Team TST in the 24hrs of LeMons? Update: '08 Schedule is announced!

[88TSI_Rob]

The organizers of the 24 hours of LeMons have announced that they will be organizing a race in the "Northeast" for 2008.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will quickly realize that this is great thing. It's a 2 day, ~7 hour a day race, using beater cars that are worth $500 or less. It's basically the cheapest form of door-to-door circuit racing, period.

So, I'm proposing that TST form a team, or teams, to compete in this event. As of yet the actual location has not been set, but that doesn't mean we can't start organizing. Typically the races have been run in the summer/fall so could have up to 12 months to prepare. I see lots of evidence that there are some really talented people on this forum and if we pooled some of this talent we could build a winning team, maybe even a couple really good teams.

Basically this is what is needed for a team:

A beater car - $500 or less (we could also buy, say, a $600 car and then sell $100 worth of parts off of it)
6 members/drivers - $100 x 6 (Teams can be anywhere from 4-6 members, but with more members we can spread out the costs and work so that no one is too strained)
a one day "racing license" - $50 x 6? (these are needed if the drivers don't have a competition license, if you don't own a racing car you probably don't have this)

All safety equipment (roll cage, brakes, fire extinguisher, 4 or 5 pt. safety harness, racing seat, etc) and perishables (gas, tires, extra wheels, oil, water, etc) need to be purchased, but don't count towards the $500 limit. All drivers also need to wear a helmet and a fire resistant racing suit. We might be able to get by with 2 of each if we are all around the same size.

Finally we need a truck & trailer to move the car around.

All in all, I am estimating that the whole thing could run somewhere around $3000-4000, or around $500-700 per person.
That means for ~$600 you can help build a race car and you get (hopefully) ~2hrs of track time (the actual race is about 13-14 hours).

However, we could reduce our costs if the team is made up of members that have skills & assets that can benefit the building of this car. These are a few of the skills or assets that would help reduce our costs:
1. Access to cheap parts or scrap metal (ie. lives near a junkyard)
2. Prior race car driving or building experience
3. Access to a truck & trailer
4. Possibly the use of an RV so that we can sleep at the track and not pay for motel rooms
5. Access to an area to store/build the car
6. Access to a welder and is experienced at welding
7. Anyone who has "hook ups" at a racing shop or parts store

Personally, I have about 5 years of experience working on older Mitsu's. I have worked on my Conquest, my Raider, and have some experience with DSMs having a friend that has owned a GSX for several years and I owned one for a short time. I also have service manuals for just about every Mitsubishi from 1983-1993. I also was a member of an SCCA racing team a few years ago. We raced a Dodge Neon ACR in the 12 hrs of Summit Point race. Additionally, I have a good friend that runs the parts dept at a big dealership and he can get us new parts and tires at cost, but good junkyard parts are always preferred.



As for the car, the total that we spend on the car can't be more than $500. So the Purchase price + Repairs - Parts sold = $500. The car does not need to be titled or registered or have current inspection. We can accept donations (parts, an engine, even a full car) but we must place a FMV (fair market value) on the donation so it will effect our $500 limit.

SCHEDULE UPDATE!

LeMons races in 2008

* May 10-11, 2008: Altamont Motorsports Park, Tracy CA
* June 21-22, 2008: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas NV
* July 26-27, 2008: Carolina Motorsports Park, Kershaw SC
* August 23-24, 2008: Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs CT
* September 13-14, 2008: Toledo Speedway (Detroit), Toledo OH
* October TBD, 2008: Thunderhill Raceway Park, Willows CA

Track location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Staffo...i=map&ct=title
It's about 235mi, or a 4.5 hour drive from center city Philadelphia.

http://www.staffordmotorspeedway.com/




And here is some reading material to give you some idea of what to expect.

Autoblog's experiences and coverage:
http://www.autoblog.com/tag/24HoursOfLemons/

Car and Driver's experience:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...of-lemons.html


So if you like working on cars and don't mind getting dirty, have weekends off to work on a car, are willing to do some running around and research to help build the car, have some abilities/assets/experience that would help the team, have up to $700 to blow, are willing to take a few days off of work, and would like to have some fun racing door-to-door...let's get together and make this happen.

[teh DIRT]

oh im in. and im down to help organize on the tst side of things.

I have a truck we can use, just need a trailor. PM me.

[pearl]

i wanna see how this spans out, looks like an awesome idea!

[zerioustt]

ill help out with the build process


also know demonicbird has alot of racing experience, its in karts but hes pretty nasty.

[sherwood]

dude my uncle races...im sure he could let us borow his trailor..this sounds like alot of fun mang.

[streetAssasin96]

i have a garage/sheat metal/scrap metal/welders space to store the car and its safe from be tampered w/

[streetAssasin96]

I also know they have circuit races like this up in the poconocs. basically same rules but you can't have a 2 seater, and it has to be stock motor, N/A, no turbo or n02. i.e. so you don't have crxs w/ b16s smoking all the stock berettas, cavaliers, escorts you ge tthe picture

[PitBullRS]

bad timing, i just got rid of my '84 VW Rabbit GTI that I got from a friend for $500. could have used that beast..

[malloyboy1]

this looks great, contact me if parts are needed. im willing to help any way that i can

[redline]

You can have my Omni for $500-$600.

[BMS]

if i asked my dad, we have the big 3 car hauler, and the 24ft enclosed

[james_ls]

I would love to get in on this.

Not sure what I can do...but someone can figure out something...right?

[Racersky]

Originally Posted by james_ls

I would love to get in on this.

Not sure what I can do...but someone can figure out something...right?

I would love to do this too

[driftingrx5.7]

get the rx7 and put an ls1 in it and your going to win if you put an lt1 i can help you with that :D

[BlackBulletTSi]

Id love to get involved as well.

[Cardriverx]

I am SO in. We gotta acually do this!

[SovXietday]

I'm willing to pitch in wrench time getting everything ready if we ever go through with anything.

[88TSI_Rob]

I'm glad to see there is a lot of interest. From what I've read they should announce the location of the northeast event in the next 4-6 weeks. Once the date/location is locked in we can start making some firm plans.

Also, I thought of a couple more things that I should mention.

1. We need about 6 people to be paying drivers, but there is no limit on the number of people that can help work on the car. So anyone that wants to help can lend a hand. I think we can also have an unlimited number of pit crew people as well, so as long as you are willing to buy a ticket you can actually help in the pits during the race.

2. There is no limit on how much is spent on safety equipment or perishables. That also means that we can take an unlimited amount of donations for that stuff as well. If anyone or any vendor is willing to donate those types of items to the team I'm sure we could put some stickers or web addresses on the car. It would be great to get things like: old racing tires, an old racing seat/harness, a fire extinguisher, a window net, gas cards, even scrap metal to reinforce the body. We have some great vendors on TST (and I have used several of them) maybe a couple could donate some "racing junk" in return for some free advertising?

[TROLL]

this sounds awesome... as with anything we'd need to get a group of dedicated people together if we're going to see it through but i think its got potential. if there is a lot of interest and not everyone is exactly in the same place we could possibly have 2 teams... north/south or something divided geographically and definitely help each other out as much as possible along the way.
i wasnt sure in your description what the definite costs involved are, could you list them? you mentioned a license fee, is that a flat $300 or is it $50 per person and you expect 6 people? is there a flat racing fee or other flat costs involved that we know about before we even get started?
where have they raced in the past? an oval or other circuit? road racing i assume but i'm curious as to what kind. i know its wheel to wheel and it is competitive but how much contact can we expect? on top of building a car thats tough enough to handle two days of long hard driving, how well will it have to potentially hold up to bumps and bruises from other cars?
i know someone who might have a good amt of 225/40/18 R compounds left over from this season that maybe we can get donated for a little exposure on the car if we can get a big as set of wheels for them of course, haha. also sounds like it would be a necessity to get a solid welder/fabricator involved... again hopefully we can find that from within tst. after that... we need some decent drivers huh?
well its got a lot of potential and sounds like a great experience, i'm excited to see where things go...

[Roadkilled75]

It will have to hold up to a LOT of bumps and bruises from other cars - thats a primary concernof teams entering the race. Some go so far as to relocate the radiator to the back seat or deck lid...