Home of the Toxic Asset Racing Program! Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale about the misfit adventures of a derelict Toyota MR2 and the mostly ill-informed attempts to un-derelict the car in almost certainly futile attempts to run it in endurance racing.
So I wondered if Google Maps had a good close-up of MSR Houston. Turns out they do. I decided to try to match the YT videos of people doing laps at past YEE-HAW Lemons with the map image. As I thought, the entire race track is not used for Lemons–they cut out the 2 longest straights. I’m sure MSR Houston required that, as they aren’t too keen to have their tarmac gouged by a handful of driveshafts busting out of their transmissions. And if not a wrecked tranny in that ‘88 Crown Vic, there would probably some stupid number of blown engines brought on by that extra 4000′ of straight track.
Also interesting is that Lemons races backwards/clockwise. Here is the MSR track layout. You’ll notice that the “standard” Turn 1 is our (last) Turn 11. But, on the MSRH Videos Page, click the “SCCA SM 1 of 3″ link and you’ll see some “real” racers in Miatas run the track, in the same direction that we will (although they run the front and back straights). I’ve found it helpful to write down the course (T1-hard right, S-curves, hairpin, etc.) on a piece of paper then follow along as you watch someone’s driving video. I figure if I do this enough before the race rolls around, I’ll not be seeing/learning the track the first time I’m behind the wheel.
Back to Google maps: I’ve made my own map (first time) of the track, and put my best guess at the racing line on there. Thoughts? Don’t know if others can edit/add to it or not; I added as “collaborators” those of you whose email addresses I know. Last thing–you’ll see that the Google image doesn’t show the larger turn-out of Turn 11 onto the Pit straight.
I was watching a repeat episode of Top Gear the other day and came upon some useful road racing driving tips. The challenge was to send Captain Slow to the road course and see if Sir Jackie could make him drive faster. I don’t remember what car he was in (a TVR?), other than it was a 2-seat convertible.
It worked. Stewart’s advice took about 20 seconds off May’s lap times. It was impressive. I’d like to hear more of Stewart’s advice, but here are the two things that I was able to write down from the three-time world driving champion:
In regard to smoothness, the exit of the corner is more important than the entrance; and
When exiting, do not put your foot on the accelerator pedal until you are sure you do not have to take it off again.
The episode featured a line graph of the telemetry from Stewart’s accelerator pedal application versus May’s. Whereas May’s line graph looked like a mountain range with foothills gradually building into peaks, Stewart’s was almost a square sine wave. When Stewart got on the gas, he got on the gas. Smooth enough to manage the weight transfer, but there was no hesitation.
The guys over at Witchdoctor Motorsports/Bikini Racer have this first-hand account of their race earlier this fall. These guys came in second in a junked out Camaro. First place was a Corolla FX-16 running the same motor as in the MR2. Very informative & recommended for all TARPers (thanks for finding it, Matt).
Although I have 2 friends who are planning on joining us for the race, it sounds like it would be a good move to add in a few more to help with the logistical stuff, pit stops, etc. Enjoy.
This article was originally published in a January 2005 issue of Grassroots Motorsports. Since none of us have any real race-driving experience, it would probably be a good idea to bone-up on that area of our lack of expertise. More after the jump:
Jalopnik and its nonstop coverage of and reverance for all things LeMons is easily one of my favorite blogs. They share my reverence for Smokey Yunick, about which little more need be said, other than the man was a mechanical genius and wrote an autobiography that is simultaneously both a tremendous work of art and the best argument for the need for authors to have editors. Which I’m sure my writing affirms.
While on that topic, the real question may be why cheat in the first place? Why do we even care? One entrant who went on to be a BS judge at the LeMons South race this year provides us with a pithy answer:
You may be asking yourself why they bother. Why put so much time and effort into cheating when even founder Jay Lamm describes the race as a “waste of time.” Sure racing is cheating, but LeMons isn’t really racing. It’s Burning Man gone retarded, a beer-soaked monument to high school shop class. And this is where you’re wrong. Obviously, the nickels provide little motivation. But every other puzzle piece is present. Problem solving, driver skill, team work, metal-crunching surprises, wheel-to-wheel action — it’s all there, in multicolored spades. To quote Willie Sutton, who, when he was asked why he robbed banks, said, “because that’s where the money is.” LeMons my friends, is racing in its purest form. And racing is cheating.
Ok, so the video in the first post, maybe it’s not perfectly illustrative of the racing in LeMons anymore. They are now black-flagging folks who make contact with other folks, at least if they see it. All TARP drivers (a/k/a the true “toxic assets” of our race team) should watch this video; it’s the driver’s meeting from the Houston LeMons race in October 2008. Good stuff here, especially the part about not fighting over positions in an endurance race (9 minutes, 59 sec):
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