The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Our Crappy Race → Paddock car sabotage overnight at Sears...WEAK!!
Now THAT's funny Crab. 
Ok, OK...I was more than a little harsh with my comments last night. I apologize for that. The whole idea of something like this happening at a Lemons event really got me pissed off. I am sorry to the judges for my comment on their silence, that wasn't fair to them. This is all a good natured, cheap racing series that provides us the opportunity to laugh at ourselves, our cars, and each other. I hope that this is an isolated incident. I don't want to have to buy a mean old junkyard dog to watch my car so I can get some sleep.
Anyway, my inner dipshit got out of his cage last night. I'll try better to keep him locked down from here on out (or at least away from the computer).
To hold 4 judges responsible for the actions of probably around 1000 people overnight would be a little silly.
Car 90 degrees - kinda cool, kinda too much effort. CAT stenciled on, as well as Little Prick, nice touch - I think a Keep 100 feet back stickers for certain bad drivers (maybe even available at tech) would be cool... Them's good-natured fun. Cotton Candy (when it isn't raining) or popcorn in the engine nacelles of the enterprise would'a been good too.
~BUT~ water in the tank ain't a Prank. It's ass-hattedness 100-%. It's reason for 'official' action.
I'd have suggested they left a fuel jug open, they were stored semi-under an easy-up during the worst of the worst Friday night, as in kinda at the edge of the easy-up next to the trailer - but they had sealed jugs Friday and it didn't down-pour Saturday night...
So. Hey guys - hate to ask this, but you didn't pour from any of John's hose-topped cans did you? We brought three and only filled two at the track pumps... they were right next to the trailer door... It'd be some sort of stupid miracle if the easy-up filled the third one for us - barely conceivable - but this IS Lemons and what could possibly go wrong?
Trekkor - I've seen spark-plugs wires blow off street cars on fire-up. As in it drove in, did an autocross, then wouldn't run after loading the crap back in to go home... Them's weird critters and it ~could~ be just coincidence.
~It could'a been a poor-judgement prank. I hope not. (did you leave the hood up?)
Chris - Your extinguisher *may* have been snagged by someone needing it thinking they needed it to pass tech, or something like that - but probably it was just stolen. That Sucks. If it's the former I hope they bring it back next race, if it's the latter (I won't write that scenario).
You're well known as the biggest Lemons friend out there and so again, that just friggin' sucks...
To hold 4 judges responsible for the actions of probably around 1000 people overnight would be a little silly.
Oh man - you offered up a great straight-line! On a light note:
I hold the judges 100% responsible for ANYTHING that happened over the whole weekend, and will gladly pay them to do it again, come what may... I mean, if you think about it, no matter what happened - without them none of us would'a been there anyhow!
I'll bet the "stolen" fire extinguisher is sitting in some random part of the Infineon grounds, after being borrowed by somebody who thought it belonged to the track.
Is there any chance the water came from the pumps at the track. I understand that the 91 octane tanks were empty sometime Sunday so whoever got the last few gallons might have gotten water. I know those things are supposed to be maintained, but...
To hold 4 judges responsible for the actions of probably around 1000 people overnight would be a little silly.
Sounds fair to me.
This is why the California racers need to start having all-night pit party/wrenchfests like the racers in South Carolina. Sure, you get nimrods doing moped burnouts in the bathroom stalls at CMP, but nobody messes with other teams' cars.
This is why the California racers need to start having all-night pit party/wrenchfests like the racers in South Carolina. Sure, you get nimrods doing moped burnouts in the bathroom stalls at CMP, but nobody messes with other teams' cars.
damn right. everyone is too busy perusing the pages of "Cougar"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUfhtQqC … mp;index=6
and making questionable dietary decisions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzOKD-X … p;index=15
Sneaking along last is that Mean Machine with those double dealing do-badders Dick Dastardly and his sidekick, Muttley
Obvious saboteur is obvious.
-=Tom
This is why the California racers need to start having all-night pit party/wrenchfests like the racers in South Carolina. Sure, you get nimrods doing moped burnouts in the bathroom stalls at CMP, but nobody messes with other teams' cars.
If it had been ~nice~ weather instead of ~professional grade~, we would have been up all night right next to the two cars in question. The Damp dampened our resolve...
Easy solution is to make all races true 24's. No downtime for tom foolery.
Easy solution is to make all races true 24's. No downtime for tom foolery.
+100
And that I mean they should be 124 hour races.
Seriously.
What's the longest circuit race in history? We should do 1 hour more.
adding water to the gas tank, pulling spark plug wires or draining the battery overnight...
While I'm not trying to reject the thought of sabotage, or defend anyone, all of those problems could have fully rational explanations. And I've made at least two of those mistakes at one point in my recent history. That's the curse of a failing short term memory.
I slept in my truck about 75 feet from the Telli-tubbies car and the Evil Genius paddock, with the windows open a bit. The Norwegian bobsled Volvo was up late changing engines, because I could hear their generator running. So up to 11-12-1am there was someone in that area. The couple times I got up to hit the head, nothing was happening to any of those cars.
The Model T: It was raining cats and dogs Friday night, so maybe some how some water got into the tank? or a fuel bottle? How about condensation overnight. Was there a tarp over the car that could have funneled the water into the tank? Possible?
The spark plug wire is entirely possible that it was partially on and working fine, but the cold night caused it to shrink off just a bit more??
Draining the battery, I'm guessing someone just forgot to turn off the kill switch. I just did that after pitting for the last time on Sunday. Left the fan run for a good hour while packing up. Guess i was somewhat deaf from driving.
were any of these guys spotted in the area?
I doubt anyone would turn on a kill switch as an act of battery-draining sabotage, because most cars don't have anything that powers up right off the kill switch. Everybody has at least some sort of ignition switch. Right? Or do you idiots run the ignition coil off the kill switch?
I doubt anyone would turn on a kill switch as an act of battery-draining sabotage, because most cars don't have anything that powers up right off the kill switch. Everybody has at least some sort of ignition switch. Right? Or do you idiots run the ignition coil off the kill switch?
We run a 250amp solenoid/cutoff that requires 2.5 amps while active to keep the power hot. If you leave it active without running the car, it will drain the battery.
I doubt anyone would turn on a kill switch as an act of battery-draining sabotage, because most cars don't have anything that powers up right off the kill switch. Everybody has at least some sort of ignition switch. Right? Or do you idiots run the ignition coil off the kill switch?
Our electric water pump is what was running all night, everything else is off the ignition (which wasn't the problem). None of us were there, and the kill switch was indeed OFF when we left.
Oh well, it could have been worse, I guess.
At Laguna Seca two seasons ago during an SCCA race weekend, more than 10 full sets of race wheels and tires were stolen out of the paddock overnight. Let that sink in... TEN FULL SETS OF WHEELS were stolen out of various paddock spots in one night with probably 100 people camping in tents and sleeping in RV's in the paddock, some literally only 20 feet from things that were stolen.
The theory that "this definitely couldn't happen because someone would have seen them" has at least as much doubt in it as any of the conspiracy theories.
I still want to believe that it was a mistake our team made and not an idiot in the paddock overnight, but knowing what I know about how we fueled and who did the fueling and the known states of the car before it went under the tarp and how it came out from under the tarp, I give it 50/50 at worst of being a malicious act.
Cheers,
Dean
Maybe it is just my trusting nature, but I don't think that these acts of "sabotage" were actually that. 2.5 gallons of water is a lot to dump in a tank by someone who doesn't want to be spotted. It is far more plausible that someone grabbed a water jug instead of a gas jug by accident, or some similar scenario It's real easy to make mistakes when you are tired. We've all screwed up at some time and not realized it until much later.
I bet that someone is unpacking their trailer and wondering where the extra fire extinguisher came from. When you have people helping who don't know every piece of your gear, it's easy for them to grab the wrong item, perhaps from the wrong team's gear.
I have left switches on that I thought I had turned off, so that one doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
It's nice to be able to blame evildoers for all our problems, but we have to accept that mistakes are made. They are not malicious; they are simply mistakes. All we can do is try to minimize them.
I won't disagree with anything you've written, but I will clarify for the 3rd time in this thread that it was about a half a gallon of water, not 2.5 gallons.
I doubt anyone would turn on a kill switch as an act of battery-draining sabotage, because most cars don't have anything that powers up right off the kill switch. Everybody has at least some sort of ignition switch. Right? Or do you idiots run the ignition coil off the kill switch?
Our car was the one in question with the dead battery.
We have a light on the dash specific to the kill switch due to the fact we have one of those cheatun electric water pumps on our car, that runs directly off the kill switch so we don't forget to turn it on.
When we put the tarp over the car there were 2 of us to confirm the switches were off and pump was dead. Now saying that... I can attest that I personally have left tools on the car as it was heading for the track, and the other driver has left his glasses on top of the car as I drove away so yes there is a slight possibility we left the light on....But talk to all the guys that have driven with me and they can attest to how anal I can be about car prep. That said I have no-one to blame but myself, for not being completely anal and putting a kill switch on the kill switch.
Our car was the one in question with the dead battery. But talk to all the guys that have driven with me and they can attest to how anal I can be about car prep. That said I have no-one to blame but myself, for not being completely anal and putting a kill switch on the kill switch.
Dude, I personally saw/heard you fret over the kill switch 3 times before dinner. Which was delicious BTW. It may have gotten bumped, monkeyed with or even hit by lightening, but it was off when we left.
I also hope everything has a logical explanation. If I find out someone thought it would be funny if an MGB leaked oil... so help me god.
I'm accepting responsibility regardless. But the sudden rash of coincidences are unsettling.
Clearly Sears Pointless is just bad for the series. It should obviously be dropped from the schedule and another Summit Point / Capitol Offense (Fall) should be added.
Nick, please get busy on this; let me know if you need further direction. That is all.
Clearly Sears Pointless is just bad for the series. It should obviously be dropped from the schedule and another Summit Point / Capitol Offense (Fall) should be added.
Nick, please get busy on this; let me know if you need further direction. That is all.
Oh hell, let's do two at NJMP. They need the money 
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Our Crappy Race → Paddock car sabotage overnight at Sears...WEAK!!