The 24 Hours of LeMons series is following up our visit to an old familiar track in California with our first-ever trip to the legendary Sebring International Raceway. It’s hot and muggy and buggy here, and the Florida summer weather coupled with the holiday weekend have chased away all but the most devoted racers; with a mere 30 teams, we’ve got the smallest car count since the notorious New Orleans 2011 race. Those that have opted to brave the mid-90s temperatures and 100% humidity, however, tend to be the hardest of the hard core, the racers who think nothing of overnight engine swaps and paddock cuisine. This is our first trip to Florida since the legendary New Year’s Eve 2010 race in Palm Beach, and we’re expecting a good weekend. Let’s see who’s here!
The RC Spiders, who have become the LeMons team to beat in the southeastern part of the country, have brought their Mercedes-Benz 190 2.3-16. The Spiders got the most laps at the Southern Discomfort race in May, the ‘Shine Country Classic in February, and a pair of LeMons races in 2013. Sure, they slipped their car through a loophole by selling off Cosworth-only interior parts to get their Benz below the $500 limit, but the real reason they keep winning has more to do with their mistake-free team organization than their lap times. The LeMons Supreme Court assigned a five-lap handicap to the Spiders this time, due to their shark-in-the-aquarium advantage in this small field, so we’ll see how long it takes them to overcome that gap.
The Cannonball Bandits have dragged their Vortect 5300-swapped Toyota Supra all the way from the San Francisco Bay Area, and the team’s drivers hope that their Toyota’s impressive power-to-weight ratio will finally enable them to roar to a long-sought-after victory.
The Rolling Chicane Honda Civic team has been competing in the 24 Hours of LeMons for more than five years now, and they’ve come tantalizingly close to an overall win but have yet to get those extra few laps they need. Could this be their weekend?
It’s not a LeMons race without at least one staggeringly depreciated German luxury car, and we’ve got that.
We’ve also got another engine compartment that looks just as cool as the 928′s, only for different reasons: the Chrysler Slant-Six of the Index of Effluency-winning Escape Velocity Racing 1964 Dodge Dart.
The Escape Velocity Dart has become a fairly well-sorted race car during its last year of racing, but has yet to take a Class C trophy.
This time, the Dart’s old nemesis, the Team Fairlylame 1964 Ford Fairlane, is back to challenge its same-year rival. The Dart emerged victorious from its last two battles with the 289-powered Ford, but perhaps this time we’ll see the V8 beat the I6.
This may be the first LeMons race in many years that has just a single 302-powered Fox Ford in the lineup (though we do have a Pinto-engined Fox Mustang as well).
The Swamp Thang Ford Granada, winner of the Index of Effluency at the 2011 Lousiana race, is back, this time with Lincoln Versailles hood and trunk. Such class!
These LeMons first-timers brought a Volvo 850 Turbo, an adventurous car choice.
They’ll be competing in Class B against this confusingly themed Toyota Solara.
This being Sebring, we’re pleased to announce that our race will feature a Sebring-versus-Sebring race-within-a-race. Yes, two Chrysler Sebring race cars will take to the track on Saturday.
One Sebring will be run by the legendary Speedycop and the Gang of Outlaws team, while the other flies the flag of equally legendary NSF Racing. Actually, both cars failed the tech inspection, but we’re assuming that they’ll be fixed in time for racing on Saturday morning.
In honor of the very LeMony Chrysler Sebring, the LeMons Supreme Court has created this “Sebribed” commemorative BRIBED stencil for the occasion, applying it with patriotic red-white-and-blue paint in honor of the holiday today.
Tonight, many teams will be welding and grinding in the hotel parking lot, in preparation for the green flag on Saturday.
A certain amount of property-value-lowering is inevitable when the 24 Hours of LeMons comes to your town, of course, but Florida should recover from the damage soon enough. Check in Saturday night to see how the first day of racing sorts out.
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