Topic: Inspection before race weekend?

Hi there,
Rookie hopeful here, working on a build for the 24 hour race in CO in September. Still work to do, but making progress.

Is there a way to have my car evaluated prior to the race weekend? I have read the rules thoroughly, but the 24 hour race is obviously a large commitment and it would be brutal to get everything and everyone prepared (and spend the $) only to fail tech. It would be great to have time to remedy any shortcomings. I do not currently have any personal connections in the Lemons community.

Thanks very much!

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

Give a specific location and maybe you can get a judge to have a preliminary look-see. Or email lots of pictures to Pagel. If you've read and followed the instructions, you're probably fine. The "how not to fail tech" document is the eighth or ninth wonder of the world. I'm not joking; it's better than 98.726% of quality assurance documents I've seen in 8.5 years working in medical device development and manufacturing.

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

If you get to the track early (in our case Thurs night), you’ll undoubtedly find some veterans who can look the car over and tell you what you might need to fix. Some of these Lemontarians have done 25 races or more.  In our case we overlooked battery securedness (< that’s probably a word), and it was much easier fixing it on Friday before tech than having to do it after.

I also sent some texts back and forth with Mr Pagel as I was welding the cage, very helpful.

2021 Gingerman-I:  IOE (Strickland Propane)
2021 Gingerman-II:  20 seconds of footage on the wrap-up!
95 Chevy S-10

4 (edited by chaase 2022-04-17 07:19 AM)

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

fiasco wrote:

Give a specific location and maybe you can get a judge to have a preliminary look-see. Or email lots of pictures to Pagel. If you've read and followed the instructions, you're probably fine. The "how not to fail tech" document is the eighth or ninth wonder of the world. I'm not joking; it's better than 98.726% of quality assurance documents I've seen in 8.5 years working in medical device development and manufacturing.

/agree

I've pre-inspected a few vehicles to make sure nothing is blatantly wrong but I am on the east coast. There may be a team close enough to you to help out.

1992 Saturn SL2 (retired) - Elmo's Revenge -  Class B winner, Heroic Fix winner x2
1969 Rover P6B 3500S(sold) - Super G-Rover - I.O.E Winner, Class C Winner
1996 Saturn SW2 - Elmo's Revenge (reborn!), Saturn SL1  Dazzleshipm Class C x2 and IOE winner
1974 AMC Javelin - Oscar's Trash heap - IOE,”Organizer's Choice" and "I got Screwed" award winner

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

Are you based in CO? There are a lot of good people that race there that also know what they are doing and might take a look for you. There is a Facebook page called Colorado Lemons Mafia and some of them might be here looking as well.

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

Also, there's this checklist, from another helpful forum member:

rb92673 wrote:

This link works for me:
https://24hoursoflemons.com/wp-content/ … -sheet.pdf

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

Thanks everyone for the input- all extremely helpful!

In terms of my location, I live 30 minutes west of Denver and would be willing to drag the car wherever for some experienced eyes. The car won't be complete for the BFE race in June, but I considered taking it to High Plains that weekend in hopes of getting a look from somebody.

Extra thanks for the checklist and FB page recommendation. I will also reach out to Mr. Pagel.

I really appreciate all of your responses. It is super reassuring to learn how much help is out there.

Hope to see you on track!

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

skibumkdm3 wrote:

Thanks everyone for the input- all extremely helpful!

In terms of my location, I live 30 minutes west of Denver and would be willing to drag the car wherever for some experienced eyes. The car won't be complete for the BFE race in June, but I considered taking it to High Plains that weekend in hopes of getting a look from somebody.

Extra thanks for the checklist and FB page recommendation. I will also reach out to Mr. Pagel.

I really appreciate all of your responses. It is super reassuring to learn how much help is out there.

Hope to see you on track!


Everyone wants you to be successful. I would suggest before showing up with your car,  you reach out to Pagel and Rood on the contact us page above and see who is tech inspection and if they would be willing to take a look.  Fridays and Saturday mornings are super busy.

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

skibumkdm3 wrote:

Thanks everyone for the input- all extremely helpful!

In terms of my location, I live 30 minutes west of Denver and would be willing to drag the car wherever for some experienced eyes. The car won't be complete for the BFE race in June, but I considered taking it to High Plains that weekend in hopes of getting a look from somebody.

Extra thanks for the checklist and FB page recommendation. I will also reach out to Mr. Pagel.

I really appreciate all of your responses. It is super reassuring to learn how much help is out there.

Hope to see you on track!

Just run it through tech when there is an openning...many teams have done this in the past.

10

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

If you can get some of the major work done before the June race you can probably have tech take a look after the competing cars are all tech'd.  I did this exact thing with our first build.   Very glad I had them take a look as the cage needed modifying.

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

Read the rule books a couple times over and look at the "how not to fail tech" sheet. Generally speaking, almost any issues can be fixed at the track but cage is not for the faint of heart, so I recommend emailing Pagel pictures of your cage since that's the biggest potential issue. We carry a length of DOM tubing/welder/grinder, extra safety related hardware, and fire suppression parts in the trailer... hopefully we never need it, but if there's something small we miss and get failed, at least we have a fighting chance to correct it before the race, since a lot of this safety stuff is too niche to find at a local hardware store.

Running a 24 hour for your first race is like losing your virginity to a hooker. Props!

Full Ass Racing
#455 Piñata Miata - 1990 Miata
#735 BMDollhÜr 7Turdy5i - 1990 735i

Re: Inspection before race weekend?

Thanks again for all of the great advice. I'll communicate with the necessary folks and try to drag the car in for an early look at BFE.

And yeah, 24 hours for the first race is probably going to end poorly, ha. Would love to make BFE but our cage probably won't be ready by then. Hopefully we can survive longer than 30 minutes without exploding.

Again, much appreciated. Really excited to learn from y'all.