jaje

I'm going to be co driving a 15 hour LeMons race in July. I've done a couple "enduros" (2 - 3 hour races) but never one like this. We'll be racing a beater of a 97 GTI.

I'm thinking of strategies that we can employ to save time in the pits.
- Remove / drill out the fuel neck restrictor so you can fill up the car faster (this is usually the slowest to do)
- Add some front bumper air ducts to route fresh air to the front brakes and add some flashing to scoop air to the rears to get them some better cooling. This should keep pad wear very low (lower heat build up) so you don't have to change pads during the race (that can put you several laps down).
- Weld in extra metal to jacking points to make it easier to jack up car (gives more surface area and better stability)
- Every other pit stop - rotate tires to provide more even wear. (or this might just not be worth it)
- Improve driver change times by making seat / belt adjustment simpler.
- Practice pit stops

Trying to think of some other things that we can do...

greenmadness

yeah, i was on a team that did one. we did the actual 24hr at nelson ledges in a 91 civic hatch with 400,xxx on it. it was a blast.

-we ran a cell in the car, and fueling was still the slowest part of our pit stops. so anything you could do to make that quicker will be in your favor.

-brake cooling never hurts, although with a new set of pads and rotors to start the race we still had enough pad to run another 24hr.

honda rot took our jacking points so we jacked under the cage as it was by far the most solid part of the car, just painted big markings for jack points.

the rotating tires is probably not needed, if you keep 2 back up rims with tires mounted and just change them out at before the second stint of the race you should be fine. we ran a brand new set of fuzion zri's and the passenger inside started to get close to belts in the last hour and only on the inside tread blocks. (although the toe for the race track did not help that)

- driver change was the second largest amount of time wasted, and the adjusters happend to be right on the seat holes for our biggest driver making the adjustment to and from those drivers quite hard.

- although you wont need a light bar, we lacked adjustablility side to side, pretty much causing us to run blind at night

watch your driving, the penalties they dish out can be sever and cost you some time, such as spray painting words on your car, or welding crazy objects on top of it, the people who placed top in the race did not see the black flag judges, and they where not setting any speed records either.

this goes along with the above, dont beat the car, take it easy and drive the car at a moderate pace to avoid getting creamed by other cars trying lay down landspeed records
none of the crazy drivers that were zipping around the track made it through the race, although they seemed unstoppable at the begining half way through most lost the transmissions from banging gears and kicking the clutch.

CivicSiRacer

Several of my friends have done one as recent as last week.

Jenkinsal2

to work around the seat changes size the seat for the largest driver and then fabricate some seat inserts for the smaller drivers. When you switch drivers have the new driver ready with his/her insert. All you should do is throw the insert in the seat and buckle up and go.

Ecugrad

I completed my 3rd Lemons event at CMP last weekend in an 89 Prelude with 250k on it. Came in 2nd out 80 cars. Had a BLAST but it was a ton of hard work and LOTS of luck.



VW's seem to be pretty damn good for Lemons.
Absolutely! But remember, if you have a slow *** WalMart jugg that has no vent, it wont make much of a difference. A fast dumping gas can is a must to do fast pit stops.

Sure

Sure

Unless you are on a track that just EATS tires, shouldn't have to do this.

Sure

Hands down probably the BEST thing you can do to improve your position at Lemons. Everyone needs to know what their job is for THAT pit stop. Our first Lemons event, we didn't practice or think much about it, we had 7+ minute stops, we practiced and can now hammer them out in under half that time.

Do whatever it takes to STAY ON TRACK!!!! No penalties!

Spare parts are also good to have around. Our first event, our we lost our alternator belt, didn't have a spare. Cost us a half hour to run to the parts store and get one.

import2nr88

Yeah,
avoid the penalties and you will have far better luck at a respectable finish.

Both the lemons races we were in we were penalized for stupid moves on our part. We passed under yellow in our first race, This was the third ever lemons race that was more like a smash up derby so contact was drawing penalties. In our second race myself and another driver both tried to go through the same hole and hit each other side to side which drew a penalty. A co driver then supposedly went 4 wheels off and we were penalized again for that.

Check your oil when ever you get a chance. We were burning 1-2 quarts of oil the second day of our first race and forgot to check it on a stop, the car blew about 45 minutes later.

jaje

Thanks for the comments thus far...keep 'em coming.

TheStone

Had the time of my life. Highly recommend a LeMons race at least once a year lol.

topdog

iTrader: (1)

havent done a LeMons race but have done ChumpCar which is kinda the same.
We ran a 94 Civic hb and had a ton of fun in it. It was suppose to be a 14hour endoro then got cut short to 5 hours do the weather. Event was on may 1st at NSS and if you know Nashville was bassically under water that weekend got to finish the event on th 16.
Which was a 9 hour race.

What we got from it is Deff need a bigger tank/fuel cell, somwhere around 20 gallon. Fuel stop every other would be nice. That way we can do just driver change and can get out back faster. In chumpcar once u add fuel it becomes a minimum 5 minutes stop versus if no gas has no minimum. Even during fuel we are allowed to do a driver change at the same time and can have all that done under 2 minutes. can get 10 gallon in around 1.20.

Make sure u bring plenty of brake pads, if u are running shoes out back set them loose. easier to cjange front pads then to change shoes. Brake ducts would be nice but we overkilled the front brake so didnt really need it.

Overuse the brakes and not the clutch to. We tried not to shift down to early and power shift. As stated above easier to change pads than a clutch.

Dont run the lowest tire treadware allowed by organiser. We ran Falken RT615 which we burned the front in 4 hours and thats with 2 hours in the rain on the 16th. The rear was decent. We will be looking for some 300 treadwear for the next event in July. Do bring extra set of wheels and tires.

Don't go to aggresive with the alignment, you have along way to run.

The race might be 24 hours but the real race is the last 1-2 hours the first 22 is survivng.

Have a good way to communicate with the driver and the rest of the team.

All else be prepaired to smile because it is so much fun. We cant wait till we go out to the Next event in July.

topy

ShaunRR

Does your team have a theme or a gimmick?

jaje

Not that I know of yet. I'm sure that is something that needs to be considered.

teamrrtjoker

yeah the redneckracing team has run 2. going for broken in Reno, and **** freezapalozza in willows laast year. We won the Index of Effluency in Reno....run consistent is the key. ....and have fun! the most fun racing I've ever had.

Hilux22R

If you're in KC, there's also a 24 Hours of LeMons race at Mid America Motorplex in Omaha at the end of August (08/28-08/29). The entry deadline for that one is next Saturday, June 19th. The LeMons Web site has the details. Good luck!