Another crapcan weekend has come and gone, taking with it a few thousand racing miles. Both ChumpCar World Series and the 24 Hours of LeMons ran on the East Coast last weekend, so let’s take a brief look at some of the winners and losers.
ChumpCar World Series Class 24 at VIRginia International Raceway
BMW was the mark of victory at VIR with E30s occupying all three podium spots with an E36 taking P4 for good measure. Ronald’s Racers’ M50-swapped E30 hung on for a two-lap victory by running a trouble-free race. They inherited the lead from SRI Racing’s E36 with less than a half hour remaining after SRI’s broken exhaust punctured part of the car’s fuel system. From there, Ronald’s Racers cruised to victory lane while SRI’s repairs took just long enough to drop them off the podium and into fourth position. With 374 completed laps on VIR’s 4.2-mile Grand Course, Ronald’s Racers logged 1,570.8 race miles (roughly the distance from New York City to Dallas, Texas) for a complete race average of more than 65 miles per hour.
Midwestern stalwarts Cheap Shot Racing took second place from fellow Central Region heavyweights Bucksnort Racing in the Classic’s closing minutes.
At the race’s halfway point, nine of the Top 10 were BMW 3 Series; the lone non-Bimmer was Blitzvining’s 1979 Pontiac Firebird, which also led six (non-consecutive) laps in the opening few hours of the race. The Firebird dropped out of the top slot when the rains came Saturday afternoon and the F-body struggled to get the power down.
Many other teams expected to compete suffered various maladies. Tubby Butterman Racing blew their E36’s motor for the first time in their car’s racing history after just an hour of racing. Rbankracing led for a while with the Tired Iron Repair Saab 9-3, but yet another constant-velocity joint issue tossed them from the lead. The team’s Will Race for Beer Saab 9-5 ended its race in the tire wall and the Domination Chassis Eagle Talon fell afoul of clutch issues. GFY Motorsports ended their Nissan 300ZX’s race early after amassing black flags for avoidable contact.
That said, the team I mentioned in my preview to keep an eye on,Cone Crushers Porsche 944, made me look good with an eighth-place finish, which is nothing to scoff at for a 944.
Below is the final Top 10; click the link for the full standings on MyLaps.
1. #105 Ronald’s Racers (BMW E30) – 374 Laps
2. #169 Cheap Shot Racing (BMW E30) – 372 Laps
3. #125 Bucksnort Racing (BMW E30) – 372 Laps
4. #68 SRI Racing 2 (BMW E36) – 370 Laps
5. #314 Book Smart Motorsports (Acura Integra) – 365 Laps
6. #556 Ghetto Motorsports (Mazda RX-7) – 364 Laps
7. #111 Schultz N Co (BMW E30) – 364 Laps
8. #917 Cone Crushers (Porsche 944) – 363 Laps
9. #800 Die Flusternde Bombe Motorsport (BMW E30) – 363 Laps
10. #44 MealTime Racing (Honda Civic) – 362 Laps
24 Hours of LeMons Real Hoopties of New Jersey
Anything said about the winners of this race are almost moot, since LeMons legends Speedycop & and the Gang of Outlaws stole wthe show with an upside-down Camaro shell fitted around a Ford Festiva chassis. This contended with Three Pedal Mafia’s monopoly-themed Rolls Royce Silver Shadow as the least-trackworthy entry, which is some claim when Three Pedal Mafia also fielded a boat.
Speedycop’s “Camaro” was hardly fast, but it ran enough of the weekend to capture LeMons’ top prize, the Index of Effluency. This marks Speedycop’s sixth IoE to extend his record further over West Coast masochist Spank.
The Rolls Royce suffered through brake issues for much of the weekend and eventually took major contact in the race’s final minutes. The team’s Triumph TR7 similarly took a major knock at the finish line, too. Three Pedal Mafia found some solace in their carnage-laden paddock space by taking home an Organizer’s Choice trophy.
The Silver Errors’ nabbed their first win on laps after dueling in their Mercedes Benz 190E with Cardorks’ E30 for much of the weekend. The Bimmer’s engine called it quits, however, and the Cardorks fell out of the Top 10 late Sunday. Rally Baby Racing’s four-cylinder E30 made a strong showing to take second-place, while two-time winners Bill Danger landed their Honda Accord on the podium’s final spot and took home a Class B win. Class B runners up Massholes ran a strong race themselves, putting their Ford Escort ZX2 in P6 overall.
The B-Team’s base-model Ford Escort claimed the Class C win by a substantial 21-lap (somewhere around 40 minutes) margin from the Froogle Subaru Legacy. Class C also saw great performances from Morrows Racing’s AMC Gremlin (42nd overall) and Three Pedal Mafia’s boat (45th overall). Rally Baby Racing campaigned the America-wandering Plymouth Reliant to a solid 84th place, which is nothing to scoff at given some of its recent struggles and its 2,500-mile trip just to take the green flag.
Below are the overall Top 10 and class leaders. Get the full standings from MyLaps here.
Overall
1. #281 The Silver Errors – Ziegel Scheisshause (Mercedes 190E) – 400 Laps
2. #469 Rally Baby Racing (BMW E30) – 394 Laps
3. #106 Bill Danger (Honda Accord) – 391 Laps, Class B Winner
4. #123 RealDime Racing (Acura Integra) – 391 Laps
5. #301 Rust in the Wind (Nissan 300ZX, Saab engine) – 390 Laps
6. #508 Massholes (Ford Escort ZX2) – 388 Laps, Class B
7. #262 Vermont Bert-One (Volvo 262C Bertone) – 387 Laps
8. #242 Keystone Kops (Volvo 240, V8-swap) – 386 Laps
9. #84 Walk of Shame Racing 9BMW E36) – 385 Laps
10. #71 Near-Orbital Space Monkeys (Ford Mustang) – 385 Laps
Class B
1. #106 Bill Danger (Honda Accord) – 391 Laps
2. #508 Massholes (Ford Escort ZX2) – 388 Laps
3. #21 Interceptor Motorsports (Ford Thunderbird) – 366 Laps
4. #133 Orbits near Uranus Racing (Saturn SC2) – 366 Laps
5. #59 Low-T Sewing Circle & Social hour (BMW E28) – 359 Laps
Class C
1. #108 The B Team (Ford Escort) – 359 Laps
2. #111 Froogle (Subaru Legacy) – 338 Laps
3. #6 It Ain’t My Fault Morrows Racing (AMC Gremlin) – 332 Laps
4. #42 Three Pedal Mafia (Chevy S10/Sea Sprite) – 326 Laps
5. #50 George Alexander Louis (MG MGB-GT) – 320 Laps
[Image Sources: Peter Merkle/Team Phoenix; Damien Jedlicka/Speedycop Photos Flickr; Nick Pon]
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