The latest 24 Hours of LeMons race at Thunderhill was an incredible event. Here is a first-hand, detailed report from driver/fellow Z-car owner Scott Smith. From the creation of the Datsun 240z LeMons Car to an 11th place finish this is an epic story to follow. Enjoy!
“No race has been won in the first corner, but many have been lost there.” A quote from one of my favorite books, “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein, is greatly applicable to an endurance race like the 24 Hours (actually 16 hours of race time) of Lemons. The key to winning? Constant, smooth, trouble-free laps for two straight days. That’s a lot to ask for from a $500 car, but Team Rice Rocket Racing was up to the task. The team consisted of two veterans and three newcomers to the Lemons race, with Team Leader Wade Warren and past racer Mike Outlander returning for the cause. Added to the team were Team Mastermind, Rob Fuller, Josh Corwin – both of Z Car Garage infamy, and myself, Scott Smith. Scott Augsburger and Mike’s sister, Nikki, came by for the weekend to help with the logistical things to make this crazy event run more smoothly.
Start with a 1973 Datsun shell without a drivetrain, and a drivetrain from a wrecked 280ZX and marry them, and what do you get? A car suitable for the 24 Hours of Lemons.
Here is the Lemons car as it was recovered from its hibernation:
The cage from the wrecked 280ZX was transplanted into the new Lemons car, and it was off to paint. What better way to honor vintage Z racing than with a BRE-themed 240Z race car? A trip to our good friend, William Wei, of William’s Auto Body in San Mateo, and the Z had new life.
Now the Z-car just needed a few things, you know – a complete drivetrain, brakes, hoses, windows, etc., all easy stuff when you have Josh Corwin working more magic than Houdini ever did. Here is Josh taking a break to pose for a fun picture before the engine went in.
Wade and Josh lowering in the engine while I kept my fingers out of the way, and Rob joined in to work his tuning magic.
And here is the Z making a dyno pass while Rob listens for squirrels in the engine
The Datsun was making about 147rwhp and 158rwtq, not bad for an ole’ goat!
This build story is very summarized, as there were many last-minute issues that had to be attacked so we could leave at 6pm sharp (i.e. midnight) on the Thursday night before the test-n-tune day. Even little things like bent valves at the 10th hour weren’t going to slow this team down.
We load the Z up behind the Titan, and land in Willows, CA around 2:30am Friday morning.
Friday morning comes and we’re at the track about 6:00am to get prime track location and begin setting up our garage for the long weekend.
From first read, there were 136 cars registered for the event. The results indicate that 121 actually started the race on Saturday; here are just a few snippets of the collection of interesting Lemons cars in attendance:
Some teams were very advanced with their re-fueling systems:
We each make 5-10 shakedown laps on Friday to get a feel for the car, get an idea of fuel consumption and tank longevity, dial in the tire pressures, and proceed to get the car through technical inspection (our 240Z enters the video in the center lane around the 33s mark):
The judges were ready to assign the team “BS points” which equates to a lap penalty based on how much they think we’ve cheated as a dollar amount. $10 BS = 1 lap penalty. They had us dyno the car to prove it was making stock power (within reason), and we proved successful (so eff you Lemons Judges!). ☺
Saturday – Race day #1 (9 hours):
Rob and Wade decided that the order for Saturday would be me (Scott), Josh, Mike, then Wade, so I suit up first, and get ready for my 2 hour stint behind the wheel with 120 other hopefuls.
It was a nerving and exciting experience to be out first, and although I’m not sure why they had me go out first, I wasn’t about to question the power-that-be as I was thankful for the opportunity to even be part of the driving team in the first place. The driving order reflected on the roof. And a tribute to The Rawb, of course
Strap in, hook up the cool suit, get radio communications on, and get out to rock!
We go out for a few warm-up laps while the Lemons officials confirm that all the team’s transponders are working properly, and the random-and-rolling start begins. Cars started to fly past me as I was on the back straight between turns 14 and 15, so I assume the race had begun. I estimate we started between 30th and 35th place, which isn’t bad considering the field of 120 other cars.
After two hours of conservative and trouble-free driving, the #46 BRE-240Z sits atop the top-10 in 7th place, with 45 laps completed.
Next up is Mr. Josh Corwin. Josh has a lot of track experience. . . . on a motorcycle, so he was amped up to get behind the Z-car for a few hours and melt some rubber. Go Josh!
Josh finishes another 43 laps and wheels us into 6th place. Needless-to-say, we were stoked at how well the car was performing.
Mike hops in for the next approximate 2-hour drive and puts in 44 laps between hours 4 and 6. Mike drove with Wade and the 280ZX at the May 24 Hours of Lemons at Thunderhill, so he knows the drill.
After Mike’s run and 6 hours into the race, Team Rice Rocket Racing and the #46 BRE-240Z were still hanging in the top 10, holding onto that 7th place spot. Way to go, Mike!
Next up was our Team Capitan, Wade Warren. Wade was looking to close out our day with a strong finish, however, some light contact going over the hill at Turn 5 drew both driver’s black flags and time sitting in the pits. Luckily, we had a “Get out of penalty free” pass for having done some nice things to support the officials during the tech inspection, so we didn’t have to wait too long to get back out on track. Some black flags would take an hour to pay back, and we didn’t have that kind of time! Some pics from the bit of track contact:
Here is a dude having to serve his black flag by making 12 poses like the calendar the officials were holding while girls took pictures of him and voted of he was doing the pose properly enough to move onto the next month. This could have been you, Wade! ☺
Back to racing, Wade finishes the 8th hour after putting in another 39 laps (171 total now), and we drop back to 11th place.
Josh goes back out for the last hour of the day and keeps our car afloat after putting in another 21 laps (192 total), but we’re just outside the top 10 at 12th place.
Sunday – Race day #2 (7 hours):
The driving order for day 2 was decided to be as follows: Wade, Josh, me, then Mike. We weren’t sure how fuel consumption would go as the track thinned or if we would need an additional driver change, but based on Saturday’s results, we figured we could make it through 7 hours with just 3 driver changes. . . and we were wrong.
The top 10 cars get lined up to go out first, with the rest of the 100+ cars simply in the pack that remains. The team kicks some serious ass to get us ready and out in the first row with Wade at the helm to try and get us back into the top 10.
Go Wade!
After 1 hour of racing (hour 10), Wade had put us back into the top 10 with another 23 laps covered and 215 laps total.
The next two hours (hours 11 and 12, 45 laps) were covered by Wade and Josh, and we were back up to 8th place with 256 laps completed!
Hours 13 and 14 were covered by myself and Mike, and we were holding strong in 8th place with an additional 42 laps completed to 298 laps, and we were a full lap ahead of the 9th and 10th place cars.
Hour 15 was the end of my run and the start of Mike’s run, and we held tight onto that 8th place position after with 321 laps completed.
Sadly, things began to fall apart during the 16th and final hour, as we had an unexpected fuel stop during Mike’s finale, and we lost one of those laps we had on the 9th and 10th place cars. Mike pushed his skills to the limit and was catching up to them while on the same lap, when another car almost hit Mike while he crested the blind hill of turn 9. In order to save both cars, Mike went off the track and received a black flag. It was our first black flag of the day and our second overall, so the judges let us go without a penalty since we had driven cleanly for most of the 16 hours. We salvaged, but were still quite excited for our 11th place finish.
It was a great team effort that I am proud to have been a part of. Follow Team Rice Rocket Racing and Z Car Blog as they prepare for the next Lemons Race at Buttonwillow Raceway in December!
Zs rule,
Scott
