24 Hours of LeMons - Sad Story

[AngliaGT]

I was reading the paper today,& there was a story
on the death of one of the racers in the "24 Hours of-
- LeMons",in Tracy,CA.
Not what I like to read about.

- Doug

 

[aeronca65t]

Saw that. Very, very sad.

I have been to two races where people have died. It is sobering to say the least.

The Calif. Lemons competition does not require a race license or even any experience. Just pay $50 and you have a race license for the series.
There is some speculation that the driver had a medical event such as a heart attack. There is no physical exam required for the Lemons race, so I guess it's a possibility. I have raced lots of 2 and 3 hour stints in endurance races and you are like a ragdoll afterwards. You are pumping non-stop adrenaline while getting more and more tired as the race goes on.
The car he was driving was a pretty sturdy one (a Volvo 240 series) but I think it had a V8 swap. I read that the car drove straight into the wall...again, hard to know if it got away from him or there is some other reason.

I've been thinking very hard about the 24 Hours of Lemons in the last few days....

Last week I was asked to join a 24 Hours of Lemons team here in the east coast.

In fact, last Wednesday evening, I towed the prospective race car back 110 miles from Conn. to NJ on my race car trailer. The car (see below) is an Isuzu-built "Buick-Opel" that was a former SCCA GT4 racer. The new owner paid $268 for it. It is a dreadful rust bucket and I am not sure it will "make" 24 hours. I have not committed myself to driving yet, but if I do, I'd be the only race-licensed driver out of 5 co-drivers. And most of the other teams will lack experience too.
So no matter how much experience I have, there will likely be two dozen other drivers on track with me who have little or no experience.
Like I say, I'm not sure right now what I'll do.
The east coast Lemons event is planned for Stafford Speedway (Conn.) in late August.

~INFO~ on the 24 Hours of Lemons races.

~INFO~ on the event I have been asked to run in.

Again, too bad this guy paid the ulitmate price...the Lemons races are just supposed to be good-natured, non-serious fun. Very sad news.

The car I might drive....

 

[DrEntropy]

eeeep.

Not to be a wet blanket, Nial, but I'd not like to see you out there among 'em. Novice/inexperienced racing drivers by the herd is a bad place to be. YOU expect 'em to do something "proper" and THEY decide you ain't even THERE... ouch.

...just my opinion here...

 

[bugimike]

It'd be like going out and hand-feeding sharks!!!
"You're gonna git bit!!"

 

[swift6]

From Nial's comments on having to be on track with certain Miata groups... I don't see how the drivers in the 24 Hours of LeMons would be a whole lot different. :crazy:

 

[aeronca65t]

You know the Spec-Miata crowd plays rough but I know what they're trying to accomplish. And so, I know that if I am in their way, I may get biffed. That doesn't make it right, but at least I am prepared for it.

The problem I'm having with the "Lemons" crowd is that many of the drivers may not even really understand how to accomplish the task at hand....and one of the the worst things on the track is to have someone who is unpredictable.

I'm still thinking about this; I'm trying to see if there is a good number of experienced drivers in this east-coast event or not. And my team is still in the very early stage (the team has aleady ditched the Buick-Opel car above and they are looking at a water-cooled VW....still lots of stuff up in the air about this deal).

 

[swift6]

I've also been on a track where the most dangerous guy was also the most experienced. A bunch of us rookies were out, in a rookie session, and the stewards let this guy on to give some one a ride. He ended up driving very dangerously, was kicked off the track for the whole weekend and the Stewards werevery apologetic to our session.

I know this experience isn't the norm, but in a group of beginners, those beginners are not always the most dangerous.

 

[RocknTommy]

Here is a vid from a buddy of mine that raced.
3 struts had to be replaced among a few other things.
You can get pretty beat up out there.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FKgX44RYCb0

https://youtube.com/watch?v=NKtvtShvOJ8&feature=related

 

[Deleted member 3577]

Here is a vid from a buddy of mine that raced.

Looks like a typical Pinto race to me...

(High speed demo derby

)