24 Hours Of Lemons At Infineon Update

[2006SilverSS]

Hey Guys,

 

So the race I posted about HERE took place this past weekend. Overall it was a blast! . When we got there on Friday to get our Paddock space and prep the car for tech inspection there were some really sweet Ferrari's racing around the track. Those car's looked and sounded amazing.

 

The weather kinda sucked on Friday and was really wet as we were getting ready for everything. But this is a race that goes on rain or shine, the rules even state that you can strap a kid on the hood with a squeegee if you don't have windshield wipers. My vote was for finding a kid, but we ended up using the wipers . We passed tech pretty easy but then there was the BS factor; with as "pretty" as our car was, and the fact that it came with a CAI, headers, and cheap coil overs, we knew we'd get slammed for this. We pulled up to the BS judge and by the look on his face, I knew we were in for some penalty laps. There was an issue with our bribe (yeah, you bribe the judges) and we got -15 laps for that, then they asked us to pop the hood... As soon as they saw the header, strut brace, CAI, and cheap coil overs they tacked on another -100 laps. Boom, we're now -115 laps before the race starts. One of the guys on the team is really upset about this and tries to hand me some bottles of beer (bribe), what happens next seemed to be in slow motion at the time, I get a hold on two of the bottles and the other guy lets go of the third bottle before I have a chance to get a grip on it; down, down, down it falls. **SMASH** The bottle of beer breaks into a million pieces, the judge asks to see the paper and tacks on another 10 laps. So before the race starts we are in the hole 125 laps. Three of us on the team laugh it off and say "whatever, we are here to have fun and drive!" while the fourth member cries about it and goes to change his tampon (He should have been racing with the "My-Doll" girls). So Friday is now over and we passed tech and just need to survive the night so we can race in the morning!

 

**Continued in next post**

Edited April 1, 2011 by 2006SilverSS (see edit history)

[2006SilverSS]

Saturday morning comes around and the weather still sucks, there are rivers of water rushing across the track forming lakes on the turns, and mud that would suck your tires right off. Okay, maybe the mud thing is a bit of a stretch, but it was freaking wet! We attend a drivers meeting for a little pep talk and to be reminded that this is a really dangerous track, especially when it's wet. Once we had been warned, it was then time to warm up the car and get our asses on the track. As a team we decide that we should send out our most experienced driver to see how he does. For being wetter than a fish in water, he turned pretty good times. Another thing we had to take into account was all the yellow flags that were popping up as people crashed, cars broke down, and people just being stupid. There were times when we had full lap yellow flags for several laps in a row. After about an hour our first driver came off the track and it was now my time to head out. I drove onto pit row, starting to accelerate, adrenaline coursing through my veins, my heart pounding, focusing on the merge into racing competitors; my foot sank to the floor like an anchor to the bottom of the ocean as I saw the green flag at the end of pit lane. I threw the car around the track for the first 6 laps, and with a short break in the weather it looked like the track was starting to dry out a little. I pushed the car a little harder around turn 8, and found out quickly that looks are deceiving. I hit the apex of the turn and placed the tire on a slick patch of pavement, I felt the back end of the car starting to float away like a balloon in the wind. Next thing I know I’ve done a 180 degree turn, now facing oncoming cars. I look to my right and see the white wall glaring at me, saying “I’m going to eat you alive”, I slam on the brakes and react; I don’t know how but I’ve done another 180 degree turn and am back on track. I throw the shifter into first and start on my way completing another few laps before getting black flagged for the totally awesome spin that almost had me ruin my brand new suit (use your imagination as to how that would happen).

 

Our next two drivers go, the weather lifts, giving us a nice dry track going into the afternoon. We finished out the day in a fairly strong way. We have completed 100 laps and now sit at -25. Now for the reason I say “fairly strong”, our times were good and pretty damn comparable to other teams out there, but at the end of the day with about 30 minutes left of race time for the day our car decided to throw us a curve ball and act like it’s starving for fuel. We satisfy it’s need for fuel and send the driver back out. Not even two minutes later he returns to the pit saying that the checkered flag dropped and we are done for the day. He also says the car is non-responsive and won’t rev past 2500 rpm. We try to solve problem and find that we are down on electrical power. With pushing the 300,000+ mile car to it limits almost all day we figure the alternator is fried and pull that out. We have a spare but decide to run to the auto store and have them tested. While myself and another team member run to the auto store the remaining team members continue to test other electrical connections to see if it’s anything else. We arrive at the auto store and get the alt that came out of the car tested first, it passes, test the spare (which we got for free) and it’s DEAD. Thank God we didn’t throw this in the car and try to run with it. We picked up a spare alt while we were there to be safe, if we didn’t need it, we’d just return it. We get back to the track and throw the old alt back in the car (working one) and try to fire it up. The car runs but we are still not getting the voltage that we need. The team next to us offers their advice and after hours of working on this thing, we find that the electrical cut of switch is bad and robbing us of five to six volts. Once the switch is re-wired, as a temp fix, the car is back to producing enough power to run the next day. It’s now midnight and it’s time to head to the hotel and try to get a few hours of sleep before the next round of racing.

 

Sunday morning begins with a drivers meeting and great weather to go with it. Our first two drivers run without incident and say that the car feels great and stronger than the day before. Our third driver sets on his way and it’s now about 1pm in the afternoon. He gets into an epic battle with another CRX themed as the Enterprise from Star Trek. The battle waged on for an hour, push came to shove, and finally we won the battle. But to everyone’s surprise this battle has come at a cost. The car begins to sputter and then gives out. She’s given us all she had and is now dead, the other team must have set their phasers to kill, and shot us in the back as we took them down. My heart sank as I saw the car sitting on the track waiting to get pushed back to the paddock. We finally got pushed off the track by the tow truck; man were they getting a work out that day, same with the safety trucks. Back in the paddock we tested the compression and cylinder number one is toast, zero compression. It looks like the head gasket has given way, but what still has us scratching our heads is the oil leaking out from the engine and pooling on the ground. We packed up and headed home with our heads held high. We may not have completed the race, but we lasted for a large amount of if, about 13.5 hours of the 16 total. We got 500 HARD miles out of a $500 car that had been rode hard and put away wet. I didn’t get to drive on Sunday but my time will come again, it’s a risk you take in a race this like. We WILL rebuild, we WILL return, and we WILL give it all we’ve got.

 

Now that you’ve read a bit of a novel, here are a few pics that I was able to take.

 

Link to pictures

 

There will be more in time as we all pool what was taken over the weekend. The course layout is also in the gallery I setup so you can see the turns, but the map sure doesn't do justice to the track with all the elevation changes.

Edited April 1, 2011 by 2006SilverSS (see edit history)

[misterp]

...I don’t know how but I’ve done another 180 degree turn and am back on track. I throw the shifter into first and start on my way completing another few laps before getting black flagged for the totally awesome spin that almost had me ruin my suit....

Dude I would have so paid $$$ to see that!! LOLOL You gotta see if anyone else caught it on video and post a link!

F'n badass!!! Mr. Manly gives you two thumbs WAAAYYY UP!

 

I SO want to do a lemons race. I miss enduro racing, we used to campaign cars at San Jose eons ago. I gotta see the next time I'm on the west coast and come pit with you.

 

Mr. P.

[diggerdan11]

Sounds like a blast!, I would love to so something like that

[misterp]

...OK I just saw the your pic of the My-Doll racing team entry

[2006SilverSS]

Dude I would have so paid $$$ to see that!! LOLOL You gotta see if anyone else caught it on video and post a link!

F'n badass!!! Mr. Manly gives you two thumbs WAAAYYY UP!

 

I SO want to do a lemons race. I miss enduro racing, we used to campaign cars at San Jose eons ago. I gotta see the next time I'm on the west coast and come pit with you.

 

Mr. P.

I should have the files from the in-car video that we had at some point, and I'll go through that and see if it's on there (we had GPS the first day too). I know we had it setup to take a still every 5 seconds, so it may have caught it, or may not have.

 

If you're here and it's during a race that we do, I'm sure the team would be more than happy to have you pit with us. Overall it was a blast and we want to do it again. We might even do Infineon again in October this year .

[2006SilverSS]

Sounds like a blast!, I would love to so something like that

It was TONS of fun. If you can get a group of people you like to hang out with, it's something I do think is worth doing. Your first race will be a good amount of work getting the car ready, but it's worth it. Let me know if you have any questions about anything and I'd be happy to answer them.