24 Hours of Lemons

OK, we ran this event in Stafford Springs Speedway the week before last.
The ~Goal~ is to run a $500 car for 24 hours.
We didn't care how we scored....we just went for a laugh (although we did actually win a trophy of sorts).

And for the record, there was one British car entered....a fairly decent XJ6. Also <span style="text-decoration: underline">three</span> ALFA sedans and a Benz diesel.

The local town was nice and the "road course" track was fine. Local folks were all nice and helpful.

Our team was EXCELLENT! I had great fun spending the weekend with them.

As for the event, I thought it was <span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">terrible</span></span>.

Lots of officials and drivers drinking during the event. The "skill" of some of the racers was dreadful. Flagging was low-rent and the "rules" were not enforced with any sense of fairness or even-handedness.

Plus, picking a car to recieve "The Lemons Curse" gave me the creeps. It seemed something like "throwing the Christians to the lions". I thought it brought out the very worst in many folks.

Our team will meet up for more events (including one in four weeks).
But no more "Lemons" events.

~HERE~ are pictures/text related to the event.

Looks like much fun was had by all!!! :thumbsup:

Come on Nial, don't leave us hanging on what the trophy was, or how the windscreen grew a hole. Inquiring minds.........etc. :thumbsup:

DART said:

Come on Nial, don't leave us hanging on what the trophy was, or how the windscreen grew a hole. Inquiring minds.........etc. :thumbsup:

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Ha ha! :laugh:

We were "Team La Grande Fromage" ("The Big Cheese") and our "trophy" was for:

<span style="text-decoration: underline">"MOST LIKELY TO LEAVE IN AN AMBULANCE"</span>

In a way, we weren't entirly amused.
Some of the flaggers seemed to have decided that we were "wild" early on in the event and kept calling us in.
From my vantage, I think we had five of the smoothest, safest drivers.
Sometimes we were called in for no apparent reason.
But other drivers (that the flaggers seemed to know) were "let go", even if they were clearly unsafe. One guy spun off by himself and <span style="text-decoration: underline">backed up </span> onto the racing line, causing other cars to spin off. He recieved no penalty. In a NASA or SCCA race, he would have been kicked off the property for that.

Our windshield got cracked by another VW (Golf) team that spun off and threw a bunch of rocks. When the other team found out they'd killed our windshield, they came over to apologise. We told them no big deal...they were nice guys.

But if you spin off track, the rules state you're required to sit in the pits for at least 30 minutes. The other VW team wasn't asked to do that (and I know the flaggers saw them spin off). Meanwhile, one of our guys put one wheel in the dirt about 6" off track. They called us in and told our guy he would have to sit for an hour. But then they told us if we "bribed" them with beer, they'd let us go back out in 30 minutes. So we did....but it was not the sort of thing we found real funny.
One of our other drivers took his first lap out at about 80% speed. There was no practice session and he was trying to learn the circuit (and was safely off-the racing line). Another driver clearly not paying attention almost ran into him. They flagged our guy in and made him sit for 30 minutes.

I'm not sure what kind of an event it was, but it wasn't what I call motorsports.

But as I said, our team was great and we made the best of it......we'll be getting together soon to plan another weekend event. :thumbsup:

Drivers and officials drinking during the event? Are they nuts? That is horrfying, no question.

Sounds like you had a bunch of spoiled lemons that were not good for more than rotten fruitcakes.

Steve said:

Drivers and officials drinking during the event? Are they nuts? That is horrfying, no question.

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How do they get insurance? Somebody is going to get hurt or much worse. Absolute foolishness to allow participant drinking during a motor sports event.

We went and watch the Lemons race at CMP (Carolina Motorsports Park, in Kershaw, SC), had several buddies with teams, we found out about it a bit too late to get a car together. My take on this event was alot different at CMP, pretty well ran, most drivers minding thier manners, yeah it a real goofey race, but all in all something we wanted to get involved with next year, now mind you CMP is a road course, and most of the entries were of road racing background, so being a past roundy round racer as well, I found the CMP event pretty civil. There were like 80 cars on a 1 mile road course, so they might be a little contact, but nothing too bad, lets put it this way I seen more contact racing SCCA prod cars with SRFs in the group.