much-coveted Organizer’s Choice trophy had to go to Beevil Mnievel and the Daredevil Superstars.
This is something of a lifetime-achievement award for these guys; they’ve been racing their Ford Capri in LeMons since 2009, and they do a thorough, elaborate re-theme (complete with great costumes) every year.
We’ll take a closer look at the Beevil Mnieval/Dungeons & Dragsters/Mad Maxeltov team in the near future.
And, of course, the top prize of LeMons Racing: the Index of Effluency award. This time, the 1971 Volvo 1800E of LOL Racing (which is sort of a rusty 300-footer of a car) stole the trophy by finishing in 97th place with a pushrod B18 engine and tractor-style suspension. Congratulations, LOL Racing!
Source: CarAndDriver
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