24 Hrs of LeMons at CMP - We're In!!!!

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:53 pm

Deiter ROCKS!!!!

They got dinged 10 laps for the radiator change and the Koni's. Some asshat showed up with basically as spec miata and got dinged 200 laps

Kent took the first hour and rocked the house. VK said he passed cars left and right. Car is not overheating and seems to be working well.

Bernie is in the car now and REALLY mowing them down, inside, outside doesn't matter Deiter is eating them up. Spec E30 car in the event (totaled, and straightened out with 2 F150's and some chain) GOOD IS motor and they are lapping about 3 seconds faster. Not bad.

Tom is up next then VK, Walter and Steve. VK said he would call me around 5pm. They run until 7

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:31 pm

http://www.doriftodogs.com/

Tom with the first car 2 car contact!

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:44 pm

Just talked to VK

TECHNICALLY, the dogs should be put down right now. 4 strikes and your out. A couple of tradin' paint incidents, Walter passing under yellow and Kent hitting the chicane. The event organizers took it easy on them but 1 more strike tomorrow and they are gone.

I talked to VK and Walter and both sounded like giddy school girls. VK thinks they are in 38th place

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Right now Mike Dishman is sitting in his recliner, wondering what the world has come to. Back during his administration, he had to work his butt off to get an article about THSCC published on page 5 of the automotive section. You guys bolt a fake bone onto the front bumper of a beater Bimmer, and you're on the front page of the N&O (at least, the Durham edition). Nice going!

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Right now Mike Dishman is sitting in his recliner, wondering what the world has come to. Back during his administration, he had to work his butt off to get an article about THSCC published on page 5 of the automotive section. You guys bolt a fake bone onto the front bumper of a beater Bimmer, and you're on the front page of the N&O (at least, the Durham edition). Nice going!

Ditto.

I couldn't get the N&O to return emails or phone calls for the past two Jimmy V events. The best that I got was an offer to put it on their sports event calendar. :shrug:

Ash Nelson · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:56 pm

The muse and disturber is a sucker for K9 Dorito Drifters LOL

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 10:57 pm

A few shots from today. Wish I had a better camera.

Deiter in action!

Dieter heaed towards the painfully tight chicane on the front straight. Yes, that's a line to get through there.

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Sat Jul 26, 2008 11:52 pm

My very very tired brain is having trouble processing much more than the concept of going to sleep right now, but I'll throw in some commentary...

The press we've received was because of good connections that wouldn't have ever existed without THSCC. Not only was every member of our team someone I've met through Tarheel, the N&O found out about us from yet another Tarheel member. Kendt even got some face time on the local TV news on Friday night.

Warranted or not, the LeMons events are a good media draw. We've all been reading about them in the mainstream car magazines for the last couple of years. The combination of the "artsy" car designs, a large field, and the inevitable chaos/mayhem/carnage of 80 cars on a 1 point something mile course makes for some oddly entertaining news. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time to get the coverage we received.

While our car was a pretty humble starting point, a ton of hours and effort went in to the prep and design of the car. One thing that consistently went through my mind during the build process is that the amount of effort and money to put together a half-assed car like our BMW is pretty darn notable.

Again, I'd like to thank my teammates Vincent Keene, Kendt Eklund, Walter Houston, Bernie Baake, Les Davis, and Steve Remchak. They have made the car a success.

I'd also like to thank Gwen Baake, Alex Maier, Stephen Westerfield, and Gordon and Cathie Taylor for making the trip down to Kershaw to watch us run.

Even after 1 day, I'm thrilled with what we were able to do, as I was deathly afraid that the car would go down with some kind of mechanical malady early. Wish us luck to stay clean on day 2.

Kevin Harvey · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:36 pm

Why did the organizers put such a painfully tight chicane on the front straight? Is there that much worry of keeping speeds down?

So how did the team fair on Day 2?

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 6:23 pm

VK wasn't sure, but 20 something

They talked like they would be back to CMP, maybe twice!!!

BretLuter · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 6:50 pm

Reporting from the Cracker Barrel in Florence SC...

The Dog team definitely had a blast, I stopped by their pits several times and hardly recognized them due to the big fat smiles on their faces each time......

and here's Vincent tapping on my shoulder at the Cracker Barrel!!

anyway, our team had a GREAT weekend...we didn't win, but we did finish well.

still not sure of the official finishing order but we shoul be in the top 5.

Bret

AlexMaier · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:12 pm

Just posted the shots I took at CMP on Flickr. Funnily, it sorts them in reverse chronological order (latest first).

Apologies for the poor quality of the "People's Curse" ceremony shots, as I just took the camera out of my air conditioned car, and the *inside* of the lens fogged up in the hot SC noon weather.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:09 pm

Well here I am still in Camden at the Colony Inn (old folks taking an extra day to get home), so I thought I’d write a few lines about our adventure into the world of wheel to wheel racing. If you thought HPDE was hot stuff you ain’t seen nothing till you get on 1.1 mile track with 78 rolling wrecks. There were so many cars that the field over lapped the pace car. The attrition rate was extreme so the field started to dwindle even before the race began, and continued until there were about fifty plus competitors on the track at any given moment. When it was my turn to drive ( I relieved Kendt who started the race) pre-race jitters put some butterflies in my stomach as I rolled down pit road toward the blend line. All at once (it seemed) I was in the middle of a freaking hornet nest of ricers, strudel and American junk all seemingly trying to run me off the track. My fight or flight instinct kicked in and I decided the best course of action was to flee (no pun intended). So I forgot about the butterflies and put the hammer down and low and behold I was outrunning the field. The Dorifto Dog really could get up and run. I passed cars on the left, on the right, I split cars that were side by side, I went into turns three abreast and came out in front, I ran outside rim shots, inside rim shots I was smokin, move over Schumacher here I come. Suddenly something goes by me so fast that the air gets sucked out of the car and I think it blistered the paint on the right side of the dog. Oh crap! Back to reality. But I did pass a whump of cars, and drove a pretty good race all things considered. Then after about an hour of this mayhem, fatigue set in and either a late braking error or a competitor or both caused me to leave the track to avoid contact and this started our Saturday black flag fest which ended with Kendt nipping the chicane wall. Our cumulative errors caused us to be benched for the last forty minutes of the race day. Day two left us with no real chance of a high placement and began with the organizers tell us one more black flag and we were out!!! So a more conservative posture was assumed and as written in some of the other threads we did in fact finish the race without being tossed out on our ears. So alls well that ends well and I can honestly say that is the most fun I’ve ever had in a car.

BretLuter · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:46 pm

Results:

http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResult ... PerClass=0

Our team ended up 5th, we were almost out of fuel and our driver said the car was running REALLY poorly, like it was on 4 cylinders....we could tell from the pits that he slowed wayyyyyy down in the last ~20 minutes. Add to that the fact that they had a long full course yellow at the end of the race, so they ran over by about 15 minutes because the organizers didn't want to end it under caution. Luckily, we didn't get passed during the caution, but after the green flag fell for the final few laps- I think we probably lost at least 1 position, maybe 2.

Oh well. Like Bernie said, it was definitely the most fun I've ever had in a car, and 2nd most fun is not even close. Looks like the Dorifto's ended up a respectable 27th, and they ran for the most part every minute of the race, not too shabby.

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Sun Jul 27, 2008 11:28 pm

Kevin Harvey wrote:

Why did the organizers put such a painfully tight chicane on the front straight? Is there that much worry of keeping speeds down?

So how did the team fair on Day 2?

Short answers...

Yes, the chicane was there to keep the speeds down, and it did a good job...but caused numerous incidents and trains. It's a standard LeMons feature.

I will give big props to Bret, Rev Al, and the rest of his crew. They were fast, consistent, and courteous all weekend. It is possible to be fast at a LeMons event, but not be a complete @ss.

So we finished 27th...that's not bad. We were hoping for a top 25 spot after our strong day today, but 27 will do quite well.

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