Seven Motor Sports

So I finally got our video complete. We spent so much time trying to fix the Colt E or keep her running that I didn't get as much video as I'd have liked. We did get in car footage, but it was from when the car was running poorly, so I chose not to include that in the video. Here you go....


Lab Rats at Lemons South Spring 2009 from Michael Chisek on Vimeo.

So what did we learn from our 1st running of the 24 Hours of Lemons?
1. You can't be competitive if you're not on the track.
2. Pre race testing is mandatory.
3. Pulling a car out of the woods to be a race car is not a good idea.
4. Fuel filters prevent dirt from getting in your engine. Dirty fuel filters prevent fuel from getting to your engine.
5. 68 HP is fine for a tractor, not for a race car.
6. The Dodge Colt E is the perfect chassis for a race car.
7. Lemons racing is highly addictive.

Despite all the car trouble, we still had a blast. It wasn't the next day and we were all talking about the fall race! We definitely plan on entering the race this fall and we're entering the Colt E again. The only changes we plan on making to the car are:
1. New fuel tank or fuel cell (the current one has a never ending supply of junk in it).
2. Better brakes (the cheap ones we used were smoked in 2 hours).
3. See if we can locate a better carburetor.

How can we be keeping the 68 HP anti-engine you ask?! Our research and limited experience tells us that the 1.5L block is indestructible. Why change it? The car handles great and if we focus on keeping it running, I think we can be more competitive this time. Besides I'd love to beat a bunch of E30's with a 68 HP Colt!

So there you have it. I'll get back to this blog in the summer once we get the invite back to the fall race. Then you can follow us back to Kershaw in September! See ya!

Well day two went much better for us. We kept the car on the track most of the day and clicked off some fast lap times. While I didn't get to see the final time sheet, I believe we managed to complete around 150 laps with a best lap time of 1:09.3. Good enough for 79th or 80th place. Obviously we had hoped for much better but you can't compete if you're not on the track. We each got at least a solid 30 minutes of full speed racing though, which made all of the work worthwhile. I'll post a few more pictures and a video in a few days as well as what we learned from this experience. Bottom line though, it was fun and we're coming back in the fall! WITH A MUCH FASTER CAR!!!

So today is in the books. It wasn't the best of racing days for us, but we're actually still alive. I guess you can say we're kind of like Rudy. We managed to complete 26 laps and remain in 88th. Our engine troubles continue to plague us but when she runs right, she's fast! And she handles like she's on rails. We also managed to get a picture of our car on Jalopnik too. We're working on the car tonight and hope to get some more laps in tomorrow.

So it's 5pm and I think we have completed 5 laps. That's right, FIVE. Our fuel tank keeps shedding junk and plugging the fuel filter. At this point we've got the tank out and are hoping to wash it out at a local car wash. With two hours of racing left for today our hope is to get it back together and test it. If it stays clean enough we might get to move up from 88th to like 80th or something. If you're considering coming out to watch us tomorrow, I would recommend staying home.

It seems that we are the first team to ever get a penalty BEFORE the race starts. Chris passed under caution and got the team a one hour penalty. We were close to getting tossed, so I'm happy to sit the hour instead.

We just passed tech and BS inspections. It seems out paperwork was impeccable and they believed that the Colt E was actually a piece of crap. Still the t-shirt "gifts" earned us the Bribed tattoo. Did I mention that this was fun?

Alright folks, the time has come. We are here, we have set up camp, and we are ready to go. I am online and will be all weekend to post updates of our status for all of you. Tonight I leave you with a simple map of our pit location. Spectator parking is marked by the blue X's and our pit is marked by the red dot. We're right in front of the main scoring tower and what I think to be Lemons HQ. See you at the race!