Coaching / lessons learned on forming a Lemons team... (Page 2 of 2)

Start with a basic good cheap car or one thank you know really well! if you cannot take a teammate to dinner or drinking loose that jerk! Its work but is is more fun if you all can commit to certain days nights together. Glenn

To get racing you have to get past Tech - read the rules, follow the rules during your build and you won't have any last minute mad dashing about trying to find harness mounting washers, roll cage padding, instructions on how to wire your kill-switch...or god forbid...roll cage tubing and a competent welder!

Some of the judges are kind enough to give some of their time for 'pre-inspection inspections'. These are informal gatherings usually a week or two before a race and are very useful. Not everywhere does this and it's not every race that there will be one, but if there is, go and talk to people. You'll get a lot of excellent information on how to do things as well as a heads-up on potential Tech fails for your particular car.

Edit - if you're thinking about doing something that sorta looks like it's in the rules or could be a wee bit sketchy...ask! Either ask on here for guidance or, for a definitive answer, email the organisers and they'll give you a ruling on whatever hare-brained scheme you're cooking up

Double edit - to reduce (you can't avoid) BS trauma, gather paperwork, take pictures, get witness statements, anything to support what you have done/spent and arrange it into a nice neat binder for easy viewing. Also, at the very front of the binder, have a single sheet of paper with the simple numbers on it (BS judges like simple) showing what you spent v. what you earned from selling bits of your car v. your car's initial value....hopefully arriving at a number somewhere south of $500 all in.

If you plan to put together and lead a team, be willing to go it alone if need be. You'll need that level of commitment to get it done in light of the usual obstacles, and the team needs to know that you'd push it through on your own and even drive alone if needed. Their commitment will be in proportion to your commitment.

And most of all, keep it fun.

OK  I've done 11 of these and still can't follow my rules I always say I'm not doing this next time !!!

1) own the car no partners.

2) Get MONEY FIRST  SEND EMAILS OUT CAMP OUT AT THERE HOUSES .

3) Make sure you tell them its an endurance race not a sprint .I've had guys blow motors being stupid and we were in like 40th place
 
4) I like the Captain and Crew Chief thing going to try that .

5) Find that driver who isn't good for anything except driving and make him in charge of Theme.
           The theme is always the last thing  to do after major prep of car and usually gets short changed .

6) when looking for drivers make sure they arn't a bunch of stickks in the mud . Man enough to wear a wedding dress or a stupid out fit and enjoy it .

7) Do a track day before race if you can to work out the bugs .Or if Car is registered drive it for a week before race.

8) Make sure you ask drivers if they can drive a stick so your not teaching friday night  Yeah It Happened

9)make lists  Notebooks ,notepads, Sharpee on hood or roof of car is good . Glass crayon on windshield

10) Get interlocking lid boxes that you can ziptie shut .with all parts you need to bring spare Brake pads ,rotors ,plugs wires ,battery whatever you replaced bring it

11) Go to websites/forums for the car your racing and see what breaks and fix that as you prep on car

12) THIS IS THE ONE I'M TRYING THIS TIME FIX THE CAR AS SOON AS YOU CAN BEFORE NEXT RACE !!!!!

Last race I built the LIMO cage and everything Was doing brakes on it Thursday night Finished kill switch friday night Teched on Sat morning.
Finished Head Gasket on HummerHonda on wednesday . Did CRX brakes wednesday too then found bad caliper and was searching wrecking yards thursday morning.  Don't load cars on 4 car trailer when its raining and you have no headlights and slide off ramps and car is stuck 2ft off ground . That is when I went in @10 pm and went to bed .

Email me or call me anytime for anything you might need to know .

Super info folks - thanks!

Here's our plan to success:

1. Be realistic.  If you're just getting into racing, or a seasoned vet, you will be very surprised by the level of skill and the build quality of some of these rides.  The teams at the top are good, and you won't beat them at first (or ever, in our case).  Have fun.

2. If you're a captain, make sure you're able to deal with what you're about to experience.  Lots of personalities, lots of financial situations, and lots of (sometimes unpopular) decisions that you'll have to make.

3. Make sure everyone knows up front that what they're doing is throwing money away.  They won't get it back, so don't ask.  Collect money up front.

4. Delegate, delegate, delegate.  Crazy dude on your team?  Make him in charge of theme.  Computer-savvy guy? In charge of facebook updates.  Grease monkey?  Give me his number, I could use another mechanic. ;-)

In the end, just don't take yourself that seriously.  We've done 4 races, and won three Organizer's Choice awards.  When we learned to really laugh at ourselves, that's when we realized what we could actually bring to the Lemons table.

Good luck!

Makings of a sticky thread/post here?

Oreos can fix many situations.  It's amazing what those little round bits of goodness can do.  Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them.  Whether it be money, talent, tools, extra fluids, etc.   Sometimes your best mechanic teammate may be low on cash, but can make it up in labor.  As long as the team knows this, no biggie.  Just know ahead of time.

There can not be too many Oreos, or too much beer.

Here is how I did it and we have been successful: 

1) Start with people that you enjoy spending time with.  This was more important to me that finding people with specific skills (although I got lucky and ended up with both);
2) Make sure everyone is "local" so everyone can pitch in;
3) Have a meeting at the beginning with a discussion of A) a realistic time committment, and B) a realistic budget, so everyone know what they expectations are.  Give your chosen teammates a chance to opt out right then if they can't commit to the time or money;
4) Have lots of build days, recognizing that not everyone is going to be able to attend every one, but having it work out in the end where everyone pitches in;
5) Keep everyone informed of what is going on.  If you aren't actively building, still get together on a regular basis for "team meetings" (i.e., drinking beer after work);
6) Collect money for the "bank" on a regular schedule BEFORE you spend the money  (for instance, tell them you need X dollars now and will be collecting Y dollars per month on a regular basis) to avoid one or more team members spending a lot of money then having to collect to make up for it;
6) Assign people duties based on their skills.  Some are going to be in charge of re-building the engine and some are going to be in charge of manning the BBQ, but everyone pitches in;
7) Drink lots of alcohol;

(these are the steps for formulating the team and preparing for the race:  there are other things to consider later on for the actual race)

BuFord