Anyone want to go lemons racing?

MadMikeyL

SCCoA Member
OK, so I've done the 24 hours of lemons race a few years now with an 89XR7 with an explorer 5.0 in it. The weekend is a lot of fun since it is mostly a joke, and you get to beat the hell out of a car for 2 days straight. Anyway, we need 4 drivers per event, and as of now we only have 3. In the past I have just put someone else in and fronted their cost, but I can't afford to do that anymore. The race is the weekend of May 9th to 11th, and it is at NJ Motorsports park in Millville, NJ. With 4 drivers, the cost per driver for the whole weekend including entry fees, gas, tires, food, etc. comes to about $1000 each. If anyone is interested in being the 4th person on my team, let me know, and hopefully we can work something out.
 
That sounds like a ton of fun. Do you need a special "racing" license? I have always wanted to do that race myself.
 
No, no special racing license. You pay them $50 for your lemons racing license for the year, and that, along with a valid driver's license is all that is needed.
 
I want to do this so bad. But I cant afford 1000. What is the break down of costs? i can starve for a couple days and maybe crash at a friends. where do you sleep?
 
Entrance fees are $1500. Tires for the weekend are $700. Fuel for the weekend runs about $300. Brakes wind up at another $4-500. Food runs about $300 and the one guy's wife cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner for everyone. Add in fuel for my buddy's truck to tow the car there, fresh fluids for the racecar, lodging, and any incidentals or anything breaking on the racecar, that's about where it lands. If you have an RV and we can save on hotel costs, that would help defray some costs. I'm not trying to make money on this or anything, but in the past, myself and one other team member shouldered most of the costs because we wanted to race, but now I have a kid and can't afford to just drop $2-3000 on a weekend. If you want in, let me know what you think you can swing, and we'll see if we can make it work.
 
Is there practice time?

Whasts the policy for who wrecks the car during the race?Is the seat adjustable?

Areb the drivers the pit crew?

I'm interested.
 
Sometimes they offer practice time on Friday, but that costs extra. We usually don't do the practice because it is an added expense, and more opportunity for the car to break. Plus this is an endurance race, and one that we aren't winning anyway, so just take your time when you first get out there to get used to the track.

Yes the seat is adjustable. The race rules state that any contact with another car warrants a black flag, which means either penalty time off the track, or more likely just making the team do something embarassing, especially for a first offense. If someone wrecks the car to the point where we can't repair it and get it back out on the track, then we are done racing and anyone who hasn't had a chance to drive is SOL. If you roll the car, then per lemons rules, the driver who rolled it is banned from driving in any lemons race for the rest of the year, and our team is out of that race, even if we were able to get the car operable again. I will tell you that of all the races we have done, there was only one serious wreck where a guy put the car into the wall at about 35-40mph, but luckily there was only about 15 minutes of racing left to go when that happened, so we just packed it up. Also that driver is no longer on our team, and myself and the other 2 drivers are experienced and responsible, so it isn't likely that the car will get totalled before we all get some track time. Again, this is an endurance race that takes place over 2 days. You won't win or lose the race in a single corner, so drive safe and we will all get to have a good time.

Yes the drivers are the pit crew. There are no rules against others helping as well, but they don't provide us with a pit crew. Myself and one of the other drivers built the car and have done repairs both during and between all the different races. Obviously in the case of needing a repair, the sooner we can get it fixed and get back on the track, the better, so if you want to help with pit crew duties, it will be appreciated, but it is not a requirement.
 
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