Alt-F4 Racing Takes on the 24 Hours of LeMons

Our story begins in the fall of 2010 when the first ever 24 Hours of LeMons in NH was announced. At the end of December a 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby was found, purchased and trailered home. Flash forward to this past Thursday night; following a marathon day trying to get the car completed, we loaded up the truck, put the Daytona on the trailer, and headed to bed.

Friday
At 7:30 we arrived at New Hampshire Motorspeedway, rolled the car into a garage bay, and got to work. Before we knew it we had been visited by LeMons head Jay Lamm, Head Judge Phil, and a couple other people. Every single one loved our car, but predicted 5  laps total for our time. With that for-shadowing instilled in us, we headed to tech. Amazingly we flew through basic tech, with only a couple minor things to fix, and moved to BS inspection. This too went amazingly smooth. We were classed in Class C, given zero BS laps, and told good luck.

Saturday
The race track was treated to a 7:30 wake up call of “What a Wonderful World” being broadcast over the entire infield, a truly amazing moment, and perfect way to spend a saturday morning. The drivers meeting came at 9:30 and then before you could blink Chris was strapped into the car, and headed towards the track. Following a number of laps under yellow to get all cars on track, the green flag was dropped and racing commenced.

After a magnificent 2 laps, which included a pass on an e30, the dreaded black flag was pointed and we headed to the pits. Our offence was recorded as “Smoking” however it turns out we were leaking a decent amount of oil. And so began the long, long Saturday. One oil leak at a time we spend the day fighting deep-water horizon with shop towels. Along the way the wastegate was set permanently open, eliminating the turbo that was providing most of our tail smoke, and the turbo oil feed line was removed. The stock crank breather was replaced with a breather tank to keep blow by forcing oil into the airbox.

Several trips to tech and back later, and with only about an hour left to go on track we got permission to take a test lap on track. Ben took the lap and pulled back in to tech. After seeing that there were no major leaks we got the go ahead to head back on track. Ben took back to the track to much excitement and jubilance. Just moments later however, joy turned to horror as the announcement was made that for the third time that day, a car had puked oil and the track would need to be closed for cleaning. A long wait later, and our fears were confirmed with the sight of a daytona on the back of a flatbed.

So what did we do wrong? In the flood of work during the afternoon we decided on a fix that was unsafe. We had previously unplugged the turbo oil feed line (to prevent the earlier problems with oil blowing past the seals), and had repaired it with a piece of rubber hose, a bolt, and two hose clamps. (yes, ill advised when there is up to 60psi of oil to hold back) It’s easy to sit now and go “well duh, that wouldn’t hold”, but at the time, the fix was signed off on. Needless to say, it was just a matter of time before the line broke and we hemoraged oil everywhere.

Showing some mercy, the LeMons court said that if we could clean the car up, fix everything correctly, and prove to them that the car was safe, we could continue running on Sunday. We took a much needed break from swarming over the car and discussed our chances of racing on Sunday.

Saturday concluded with 5 laps completed.

Sunday
After pinning our chances of getting back on track to slim, we were down to three team members. After the drivers meeting and a short period of car cleaning we were down to just two total. Progress started to be made, and by 11am the car was mostly to a point that a giant oil fire wasn’t as likely. Thanks to some pushing by surrounding teams, we rolled the car to tech somewhere around noon. LeMons court blessed us with one lap to test the car, and we gladly took it.

After that first lap we found more oil dripping, so back to the garage we went. The culprit was found to be oil being forced backward through the turbo lines and out the supply line we had disconnected. Patching that up, we stuck Steve in the drivers seat and went for one more lap. LeMons HQ deemed us safe after the test lap and we threw Steve back out for some real racing and seat time.

Following a driver change, Chris was back on track. A few highly enjoyable laps, and a couple cars successfully held off things turned sour again. Down the front straight the car made some very bad mechanical noises. Rather than thrash the car for another lap to get to the pits Chris pulled off course and shut it down. The ambulance was sent out to push the car back to the pits. As there was only 2 hours left of racing, we called it quits and started packing up.

Sunday ended with 18 laps completed, putting us above the 5 predicted by LeMons staff.

Awards at LeMons include winner on laps, winner for each class (A, B, and C), Organizers Choice, Heroic fix, I got screwed, and the Index of Effluency, which is considered the real winner. We were awarded the “I Got Screwed” award for trusting the name Shelby, and attempting to race a daytona.

Overall this was an amazing weekend, many friends made, and a fantastic way to go racing, even if the racing part only lasted for 18 laps.

We have a car!

We recently acquired a 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby. Take a look at the Race vehicles section for initial pictures and thoughts. We'll keep updates coming as the build gets going. 

Coming Eventually...

The 24 hours of LeMons has drawn our interest for years. As we move towards our eventual entry we are planning, scheming, and preparing for our first wheel to wheel endurance race. This event will allow us to demonstrate our engineering know-how, mechanical skill, and driving force. This event requires much planning and preparing and any help we can get would be greatly appreciated. Drop us a line if you're interested in sponsoring, being part of pit crew, or just coming to watch the race.