24 Hours of LeMons: A pointless examination of track records

cordia_lede

All five of my longtime readers will know that I occasionally dip into exhaustive examinations of past 24 Hours of LeMons in an attempt to reach some kind of meaningful conclusion about what some corporate types would call “best practices” in one of those “meetings” where I’m not supposed to be “sketching the most amazing racetrack that I’ll build someday when I have piles of money because I have the perfect location picked out with just enough elevation change to make the cool parts like roller coasters.” Where was I? Oh, yes. Pointless examinations of LeMons.

In the past I’ve looked at successful car types and also at how important speed is when trying to win. In the latter analysis, I concluded that winning probably requires you to clock lap times in the top 10 percent of the field or so. While other factors certainly weigh into winning (more on this at a later time), there’s a certain part of me (and you, probably) that really loves seeing a fast car. So follow the jump to see the track record holders at all of the tracks and configurations LeMons has run since 2008.

Track Lap Time Team Car
Autobahn Country Club (North) 1:18.0 Save the Ta-Tas Chevy Camaro
Autobahn Country Club (South) 1:43.9 Holy Rollers Acura Integra
Buttonwillow Raceway 2:05.9 Geo Player Special Geo Metro
Carolina Motorsports Park (Full) 1:55.4 The Silver Bullets Nissan 300ZX
Carolina Motorsports Park (Short) 59.737 Superkak Racing Ford Mustang
Charlotte Motor Speedway 1:12.5 Hong Norrth Mazda MX-3
Chuckwalla Valley Raceway 2:09.7 Idiotarod Racing Mazda Miata
Eagles Canyon Raceway (Short) 1:24.2 Team Blue Goose Acura Integra
Eagles Canyon Raceway 2:08.6 Team Sensory Assault Mazda RX-7
Gingerman Raceway 1:39.5 Bucksnort Racing BMW E30
Grand Bayou 1:29.1 Prancing Donkey Acura Integra
High Plains Raceway 2:15.4 Casino Racing Honda Civic
Mid-America Motorplex 1:24.2 Clueless Racing Honda CRX
Monticello Motors Club 1:35.9 Keystone Kops Volvo 240
MSR Houston (Long) 1:54.5 Assmasters Racing Ford Mustang
MSR Houston (Short) 1:14.0 Los Gringos Locos Acura Integra
Nelson Ledges 1:21.7 Team MRD2 Toyota MR2
New Hampshire Motor Speedway 1:23.7 Walk of Shame Racing BMW E36
New Jersey Motorsports Park (Short) 1:21:0 Walk of Shame Racing BMW E36
New Jersey Motorsports Park (Long) 1:44.0 Walk of Shame Racing BMW E36
No Problems Raceway 1:30.2 Black Widow Mazda Miata
Oregon Raceway Park 2:07.9 Autosport Labs Merkur XR4Ti
Palm Beach International Raceway 1:35.5 Kamikaze Racing Nissan 300ZX
Reno Fernley 2:30.6 Eyesore Racing Mazda Miata
The Ridge Motorsports Park 2:01.8 Model T GT Ford Model T
Road America* 2:56.2* BoomPowSurprise* Ford Probe*
Sears Point/Sonoma Raceway 2:01.0 Geo Player Special Geo Metro
Stafford Springs 30.149 Goin’ Nuclear Honda Civic
Summit Point Raceway 1:45.1 Walk of Shame Racing BMW E36
Texas World Speedway 2:02.3 LRE Datsun 240Z
Thunderhill Raceway 1:31.5 Blues Brothers Racing Ford Crown Victoria
Thunderhill Raceway (Long) 2:13.9 Model T GT Ford Model T

It’s an interesting mix of teams and cars, for sure. Perhaps most surprising is the number of four-cylinder, front-drive Hondas. I count seven different Civics, Integras, and CRXs in that mix, which tells you that a well-driven, set-up, lightweight car can run as quickly as those cheaty BMWs you hear so much about.

You may not be surprised by many of the team names. If Eyesore Racing, Model T GT, and Hong Norrth all sound familar, that’s because each has many overall victories in LeMons. I count nine different winning teams in that list: Model T GT, Goin’ Nuclear, Geo Player Special, BoomPowSurprise, Eyesore Racing, Clueless Racing, Bucksnort Racing, Hong Norrth, and Save the Ta-Tas.

While they may not have set record laps during their winning races, this demonstrates that fast teams still tend to do pretty well. Because I’m verbose and because I think you might be interested in reading more about these, I’ll give a rundown on some of the more interesting lap records.

 walkofshame

The astute readers may notice the name Walk of Shame on that list a lot. They currently hold four lap records with their M52-swapped BMW E36, which is naturally painted like the Family Truckster from “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” They’ve still yet to win a race, but they have six consecutive Top 10 finishes and seven consecutive fastest race laps. Maybe they fall short on fuel mileage or maybe there’s just one little snag that keeps them off the podium’s top step. Whatever the reason, this is an extremely fast car and team.

TGT_GNome

A lot gets made of LeMons’ encouragement for garage engineering and it’s refreshing to see two of my favorite California insane-mobiles with a pair of record laps each. The Geo Player Special, also known as the Geo Metro Gnome, is a Honda CBR-powered Geo Metro that, along with some functional aero, puts down approximately ALL of the power-weight ratio. It also can hoon with the best of them. The other two-time record-setter is the Model T GT, which recently won three consecutive races without seemingly straining any of the Pinto, Mustang, and whatever-else parts bolted to its Ford Model T tub. There’s a reasonable argument to make that these are the two fastest LeMons cars of all time.

superkak

A small sample of human beings hold the distinction of driving at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France over the last 90 years. An even tinier subsample of those have had the displeasure of driving a LeMons heap on an American track. Tommy Kendall and some Italian guy have done it, as has /Drive darling Leh Keen. In fact, Keen is the only LeMons driver to break the 1:00 mark at Carolina Motorsports Park’s short course, which he did in SuperKak’s Ford Mustang. There’s video of a few of his laps, which includes him blaring police sirens attached to the car. The paddock was clearly not impressed.

idiotarod

One of the great builds that gets not nearly enough attention comes from the garage of LeMons’ chief technical inspector, John Pagel of Evil Genius Racing. The Idiotarod Racing Mazda Miata, also known as Balto, dispenses with the Miata’s heavy iron-block motor and transmission, instead dropping in a high-performance snowmobile engine with a CVT. With some additional weight savings, the end result is basically a two-pedal go kart that can seriously move around a racetrack. If they ever figure out how to make it remotely fuel efficient and reliable, it could actually compete for a win someday.

boompowprobe

Back in the realm of “normal” cars, BoomPowSurprise’s Ford Probe is a car that’s been around crapcan racing for a long time. Built by some guys who work for Bill Riley, the Probe has been raced by “real racecar people” like Riley and Peter Baron. The preparation has eventually led to the Probe vaguely resembling an open-top Le Mans prototype (if you squint hard enough) and its campaigners made the KL-DE capable of turning some stunning laps. The Probe has won a half-dozen races in both LeMons and in ChumpCar World Series.

bucksnort

Speaking of pro race shops, racing outfit Pratt & Miller have long run a chopped-top Toyota Supra in LeMons. They also showed up with the cheatiest Chevy Camaro of all time, its motor chock full of “stuff lying around the shop.” It ran a 1:40.7 at Gingerman Raceway, which was three seconds faster than any LeMons car had run at the time, though copious penalty laps kept it from winning the race. This April, Bucksnort Racing’s E30 (above) not only breezed past that lap record by a full second, they also took their Bimmer to the winner’s circle. When Bucksnort is running well and cleanly, no team in the Midwest Region has a chance.

sensoryassault

One of my absolute favorite cars exemplifies so many things about LeMons: It’s built by some Texans who once used super-hot Wankel exhaust to run a homemade still. It runs on crappy parts and hatred. It’s a model that should be worth good money, except that it had a terminal problem allowing the team to snag it cheap. The team have little use for things like “winning,” “fuel mileage,” or “the eardrums of fellow competitors.”

I’m talking, of course, about Team Sensory Assault’s flamebroiled FD-generation Mazda RX-7, whose 13b engine is fed by a big Chinese turbocharger of dubious quality, which is everything you need to know about this crew. At the car’s first race at Eagles Canyon this May, it annihilated the LeMons record at ECR before the Chinese turbo annihilated itself.

With a few new tracks and with teams generally getting faster, it’s easy to see this list soon becoming antiquated. However, this gives us a snapshot of a few extraordinary crapcans that have been the fastest in LeMons world over the past six seasons.

 

* Road America’s lap record was actually bested yesterday by the Save the Ta-Tas Camaro, which ran a 2:53.

 [Photos: Murilee Martin]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

18 responses to “24 Hours of LeMons: A pointless examination of track records”

  1. buzzboy7 Avatar
    buzzboy7

    You've missed a Hot Lap. At the Lemons South Fall 2012, Team Turbo Schnitzel turned a 1:50:652 in their Turbo 351 Windsor powered Merkur XR8Ti

    1. Eric Rood Avatar
      Eric Rood

      Is that a legitimate laptime for that car? That seems like a timing & scoring error or a glitch, because that car's next-fastest lap that weekend was a 2:07.7 and most of them were in the 2:15 range. I'm not sure any car has 17 seconds in it for a single lap, but I could be wrong if someone like Randy Pobst hopped into it for a few minutes.

      1. buzzboy7 Avatar
        buzzboy7

        Could be, I'm not sure. Although witnessing the car, it's possible. It didn't hold together for many laps with that monster drivetrain but it was blowing by everything for it's brief stint before the diff let go.

  2. Van_Sarockin Avatar
    Van_Sarockin

    Wouldn't a better metric be average mph in the various classes and awards?

    1. Tanshanomi Avatar

      Average MPH would have much more to do with driver skill across the whole team, maintenance downtime, fuel range, etc. I think that examining the one fastest lap is a good indication of just how "racy" a racecar is built to be. This gives some indication of how important the absolute level of performance (the amount of "zip in the ship") is to overall success.

      1. Van_Sarockin Avatar
        Van_Sarockin

        Exactly. There's one fast lap, which is good for something, I suppose. But if the engine or car can't last, it's not especially meaningful to an endurance race. Fastest last lap might be an interesting stat. Of course I've met plenty of teams who know full well that their engine has not chance at all of lasting the whole race. And others who become aware faster or slower.

      2. ˏ♂ˊ mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
        ˏ♂ˊ mzs zsm msz esq

        That and sometimes a Polish doofus on the crew can forgot to fuel the car up in the morning. Or taking the time to get an ipod to stereo booming properly is much more important than in other racing series.

  3. John Walker Avatar
    John Walker

    MSR on Saturday 2012 we ran the track backwards (anticlockwise) then normal rotation on Sunday. I never really looked into it, but was there a big difference with team times between the days? that may qualify for a seperate fast lap at that location.

  4. calzonegolem Avatar
    calzonegolem

    That Model T GT looks as majestic as ever.

    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      Out of all the LeMons cars I've seen go by, I've most wanted seat time in the Model T.
      The Rolling Chicane Limo would be second, and one of the bike-powered vehicles third.

      1. Eric Rood Avatar
        Eric Rood

        I'm not saying Hooniverse should do this, but Hooniverse should do this. Because we're all super rich, right?
        http://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/viewtopic.php?i

        1. TheAnnM Avatar
          TheAnnM

          Test Drive ANNLimited?

          1. jeepjeff Avatar
            jeepjeff

            I would love to read that review. The T GT makes it to Seconds Saturdays pretty regularly, and gotten a pretty close look at how it's been built.
            It is an engine with a seat. No more. No less. I would love to see what you think of it.
            (I haven't driven it, but it looms large in my current thinking on kit cars and home-built machines. I love the T GT, and I'd love to have something like it.)

        2. Jeff Glucker Avatar
          Jeff Glucker

          Oh.My.God.

        3. Van_Sarockin Avatar
          Van_Sarockin

          Rent a ride is king of cheating.

      2. LTDScott Avatar

        Racing the limo was surprisingly fun. It's not fast and the length of the damn thing presents some challenges, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time behind the wheel, at least until I ran it out of gas and had to get towed back in, heh.

  5. cruisintime Avatar
    cruisintime

    That looks like more fun than I have had all year. ( looks in parking lot Hmmmmmm)

  6. Mike M. (Tinyvette) Avatar
    Mike M. (Tinyvette)

    As one who as written pointless analyses of our races and had them published in the Journal d'LeMons (http://teamtinyvette.kstreetstudio.com/files/library/JOLv8n1.pdf), I think it would have helped a lot here if the lap times listed above were accompanied by something to compare them to, such as average lap times or the track record lap times, or a ratio of the above with these.