THSCC Forums

first of all huge, massive, ginormous props to the dorifto dogs for their win! that's gotta feel good after last year's result.

we started out well enough, evan led off and was turning very respectable laps but came in after about 90 min with the same engine hesitiation problem that plagued us at vir. apparently replacing a 235k mile fuel pump with a 200k one does not constitute a permanent fix. fortunately we had a brand new fuel pump at our disposal and mike/tyler swapped it out in 15 min, then i headed out.

brought it in after about an hour and a half following a love tap with someone (black flag to both of us). judges sat us for 15 min but they got almost 40 min since they ignored the flag at first. ironically our next driver put four off at one point and proceeded to lap five times before he noticed the black flag, the judges weren't too keen on that. got a 30 min penalty which is probably generous on their part.

whitney then took the wheel and absolutely kicked ass, he was running pretty consistent 1:06s (i saw a few 1:05s) unless he was totally stuck in traffic, in which case he turned 1:08s. ran the tank dry in about two hours and was never passed the entire time. not too bad for 100 hp and fwd

evan ran the last couple of hours and nearly matched mike's pace, everything was looking good when the checker flag fell, then he pulled into pit lane and the engine died. he restarted it and heard some horrid clanking sounds so he shut down and was flat towed back to the paddock.

pulled the drain plug and were rewarded with a handful of metal shavings, we dropped the pan and the oil looked like glitter paint. we identified a spun rod bearing (god only knows what else was damaged) and decided that lemons called for a "never say die" approach so we yanked the bearing off our spare engine (200k miles with a massively blown head gasket) and installed. a couple of hours later the engine started and ran sans clanking...for about ten seconds, then it siezed up hard.

at that point we called it quits, which really sucked because two of our drivers never had a chance to hit the track. still, we had a blast (especially those of us who were lucky enough to drive) and we learned a helluva lot about endurance racing. i'm already thinking about september

jason

I can say that's about the best time I've ever had in a car. I'm hooked and we're already trying to figure out what to do with the motor. I am REALLY bummed that 2 of our drivers never had a chance to drive.

So let me settle a few really bad pieces of advice that I heard from other people about Lemons racing.

"Tires don't matter".

BS. I was at the traction limit in every single corner. When you're 3 wide, it's really nice to be able to, say, not crash into the car next to you. We nearly corded our brand new front Azenis on Sat.

"It's so crowded out there it's like being in Atlanta traffic".

BS. There were a ton of cars on track, true, but there was never ever a single corner I wasn't using full traction. I never wished for fewer cars on track. It was a total blast to be in a corner with 9 other cars trying to figure out a line from time to time. Can't get that in a regular sprint race. Most of the time there were 3-4 cars in a corner, fun to have to process all that data to figure out who is where, how fast, where to pass.

"The car doesn't matter".

Power to weight is still king. I could have used another 50-100 HP to power past people.

"You won't use up your brakes"

Ha! We would have needed to change them before Sat if the car ran. It was *so* much fun to outbrake and divebomb people into nearly every corner, nearly every lap, since our brakes were up to the task.

"It's not like real racing".

Sure, the pro guys may be bored with it, but I guarantee you, this is 100% real racing. The only difference is that you're hanging out with a WIDE range of skill levels and the typical club racing arrogance and $$$ is missing.


I give Lemons a 10/10 for philosophy, execution, and style. It's really a brilliant race. My hat is off to Jay Lamm for making it a reality.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Yeah, I have that itch just like after the LAST event. Really bad thoughts entering my head.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

glad ya'll were able to make the race. sorry to hear about the car.

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BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............

Agreed 100%. We did, however, do good on our brakes. We had at least half our front pads left after day 1 - and these were the same set we ran last year!

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One of those LeMonHeads...
91/95 Miata, 02 Focus SVT, 01 Ford F250, 09 Suzuki SV650SF
rusty 84 C4 Vette, tiny piece of the General Lei
Irish Sport Horse - 1hp NA!

Not so, "decorator boy", I put the new pads in for the t&t eariler this year.

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2004 C5(415whp,390ft/lbs),
1997C5,1997Trans Am, 1986 C4,
1990 Miata, 1976 MGB,1997 Protege, 1989 MR2

I stand corrected

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One of those LeMonHeads...
91/95 Miata, 02 Focus SVT, 01 Ford F250, 09 Suzuki SV650SF
rusty 84 C4 Vette, tiny piece of the General Lei
Irish Sport Horse - 1hp NA!

mike - well they did remove the chicane which opened things up quite a bit. if the chicane had been there i think this would have been a far less entertaining event, fortunately i don't imagine that it'll ever be put back. i saw as many incidents on the back half of the track as the front, maybe more.

removing the chicane made the event safer and less caution flag riddled.

imagine 90+ cars bottled up back into turn 14 on every lap. recipe for punting. or worse.

_________________
BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............