Topic: 2 year dream in the making...thanks for everything!
Looks like everyone had a great time in Chicago last weekend, good to see our hometown was a decent host!
We were that OTHER SHO team...Victorious Secret. I'd like to apologize for the yellow flags we caused on Saturday morning, sorry! We had a fuel pump issue and kept blowing fuses. We sourced a replacement Saturday night and made great progress on Sunday, but eventually had to stop after the master brake cylinder melted with an hour and a half left to go. Easy fix, but our mechanic was sick of being cooked by brake fluid so we just threw in the towel.
I've been wanting to race Lemons now for just about 2 years, ever since I first read Ms. Martin's posts on the series. I could never find a suitable car in the good ol' Rust Belt...though I did come close to an '86 Supra for $400 and a Chrysler Conquest with seperated engine for $300. The Conquest was deemed to be just too shady of a deal to be taken seriously. Once we heard that Lemons was making a stop in Joilet, we HAD to do the race...and found out a friend-of-a-friend was selling a SHO for $250 that RAN WHEN PARKED! The car did run and all that was claimed to need to be done was fix a hole in the radiator, but for $250 that was never going to be the case as evidenced by how much time we spent in the pit.
Had we stayed reliable and had our act together for BS inspection, we woulda/coulda been a top 20 contender. We had 4 great drivers and 1 really terrible one (me!). I intentionally tried to stay out of the way for people who had a chance at competing, so apologies all around for those I held up on the track. I think we did a good job of keeping our noses clean, and the only penalties we received were related to the rain (spin) and our failing brakes. We got off light for our last black flag with the chronic penalty!
We'll definitely be back next year for at least the next Chicago race and WILL be competitive (we're not Minardi!). We did too much last-minute work on our car and never had a chance to work out the bugs, but we'll show up ready to rock with a top-grade brake system and better wheels/tires. Our theme was half-assed as we spent more effort on the car itself, but we'll either improve the current one or re-theme the car entirely. Not sure just yet.
I'm surprised nobody took advantage of the Joilet location and took Blues Brothers-inspired photos in front of the prison! We were going to take photos in front of the mall, since a collapsing mall would be more appropriate for a crappy lingerie-themed car, but we ran out of time.
