Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

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GarySheehan
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Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by GarySheehan »

I recently raced in the 24 Hours of Lemons race at Infineon Raceway. I haven't raced with these guys since 2007. If you're not familiar with the series, competitors race $500 piece of crap cars against each other, and each team must have a "theme" and dress the part (keeps the atmosphere pretty light-hearted). Our cars are 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R's and done up as Spinal Crap and Deaf Leppard. Teams are encouraged to dress the part around the paddock.

You MUST have a competition racing license in order to participate. If you do not have a competition racing license, you may buy one from 24 Hours of Lemons for $50. Yes, that means people with zero racing experience can race in a $500 junker. 185 cars were entered for this race and we were all on track at the same time! As you can imagine, it gets pretty crazy out there on track with driver skill ranging from absolute noob to professional racers.

If this sounds like fun to you, check out 24 Hours of Lemons. The rulebook is definitely worth a read because they are hilarious! A StandardShift.com team is something I am sure could be put together pretty easily and the series has races all over the country.

Here's a photo of the Deaf Leppard car I drove.
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Despite the goofiness of the whole thing, there was actually some great racing to be had. Here is a video clip from a great battle I had with an old VW Rabbit and a Datsun 510. Yes, I was double-clutching the whole time. :)



If you want to see it in HD, click on the video and bump up the resolution in YouTube.

Fun stuff!

Gary
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by Rope-Pusher »

Where did I see videos of racing wrecks - Norway? Sweden? Tupland? It was like this is what they did to get started in racing, instead of karting.
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gizmo
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by gizmo »

Very cool video. I always got a kick out of the lemons. Did you have a spotter during the race?

I continue learning a lot from your videos. You are a big asset to this website, or just aspring racers in general. I owe quite a bit of what I've learned to you.

Also, if you ever know beforehand that you'll be racing in the NE region, like limerock, englishtown, watkins glen, etc, let me know because I'd like to see a race in person. I promise I won't try to contact you while I'm there (unless you welcomed the idea).

Thanks again.

P.S. I would happily join an SS team, regardless of who joined. I am willing to run just about anywhere as long as I can afford the trip.

P.P.S. Stay tuned for my karting video (in a TAG) and my first contest in a stock car. (Both of which I'll be attending with ra64t).
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gizmo
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by gizmo »

@5:04, were you shaking your head at the BMW's wreck, were you just doing a double take, or was it nothing?
Chris H.

Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by Chris H. »

Doesn't Car and Driver show up at/host these events?
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by LHOswald »

one of these races is happening 2 towns over in june...i need to sign up
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gizmo
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by gizmo »

were you using a close ratio steering box?
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by gizmo »

:(
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1974Alfa5spd
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by 1974Alfa5spd »

One of these is happening about four hours from here in June, my friend and I were going to do this, but we'd need three other people. :? Not to mention $500 cars that run are few and far between here.
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gizmo
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by gizmo »

ra64t and i have signed up. i just bought a mandrel bender and i'm picking up the car on sunday. so we'll see what happens.

i just wish i knew where to find a quick ratio rack for the integra, and possibly a racing clutch, for under 300$.
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Shadow
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by Shadow »

Nice video. WTF was that at 6:45? Was that the Starship Enterprise CRX?
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by ra64t »

looks like fun... and looks like a pretty fast car for 500 bucks...

I want brake upgrades!!
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1974Alfa5spd
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by 1974Alfa5spd »

How the hell do you guys find sub-$500 cars so easily? 90% of them here are old-ass Plymouth vans with blown up transmissions. :evil:
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by ra64t »

1974Alfa5spd wrote:How the hell do you guys find sub-$500 cars so easily? 90% of them here are old-ass Plymouth vans with blown up transmissions. :evil:
I don't think they're that hard to find, plenty on craigslist... ok not plenty but they are out there. The secret is it's gonna cost a lot more then $500 to run the race... a cage can easily be 1-2k, few hundred for a seat and harness, few hundred + for brakes and tires, etc, few hundred for gas, etc.
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GarySheehan
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Re: Hahaha...24 Hours of Lemons was Awesome!

Post by GarySheehan »

gizmo wrote:@5:04, were you shaking your head at the BMW's wreck, were you just doing a double take, or was it nothing?
I was laughing and talking to my team mates on the radio. It was a light hit and I was pretty sure everyone was OK. Any time you force someone else to overdrive their car into a mistake, that's just as much of a success as a clean pass. So much of racing wheel to wheel is mental.

Gary
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