Day 2: 24 Hours of Lemons

Team Festivus finished the 24 Hours of Lemons! We finished 17th out of 71 entries, and 7th out of 20 in our class (The "Prayer of Winning" class, which appeared to be somewhat arbitrarily assigned). We completed 396 laps. The winning car completed 461 laps.

The running order for Sunday was:
Wade
Erik
Bryce
Jessica
Wyatt

Doug didn't drive on Sunday. I got two stints on Saturday, so we all drove the same amount.

Wade went out and showed us why he's a driving instructor at Thunderhill. He was turning some very fast laps, passing lots of cars. Unfortunately, the thermostat failed and the car overheated not long into his stint. He brought the car in, and Wyatt and Bryce fixed it in a hurry. Wade went back out and promptly punted a Porsche off the course... earning him a black flag to "cool off". In fact, Wade got punted into the Porsche by another car. Anyway, there was no real harm done.

Erik went out next, planning a short stint to try to avoid the nausea he'd experienced on Saturday. He ended up driving nearly a full hour, and was really picking up speed.

Bryce went out and turned some fast laps, but noted that the tires were wearing- especially the right front. This wasn't a real surprise since we'd been abusing these tires all weekend. At the end of his stint, we rotated them.


Jessica got in next. She was nervous because the pace had really picked up and she didn't want to be a moving chicane or hit anyone. She thought she'd be slow. In fact, she did just great! With a little more practice she'll be fast and much more confident. She showed off her fine driving skills after dropping a wheel into the dirt on turn 3... the car went off course at high speed. Jessica kept it from rolling and got back on course. She was greeted with a black flag for going off course, but only needed to endure a stern talking-to from the officials.

Wyatt drove the last stint and also earned the team's fastest lap time of the weekend.

The "People's Curse" award was given the a Mazda 626 that was leading the race from very early on. This car had obvious "real race car" underpinnings and no car could match it's speed. Unfortunately, the population of Curse voters noticed that the car was a little too fast and most likely worth far more than $500, so it was destroyed by an excavator in artistic style.

Here's some video of the destruction in progress:



Team Festivus was happy to finish in 17th out of 71. We acted as a good team all weekend, despite the fact that many of us didn't know each other. We stuck to our common goal of just finishing and having fun.


Offical Lemons Results (We are car #20):
http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=713849

An interesting site with lots of Lemons news...
http://jalopnik.com/tag/24-hours-of-lemons/

Day 1: 24 Hours of Lemons

Team Festivus made it through the first entire day of the 24 Hours of Lemons. Day one consisted of 8 hours of spirited driving. The weather started off cold and damp, which is exactly what we wanted, given that we have the only all-wheel drive car entered in the event.

Still, we started off conservatively. The goal for day one was to make sure that everyone got seat time.

The driving order ended up being (I think):
Doug
Wade
Jessica
Erik
Bryce
Wyatt
Doug (again)

After one hour, we were in 34th place, out of 71 entries. After three hours, we were in 17th place. We were NOT moving exceptionally fast and spent much of the first several hours letting cars pass us... so that the guys going fast early on could take each other out later. This strategy proved to be pretty effective.

At the end of the night, we held 20th place, but were nearly tied with 10 other cars. 1st thru 4th positions have a sizeable lap lead over the rest of the field. So, there's a tight battle going on.

The car leading the pack right now is a Mazda 626 that was originally prepared by Mazda for track racing. It's old a beat up now, but still has a screaming motor and good suspension. Close behind that is a MK I MR2.

Our car has been solid. No issues whatsover. Subaru's really are rock solid reliable. Although we are significantly down on power compared to most other cars, we can pass in places where other can't. The track has gotten muddy in places and we have really been able to take advantage of that. I had some great battles today with a 1970's Camaro. He'd scream by me on the front stretch, and then I'd dog him through the tighter stuff, eventually passing him. We repeated this dance 5-6 laps in a row.

The team is driving very well, and even the real newbies did a terrific job. Nobody hit anyone, got hit, went off the track, or got black flagged. There are a few light wheel/tire marks on the car, but nothing significant.

Not too much carnage today. One Datsun B210 rolled several times, and another Datsun rear-ended a stopped Neon. No injuries.

Looking forward to Day 2! I really think that if we maintain the same strategy that we'll move up in the standings. There are several cars that just seem to be pushing too hard to finish.