Annie Sam posted on December 02, 2009 00:00
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| Eyesore Racing's Batman theme definitely set the bar for this event. Each costume was hand made by the team members themselves. |
LeMons began running in mid 2007 and now two years since their first event, this race series evolved into a smorgasbord of not only cleverly engineered hoopties, it allowed the inner nerd in us all to showcase our artistic talents. Never in a million years did I imagine that sewing would become such an integral part of our racecar build. I can appreciate a little bit of car art every once in a while. From Batmobiles to Mystery Machines, LeMons racers keep upping the ante with new ideas, and new themes to keep us entertained. See: Dave Coleman's Best Engineered Cars of LeMons.
People used to think that LeMons was some sort of demolition derby, when quite frankly, it is anything but that. In the early days of LeMons, chicanes were placed in the straight-aways to reduce the speed of the cars. In the last year, the training wheels have come off and full courses at speed have been used, making for some serious and exciting wheel-to-wheel racing.
Unlike sprint races where you drive as fast as you can for 20 minutes, LeMons is a 15 hour endurance race that requires discipline and strategy. Not only are you battling for position, you have to consider saving the tires, saving fuel, and the brakes. You have to make it last for hours, and you have to stay mentally focused for hours. On a field of 150+ cars on a 3 mile course, you don't have a second to let down your guard or lose focus.
As for the car, it may seem as though we're all a bunch of lackeys that hack together cars for this event, but to be successful in lemons – or any type of racing for that matter, a fair amount of car prep is involved beforehand. Don't be fooled by the lackadaisical attitude these teams seem to have. Car prep is taken very seriously. A well prepared car is a reliable car, a reliable car finishes the race, but most importantly, a reliable car is a safe car.