Held at the LightningClap circuit of NJMP. This was our 6th LeMons race, the car has logged well over 100 hours now.
First and foremost huge thanks to Johny Montrose (Lee), without him we would have been left standing with bent and notched tubing in one hand and our dick in the other with no hopes of getting through tech inspection. He came through at the 11th hour and bailed us out, and as thanks he gets a free ride at the next race.
Half of LeMons is having a siq fast racing car, the other half is making yourself look like an ass. Our car has been looking pretty gay lately so time to add some testosterone (courtesy of Glen Danzig, Vic Rattlehead, and Corrosion of Conformity);
to understand our costumes you first have to read this:
http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewtopic.php?id=9177
http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewtopic.php?id=9490
Anyways Friday practice was light rain, we started off on 1/32 used up tires as we were just trying to learn the track. Yeah, that was fun, normally I have a very relaxed grip on the wheel, but I caught myself a few times with the death grip and cramping my hands. Passing was open so we got to mix it up with cars on the track. After tech and B.S. we put on tires that actually had tread on them. I was on maybe 2 hours of sleep and up since 1 a.m., I caught a 1/2 hr power nap and woke up to “dude, do you want to drive or what?” I didn’t quite know where I was, or really what was going on, but I did know the answer to the question was “yes.” Having some tread made a world of difference, rain driving is a tad bit more relaxing when you can get a good amount of grip.
For the race our strategy was just to have fun, get all the drivers in the car, and share the car equally. We knew 6 drivers were too many for a win so we were shooting for top 10 (4 to 5 drivers coming in on fuel starve pit stops is ideal). Saturday was 8 hours of racing so 1 hour :20 minute stints for everyone. B.S. inspection gave us -1 lap so we started in 55th out of 65?
Matt, our 1st driver did not do practice and was learning the track as he went, I think he went another 2 laps down. My best guess is that we would burn through 6.667 gallons in the planed 1 hour :20 minute stints, so we only splashed in 5 gallons (1.667 gallons short, by the end of Saturday should be 8 gallons short after all drivers got through). Mark was out 2nd and back in 1:20, then 5 gallons and Pete was out. 1:10 Pete radioed that he was getting fuel starve… wtf? So he came in, we topped it of with 9 gallons and sent Jon out. Jon is out for 1:20 and radios fuel starve… WTF!? Car took 9 gallons again, this didn’t make sense to top it off twice, was there a leak? Took 5 seconds on dry pavement, and a blip to redline and sent it back out, pavement was still dry. I took a second to do the math, normally we burn 10~11 miles per gallon, usually it takes 2 hours to burn through 10 gallons that… o.k. what is our average MPH this track… oh 75, with uphills, so 1:20 does equal around 9 gallons, this track was faster than what we normally do so my maths were all wrong. The earlier stints had a lot of traffic and yellow flags, but the later stints were faster and all green flag. Anyways Ken radios in fuel starve and I go out… one small problem, I have to stay out for 1:45 when everyone else is only getting 1:10~1:20. So I say f— it, 4th gear the whole track. Not only did I have to learn the dry course, but I also got punished if I didn’t keep the momentum. (I’ve always been a fan of learning a course this way, but not while fighting traffic). I was only dogging the cock&balls turn everything else had enough speed to not fall too far out of the power band. Caught a long full course yellow with 1/2 hour to go with oil on the track in two places, it guaranteed we had enough fuel.
End of Saturday we were 5th and 4 laps behind 1st:
http://www.specialtytiming.com/upload/End%20of%20Saturday%20Hour%208%20nj.pdf
Sunday was 7 hours of racing and we had the same plan, 1 hour :10 minute stints. The only work done to the car was I dug through some mismatched brake pads and put on thick pads on the outside (for travel) and the next thickest set 1/8" thick pads on the inside. And one new tire on the front left.
I was out first, but I wasn’t about to go for fuel mileage this stint. It was nice to bang through the gears and to get into fights with the big boys. There was a red flag, and my stint lasted over 1:10. Ken out for 1:10, Jon out for 1:10, Matt out for 1:10, Pete out… Then something strange happened, the leader had some troubles, there was a new leader, we were in 3rd place and 2 laps down. Pete caught a full course yellow, it was 20 minutes early but we had to go for it. Top it off and sent Mark out with 1:30 to go, he’d have to save a little gas, but usually there is a late yellow as everyone is trying to get one last stint in before the weekend is over. We were spotting the course, with fuel stops we were in 3rd, 2 laps down from second, 3 laps down from first. We just had to hope that those two would make a mistake so we could capitalize. With :45 minutes to go we told Mark to drop the hammer, he passed the 2nd place car once, and if we could keep up the pace we might be able to pass him one more time before the end. But the other team wasn’t giving up without a fight, we managed to gain half a lap on them but with 10 minutes to go it was clear that we would not catch him again. Interestingly though the lead car was taking it really easy, we saw our opportunity to gain a lap back, “MARK! you have to pass the pink unicorn!!!” on the last lap with 100 feet to go, we gained a lap back.
Final results, 3rd place, same lap as 2nd, 2 laps down over all (if it wasn’t for that -1 B.S. lap we would have won class ‘A’)
http://www.specialtytiming.com/upload/End%20O%20Sunday%20Hour%2015%20NJ.pdf
and more pics than you’ll ever look at:
