Racing in LeMons

[faksta]

Go flatout, cmc! Good luck!

[NSXType-R]

No pressure, but officially or unofficially, you represent UCP.

[wwgkd]

It seems like a good way to get some racing and endurance experience, but i personally got a foul taste in my mouth when I read this part about cars being ceremoniously destroyed. It is the kind of "fun" that does not appeal to me at all. Hope it will not happen to your mount.

As far as I know it's normally done to cars entered by magazines and such like when Car and Driver had an entry. Generally not going to be done to someone to whom the car was actually a big investment.

[cmcpokey]

thanks for all the support guys. sadly, i don't have any UCP stickers. but if W were looking to sponsor a driver...

i'll fill you in on more details as it draws closer, as far as themes and what have you. i'm still getting sorted my self. need to get some racing gear i am lacking: nomex underwear and socks, shoes, and neck brace. luckily i have a suit, helmet and gloves. so it wont be as much of an expense. but yeah... sponsorship!

[LTSmash]

Very cool.

Have the rear wing say ultimatecarpage.com across the top.

[Wang Lung]

As far as I know it's normally done to cars entered by magazines and such like when Car and Driver had an entry. Generally not going to be done to someone to whom the car was actually a big investment.

Uuuuh...that's the whole point of this series.

Noone has a big investment.

[kingofthering]

As far as I know it's normally done to cars entered by magazines and such like when Car and Driver had an entry. Generally not going to be done to someone to whom the car was actually a big investment.

I think they also destroy the car if you drove dangerously/like a jerkoff.

[cmcpokey]

yeah, you dont get the peoples curse unless your team earns it. as a plus, i will be driving on the team of the guy that brings the destructive equipment to enact the curse.

so it's looking like i will be driving the civic. and i think it is going to have a hummer front clip, a giant cigar on the roof, and be titled The Governator. so i guess i get to walk around the pits smoking stogies and emulating my best austrian accent. more to follow as it comes in.

[wwgkd]

yeah, you dont get the peoples curse unless your team earns it. as a plus, i will be driving on the team of the guy that brings the destructive equipment to enact the curse.

so it's looking like i will be driving the civic. and i think it is going to have a hummer front clip, a giant cigar on the roof, and be titled The Governator. so i guess i get to walk around the pits smoking stogies and emulating my best austrian accent. more to follow as it comes in.

Oh, this keeps getting better. Practice the accent, you don't want to just show up unprepared and blow it...

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Git to the choppaaaaa!

[pimento]

If it bleeds (oil).. we can beat it.

[cmcpokey]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxn0Xfqkgw&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - 160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes[/ame]

[cmcpokey]

update:

less than one week until the race, and my school life has gotten insane, hence i havent been on here much. i am finishing up a ton of projects, and trying to prepare for the race as much as possible. i have been watching you tube vids of Thunderhill trying to learn the track. it really is convenient when the track is in a video game, but this one unfortunately isn't in any of them.

on the car front, it is all coming together. i got these pics from the team owner/builder. he is an impressive fabricator it seems, and built the cage himself. in fact he has build quite a few cages around the LeMons paddock, including the car the rolled about 4 months ago with nary an injury.

the hummer parts and cigar should be going on shortly, and hopefully i will get some pics of it before i leave for the race friday morning. as you can see in the shots, the car is now roofless and windshield less. kinda makes me with i had some tearoffs for my helmet, but i guess its better than roasting in the oven a closed car certainly is. i also received all of my gear, so now i can dress head to toe in proper race driver stuff. haven't put it all on yet, but should also be good for roasting in the springtime sun in the california central valley.

i will have my camera, and possibly a video camera as well. i am not sure about in car video, but likely will get some around the paddock. and given connectivity i will post updates friday and saturday nights.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Everything is looking good then!
Looking forward for your report, must be one hell of an experience.

Envy, such a bad thing...

[cmcpokey]

i had intended on writing daily track reports in the evenings, but connectivity was a joke, so i could barely even call anybody.

but it was a hell of a weekend, and i will post the hell out of some pictures over the next few days. i raced both of the cars on the team, the civic posted above and the Lemon Demolition CRX which is a veteran of many races. i ended up being pretty quick, setting fastest lap in the civic (out of 6 drivers) and 2nd fastest in the CRX (out of 4 drivers).

the civic stayed reliable all weekend, and finished in P51. the only reason we didnt finish better was because of slow drivers and spate of black flags on saturday. we ended up with the cone of shame mounted to the roof, which is when you get 3 black flags in a day. if you get four, you pack up the car and go home. we fared much better on sunday with out receiving a black flag, although i did earn one in the closing laps by taking an off track excursion.

the CRX was less fortunate though. after the parade lap and just 2 laps of racing it was towed back to the pits without the ability to get into a gear. a little bit of trouble shooting showed that the fill cap on the transmission had worked itself loose (or was never installed) and there was no oil left in it. so stuff was broken. two of the guys went to work, and managed to change out the transmission over the course of most of the day on saturday. managing to get out for about 10 laps before being punted by the Underground Racing 300ZX. it had a battery issue and couldn't get restarted and so was towed in again.

sunday it proved to be reliable and fast, posting similar times to the civic and faster in the hands of one of our drivers. one of the other drivers however was less lucky. he had worked all day saturday on tranny, and took the green on sunday morning. he had never driven on a track, in a race, or a manual transmission before this weekend. on a twitchy manual fwd car this was not a good combination. throw in the hubris to not want to be passed, and he ended up spinning 5 times in 2 laps. a new record for lemons i may add. so he was black flagged, got out of the car and given some time to chill. a few hours later he got back in the car, repeated his earlier performance, and was promptly removed from the car for the rest of the race by the judges. so i ended up driving that car for 2 one hour stints, including taking the final checker. overall it finished in P91, this is out of 115 or so, not too terrible given it didnt race hardly at all on saturday.

i havent gotten all of my pics off of my camera, so i will post them, along with some more commentary through the next few days. but i will close this post with this. this was an amazing experience, and if you live anywhere near a track that does this, you owe it to yourself to try it out. go on the lemons forums, find a seat, and take part in a race. it was seriously one of the coolest things i have ever done, and kinda cemented how i though of myself as a driver, quick but certainly not the quickest.