How'd you do at Lemons fall south at cmp?

Congrats, Planters.  Wow, no black flags or accidents on your first race.  Very impressive.  We had similar goals when we did our first Lemons race in '08.  We didn't meet them as we were the first team to get black flagged and got in one fender bender.  Actually, we secretly wondered what it would be like to win but in reality we were just hoping the car would stay together long enough for everyone to drive so I guess our goals were met.

We are the Black and Red 300ZX (Z31) "Black Sheep Racing" team.  We were 41st (out of 82) in '08, 9th (out of 91) in the spring, and 4th (out of 114) this race.  Not sure were we are going to go from here since we race an almost perfect race (for us) and were still 24 laps behind the two "lightning teams."

Think we need to change our theme or something.  Been thumbing through everyone’s pictures on the web and I have only come across 1 picture of us even though we were in the top 5 both days.  I've found more picture people took of the dirt and posted than of us.

No love for the Z.  Oh well, at least it gets us through BS tech quickly.

The Black Sheep theme dilemma is simple:  Black and red are poorly contrasting colors.  Paint the car WHITE with the red rising sun on it so that you have some contrast and it would be (a little) more noticeable.

You guys rock, btw.  24 laps is only about half an hour.  Were could you make up half an hour?  Quicker pits?  One less driver change?  Take some more weight off the car?  Drive harder and on smoother lines?  I'm sure there's no easy answer... but 4th place is VERY respectable!

As for our team (Jackie Ickx GT30) and how we did, that freakin' POS 3000GT was a lot more capable than any of us expected it to be!  We lost about 40 minutes due to minor issues Saturday morning, and it was strong and reliable from that point up until the bottom end let go about 3 hours from the end.  We worked our way up to 12th place, and I think we'd have finished about 8th if the engine hadn't quit.  And if we hadn't lost those 40 minutes... top 3??? 

3 weeks to prep for Ohio...

Us Lab Rats had a decent weekend.  We were all OK with the 29th overall finish with our whopping 68hp car.  497 laps ain't bad all things considered.  We had a great time this go around after all of the problems we encountered in the spring race.  No black flags, even though we were offered a free pass because of the great Amaretto moonshine that we had.  Turns out we were too slow to need it.  Great weekend, sure beats working that's for sure.

We did better than I thought we would considering that we were all first timers and we had a terrible Plymouth Acclaim. None of us had done any wheel to wheel racing before. We did require autocross experience to be a driver in the hopes that all our drivers for have a clue about car control.

We sailed through tech as we built the car with the inspection sheet and rules taped to the roof of the car. The judges were a hoot. I'm not sure if it was our crappy car or our promise to have the beer tap mounted to the trunk to be working next time, either way we'll take it. Two members of the team are homebrewers... 

Brake issues plagued the car but we refused to quit until we couldn't repair it anymore. Everyone at the track was more than willing to lend tools and words of encouragement. In order to save the brakes we focused on just staying out there and running a clean line as much as possible so as not to get in the way of anyone with even a chance of winning.

Our wives had a great time getting their pictures taken with the judges and watching the penalties. On the way back to Baltimore (we had plenty of time) we all decided to keep doing Lemons as long as they'd allow us and we've got a plan to make the Acclaim brake more and break less.

I am guessing that you were probably running with un on Sunday as we figured out our speed limiting issues as the curse was being carried out.  We didn't start running too well until that afternoon.  One of our drivers actually turned out a 1:05 in that car.  It was blazing pretty well after some smaller jets were installed.  That was us though, with the Bud Light taillights.  That car would run if it just had a little more power.  You guys run one heck of a race yourselves.

We blew a head gasket and damaged the head early.  Blue Devil will fix it, right?  Well, for an hour it did.  Then we were done.  It was really frustrating until we tore the motor.  It was a great experience and although we couldn't get back on the track (water issue to the motor) we did refire it around 1 PM Sunday, successfully.  Great times, I think the coROLLa will be back with a new head.

We were the #2 Got Guts? team.  It was our first Lemons event and I was hoping to just get everyone a fair amount of seat time and finish mid pack.  We wound up in 20th place with no penalties, no black flags, and not a scratch on the car other than the body damage to the door that was already there when we bought the car (1990 RX7).  We lost about an hour and a half trying to diagnose a clutch problem.  The winning White Lightning team helped us trace it back to a failed throw out bearing with no hope of repair.  We raced for the last 30 minutes on Saturday and all day Sunday with no clutch. I had the first stint Saturday and last stint Sunday. In the first stint I was doing my best to just preserve the car.   By the final stint I had gotten the go ahead to wear out the car.  By the time I got in, 2nd gear was all that I could get engaged.  So for about 90 minutes that little rotary lived at 6-9500 rpm. 

Once it was over, I was actually a little sad we never made it to the penalty box.  Although, we did have to be towed offtrack once on Sunday. 

On the whole I am still very proud of how high (and clean) we finished.  (Especially considering only 2 of our guys had any wheel to wheel experience).

The #37 ModSquad Toyota MR2 did great! A lot better than we thought. We had some brake issues mid-way through the 1st day. Right front caliper got stuck. Pad was to the metal. Replaced the pads unstuck the caliper and she was okay, not the best, but doable. Saturday night I added gateraid cooling ducts that seemed to help out a lot. She is getting a new set of brakes for the lamest Day.

Once we figured out how to change drivers, and that we really needed to stay out longer, we made up good time. Ended up 21st overall and 9th in class. Our first time out was a blast!!

We mishmashed our tires. That hurt us a bit. Plus a certain Police cruiser gave us a realignment that caused a bit of understeer as seen by the lack of camber in those still images of us on the track.

I can't wait for the 24!