Logistics and Last Minutes

Originally from July 28, 2010

We'll be heading up to Thunderhill next Thursday afternoon so we can get a good spot near the pits where we can get electrical hookups. We'll be using Bernhard's white 24' long air conditioned trailer. My black Honda Prelude will be parked nearby. We'll have drinks and snacks and a chair for all, even a tent for relief from the August sun.

The event starts on Friday with the tech inspection, aka, BS inspection, where the "judges" listen to our BS reasons why the cars are indeed $500 cars, that they won't blow up on the first lap, that we can drive them, and that we can pass the fire drill test if one is administered.

Racing starts mid-morning Saturday, usually around 10 AM, emphasis on usually. After all 150+ cars are out on track, all of the transponders are verified and working, and some random synapse in Jay's head fires, the green flag drops. After clearing the track of cars that were unable to complete the first 2-3 laps of the race, the green flag drops again and "normal" racing resumes.

At the end of the day Saturday a bunch of teams will be packing up their heaps to leave while others will be sending team members all over Glen County and farther looking for parts, or will have engine guts spread all over the paddock, and will get it all back together in time to resume racing on Sunday morning.

Sunday racing starts at around 9 AM and continues until 4, or 5, or 6 PM. depending on how long the day is and when the track wants us out of there. The field is thinner on Sunday and once in a while you can even get a clear lap or two.

These are cheap cars, but LeMons is very different from its early Altamont days. The racing is good and clean. Good sportsmanship is valued and the spirit of competition never, or, well, rarely, descends into the nastiness you might see in the big leagues where sponsor dollars and careers are on the line. This is for fun. Genuine fun. And a creative release for frustrated gazetteers. It's the burning man of motor sports.

Alan, Zep, Brian, Bernhard, Geoff, and I hope to see you there.

Other items in our final to-do list:

• Got the decals list and image files done today. Our friend in Florida will make them for us.
• The shroud for the electric fan is in, and the original fan is out.
• The electrical connector panel is done and goes in tomorrow.
• The fire extinguisher mount and the cool-suit/seat cooler base is installed.
• Tires are mounted and on the car. We'll polish up the C4-style wheels this weekend.
• The new tie rod end has been installed. The steering is much more responsive, as best as we can tell with the car on jack stands.
• Shirts, etc. will be ordered tomorrow. We have to be in costume for this. Some of the guys were hoping for a disco or porn-king Corvette theme and had their Hawaiian shirts picked out and everything, but alas, were serious wannabe Corvette Racing guys.
• We must have done more today. It's past 11 PM and we just quit working.

Here are two pics from today.

Decal placements on the hood and nose.

Decal placements on the driver's side door.