The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → 2011 New Racetrack Wish List
$15,762 for Detoilet? Sounds about $10,762 too high to me. For $15k, they had better throw in ownership of the Lions.
Never going to happen, well unless Jay buys Detroit.
Considering how much of Detroit is just abandoned automobile factories, with sufficient application of risk-analysis lawyers and political spin (for the city: "This is a grand celebration of Detroit's past and a reminder that blight is not permanent!" and for the owner of the factory, "well you aren't making any other money on it are you?", I don't see any significant obstacles preventing us from turning the old Packard plant into a paddock and lapping the surrounding blocks.
But then I can be a dreamer at times.
How about a street race? Any town will do, but I'll take the initiative on getting our fine city council to agree to it if Lemons decides to come here.
So it's settled: Street race in Detroit, around some abandoned auto factory(s).
Name the date and we'll be there.
+1 for laguna Seca - Just once... They'd never let us come back.
And massive +1 for renting out a border town in Mexico and running a dirt-road race. Heck, maybe even start a $500 desert racing series - the busted 1000....
So it's settled: Street race in Detroit, around some abandoned auto factory(s).
Name the date and we'll be there.
Been robbed in Detroit. Had my windshield shot out in Detroit. But Detroiters have a weird sense of fatalistic humour that makes the place fun. I'd race there....
East St Louis is the scariest place I've ever had the displeasure of driving through, avoid streets named Mug Whitey and Stab Whitey, but Detroit is a close second.
Grattan. My favorite. I like Blackhawk too, but too far to drive for me. Mid-ohio of course, but would need to take the back straight out of it and run a shorter course or something (too fast).
Need to make this happen at the new Bluegrass track in Kentucky.. its just down the road from me so I could sleep in my own bed and not have a tow!
Heartland Park Topeka, Kansas. 45 minutes from Kansas City. Not much more centrally located than that. AND, its the closest road course track to me (until the Kansas Speedway builds their road course, then 10 minutes from me), which, of course, the most important part! :-)
Ran the IT fest a long time ago. I think we ran a different setup that usual, but worst ever track for me. Blazing hot, no shade (got heat exhaustion, and that was just sprint races!) and didn't enjoy the track (last corner onto the straight is dead slow and very constricted unless things have changed... Bet it would be a crash fest for Lemons. Maybe its just because a D***head ran me into the wall at the end of the front straight and totaled my car, but its still a too hot/no shade condition.
+1 for laguna Seca - Just once... They'd never let us come back.
And massive +1 for renting out a border town in Mexico and running a dirt-road race. Heck, maybe even start a $500 desert racing series - the busted 1000....
A string of Lemons going down the corkscrew... and the ensuing wheels coming off... would be epic
Grattan. My favorite.
Grattan is one of my favorite tracks in the country and it's Lemony crappy, but it has some serious flaws that will prevent Lemons from going there. First, it has a smallish infield paddock and no bridge. ChumpCar overcame this obstacle at some track by having a 15 minute break every three hours to allow crossovers. The problem with Grattan is that there are no gas stations or parts stores close by, so teams would need to have a dedicated runner that remains outside the track at all times. Who'd want THAT job? The other major problem is that Grattan doesn't have much runoff in many areas and is known to be a rather dangerous track. It's VERY technical and mistakes lead to big offs and lots of damage.
Pikes Peak. The hillclimb, not the track. I will personally confiscate first-borns, and harvest organs for this.
Seriously though, they invite vintage cars every year, and they always seem to be hungry for entries. I'd do whatever I could to help make it happen.
Brands Hatch
Just imagine for a second.... 24 Hours of Lemons.... at Monaco
Just imagine for a second.... 24 Hours of Lemons.... at Monaco
We'd have to fill the harbor with hobbible old houseboats to make it more craptastic 
Just imagine for a second.... 24 Hours of Lemons.... at Monaco
+1,000,000. I can only imagine the hell at the hairpin.
Loewe's would sue us to prevent us from sullying their name. And they don't even own that hotel anymore.
^ Find an M-town in the US that has a harbor and pair the race with a Regatta d'Lemons. Maybe Manteca or Modesto, CA. Someplace "classy" (not saying which class) that has an Indian Casino nearby.
Miami? Thongs-A-Go-Go 2011 on the Streets of South Beach Circuit?
Toledo....no waterfront like it...
Spinnetti wrote:Grattan. My favorite.
Grattan is one of my favorite tracks in the country and it's Lemony crappy, but it has some serious flaws that will prevent Lemons from going there. First, it has a smallish infield paddock and no bridge. ChumpCar overcame this obstacle at some track by having a 15 minute break every three hours to allow crossovers. The problem with Grattan is that there are no gas stations or parts stores close by, so teams would need to have a dedicated runner that remains outside the track at all times. Who'd want THAT job? The other major problem is that Grattan doesn't have much runoff in many areas and is known to be a rather dangerous track. It's VERY technical and mistakes lead to big offs and lots of damage.
Logistics points are very good - hadn't thought of that, but I think yer kinda nuts about dangerous, and lack of runoff - just my opinioin though..
Spinetti, I'd love to agree with you, but there have been far too many deaths there to dismiss. Turn one brake failure ends badly and I've witnessed cars hook and go up the hill coming out of the final turn onto the front straight. A month after I saw a friend hook there and almost reach the guardrail at the top of the hill, a Corvette driver lost his life doing the same thing. He landed upside down over the guardrail on the motocross track. The downhill turn before the jump can also get ugly as can the hairpin turn. That turn has almost zero runoff. Brake failure means driving into the woods at a high rate of speed.
All that said, I LOVE the track. It just isn't right for crapcan racing.
A lot of tracks seem to have a rep as dangerous.....can't that be fixed with a few haybales? Instant chicane...
Spinetti, I'd love to agree with you, but there have been far too many deaths there to dismiss. Turn one brake failure ends badly and I've witnessed cars hook and go up the hill coming out of the final turn onto the front straight. A month after I saw a friend hook there and almost reach the guardrail at the top of the hill, a Corvette driver lost his life doing the same thing. He landed upside down over the guardrail on the motocross track. The downhill turn before the jump can also get ugly as can the hairpin turn. That turn has almost zero runoff. Brake failure means driving into the woods at a high rate of speed.
All that said, I LOVE the track. It just isn't right for crapcan racing.
Hmm. Never thought of it that way I guess. Only fatality I knew of was in my ITA race, but I think he had a problem before he went off in turn 1.. I had a flat right at the left hander by the pond and thought I was going in (past the end of the guardrail at the time).. I was unbuckling as fast as I could while locked up... fortunately stopped about 10' short (took a picture of the tire tracks!)..Best bit is the hop on the back straight... separates the men from the boys that one!
When a track has not one but two ponds that are in play for out-of-control crapcans and a turn/hill that sounds like it should be known as The Widowmaker, I'd say that the chances that Lemons will ever run there are squarely between not a chance in hell and no effing way. I mean, we had a successful race at Nelson Ledges and we don't get to go back there because of potential hazards that are a trifle compared to Grattan.
That said, it really does look like a fun track to run. I'd like to see Lime Rock too just because it's fun to race in iRacing, but that ain't gonna happen either.
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