Several weeks ago I was asked to run a car in this years 24 Hours of LeMons being held at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows California but since it was so close to the holidays I decided to take a rain check. As luck would have it my wife, our grandson and I just so happen to be driving by Thunderhill at lunch time on my way to Oregon to spend the holiday with my mother. I told my wife that since it was about time to stop and get a bite to eat it might be fun to stop and check out the race.
Since we had a long 8 more hours of driving ahead of us and not wanting spend too much time at the track my wife went to get some chow at the track cafe while I walked around and got some action photos. But instead of seeing cars doing battle on the track what I found was everyone in the paddock working on their cars. Now I had already been warned that the 24 Hours of LeMons was considerably much more laid back than the demanding rigors that I was used to and had even been told at some point they even take a lunch break.
Seeing that everyone was extremely busy working on their cars and knowing how much crews hate to be interviewd while in the midst of a race I made sure to stay out of every-one’s way as I cruised the paddock. What I saw was teams frantically welding parts back on their machines, hammers beating out dents, changing flat tires and damaged rims, not to mention cleaning up all sorts of oil and coolant spills that had the pavement looking like a rainbow everywhere I walked.
Just about the time my wife and grandson returned with lunch I saw a 65 Mustang that caught my eye. Yes, it was extremely rough but hey, I had to go see for myself. After talking with the owner for a few moments I asked how much longer the lunch break was going to be and he replied, “What lunch break? The race hasn’t even started yet!” It turns out everyone was still trying to get their cars running well enough to make it to the starting line. The race didn’t even begin until sometime in the afternoon and then last for about 8 hours before everyone stopped and then head to the local watering hole to party before returning the next day to start all over again. When the driver realized that I thought the race was on some sort of lunch break to fix everything that I saw laying all over the paddock area we couldn’t stop laughing.
Keep in mind one the most enforced rules is that no car can be valued at more than $500. Funny thing is I saw a couple wrecked cars there that belonged to friends that I have raced with for years and a couple of these cars may have been badly wrecked body wise but they are more than capable of getting around the track post haste and from what I see they all did pretty well. But the truth is, it’s hard to tell who won what.
Some of my favorites where the 65 Mustang, Fantasy Junction, Zebra Jag, Hula car, and I loved the “low budget” rear wings made of everything under the sun including stolen highway signs. Be sure and count how many rear bumpers the 65 Mustang had.
8 comments ↓
Absolutely great post!!!
Did they provide free Malox for the tech and safety inspectors?
If they didn’t they sould have. The majority of these cars were wickedly dangerous.
I guess the only thing worse than being outside those cars would be being inside them … they’re all reading very high on the ugly/scary meter.
Looks more like cars getting ready for the county fair demolition derby than any kind of real race.
Cars like those in the photos are entered in enduros on the circle tracks here in Michigan. Up to 100 cars are started on a short track. It is difficult to get them all moving during the pace lap because the pole car catches the backmarker before the traffic jam gains any speed. The traveling organization that stages these events has its own flagman due to the special rules. In the old days, a stalled car was left on the track after the driver was removed under a red flag. Now, they are towing more disabled cars in the interest of safety. I remember a stalled car on the front stretch at Kalamazoo Speedway. That car had been “parked” there for 20 minutes with the driver removed. Suddenly, one driver forgot whether he was on the front stretch or back stretch and he punted that stalled car into the next county. Fortunately, one of the rules requires moving the gas tank to a position over the rear axle. At Kalamazoo, they quashed the speed of the cars by dripping water before the first turn with a soaker hose. I enjoyed watching street-stock enduros. It is comedy relief from the more dangerous racing. Too bad, the competitors pay their own prize money through high entry fees, and most of the cars never “race” again. The winner is not paid until after the win is verified by the VHS video. If not for the score board, the fans would not know who was leading.
Hello Larry!
I would think this type of venue would possibly work well on a circle track because the majority of cars would not be able to get up any speed or at least enough to do any serious damage that could hurt someone. But there are still too many “things” on the cars that are a hazard regardless. But even a bad running car on a long enough straight like the one at Thunderhill can get going fast enough to get themselves in trouble. Come to think of it all of Thunderhill is fast. Just wasn’t a safe overall operation.
I didn’t realize until yesterday but many of those cars didn’t even have window nets. Looking at the last photo above the car had even had window nets on the rear doors but they were fastened to the door where they do no good if the door comes open. I have seen what happens to friends when they don’t use window nets thinking they could keep their arms inside if something happened. But they were wrong and paid dearly for it.
I am not afraid to say I strongly feel that because of poor taste with regards to safety, the owners of 24 Hours of LeMons are going to see someone seriously injured or worse because of their improprieties. As a matter of fact even at this recent race at least one or two drivers were taken to the hospitial.
These cars all have to go through a full tech inspection, and I mean full. I am a veteran of two of these Lemons races and both times our cars did not pass tech on the first try.
Full cages, 5-point harnesses, and window nets are required.
The race track is set up so the cars hit about 65mph max.
The organization of the races I have been a part of has been second to none. I didn’t make it to the Thunderhill race, but penalties for aggressive/stupid driving were harsher than before.
The work put into some of these “crap piles” to make them safe is evident if you look closely.
Hello DTL,
With all due respect, having raced and built cars for many years I guarantee you that less than 10 percent (if that) would even be allowed into a tech inspection line with any other racing organization let alone pass a tech inspection. But while keeping this in mind it’s important one of the most important issues I have with regards to everyone’s safety is the simple fact there are drivers out there that have never been on a track in their life.
I love the thought of everyone going out in $500 cars and getting lots of seat time and having fun while doing it but in this case it’s being done with lives at high risk.
As for cars only doing 65 miles per hour, that doesn’t cut any slack with me either. I have a friend who hit a tree with a 67 Chevelle back in 1979 and to this day he is a quadriplegic. He hit that tree doing exactly 35 miles per hour. Speaking of full cages, I would also ask you to take another look at the car that rolled in the front straight and tell me why that cage collapsed around the driver’s head even while doing less than 65 miles per hour IF it was built to specs.
Playing is a good thing. Playing with people’s lives is stupid.
Leave a Comment