Some races, one team takes an early class lead and then protects it all weekend with a big, increasingly comfortable cushion. That's not what's happening at the second annual Chubba Cheddar Enduro 24 Hours of LeMons; when the checkered flag waved, the top three Class A cars were on the same lap, the top three Class B cars were within a single lap of one another, and the Class C leader was being sweated hard by a couple of improbable pursuers. Let's see how the first race session went!
At the top of the standings, we've got Team Fiery Death! and their 1994 Toyota Celica. Front-wheel-drive Celicas have a long history of heartbreak and failure in LeMons racing (they're quick but fragile), and Team Fiery Death! has contended for an overall win in past races. This time, the drivers look confident, the car looks solid, and TFD! seems to have a real shot at an overall win.
Also with 119 laps, the Back to the Past 300ZX is filling up the rear-view mirror of the Team Fiery Death! Celica with its ominous silver Nisso-DeLorean snout. This team took the overall win at the 2012 season-ender in Texas and has been a heavy contender at many races since then. Fuel consumption of this Z is higher than the Celica's, but then so is its engine reliability.
Also with 119 laps, the Landsharks and their '94 Acura Integra have the most frugal fuel consumption of the top three cars… but they're also a little bit slower, plus there's that Honda head gasket weakness. All in all, Sunday's race session promises some real excitement as the Celica, the 300ZX, and the Integra slug it out.
In Class B, the Team Sucker Punch '89 Camaro holds a lead best measured in yards over its nearest rival. GM F-bodies tend to be sinkholes of broken parts and skinless knuckles in LeMons racing, so the Sucker Punchers will need to baby their Chevy in most un-Camaroish fashion in order to avoid doing some junkyard shopping for yet another replacement 350.
Just one lap behind the Sucker Punch Camaro, the We Are Not Really From Iran Ford Festiva has racked up some very quick lap times in its pursuit of the Class B trophy. With a Mazda B engine swap, the power-to-weight numbers on this Festiva are excellent— perhaps the best of any car at this race— but reliability hasn't been so great for this car in past races.
On the same lap (111) as the We Are Not Really From Iran Festiva, the Point-O-Eight '91 Ford Escort has a best lap time nearly ten seconds slower than its rival, demonstrating that quickness is less important than consistency in this sort of racing. The Point-O-Eights started their LeMons career with a string of DNSs, DNFs, and unsuccessful engine swaps, but now they're solid Class B contenders and have a good chance to take a win at this race.
Class C is often where the competition is closest, but this time the Futility Motorsports Mercury Bobcat ended the session with 109 laps, six better than its nearest rival.
That Class C rival is the 1974 AMC Gremlin campaigned by Morrow's Auto, and its supercharged GM 3800 V6 gives it a power advantage that almost compensates for the car's inherent Malaise Era terribleness.
On the same lap as the Gremlin, we've got… what? Yes, the miserably breakdown-prone 1987 Plymouth Reliant-K wagon of Majicbus Racing-K It Forward has bloomed into a genuine contender this weekend, ending Saturday's race session tied for second in class and in 26th place overall. Amazing!
Meanwhile, romance was in the chilly Wisconsin air this weekend, as racers proposed marriage in the penalty box during Saturday. First, this Saturn racer forgot about his busted Chevy long enough to pop the question to his girlfriend. She said yes!
We've seen quite a few weddings at LeMons races, and so it shouldn't have surprised us that another racer opted to pop the question in the penalty box. We set up a phony shrink-wrap-to-the-Golf-roof penalty for him, at which point he whipped out the ring. She said yes!
For more details of how the day went, check out Judge Eric Rood's coverage, and check in here later to see who won.
from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com
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