The Bumble Bee car driven by team Terminally Confused had great new wings added for this race. (click photos for larger view)
Here's Charlie - the wing man!
The wings actually fluttered as the car raced around the track. Very cool.
On Friday night all the race cars took part in a special parade in downtown Camden, SC.
The parade leader was Jeff "Speedycop" who usually has a car in the race. Unfortunately a couple of weeks before the race Jeff broke his ankle in a softball game and was on the DL after having surgery to insert some screws. A quick modification to the ever present motorized bar stool allowed Speedycop to not only lead the race, but to get around the paddock areas all weekend in comfort. (that's Craig there in the background making sure his modifications were working okay.)
The beginning of the parade
Here come the judge...
A long line of cars
Assorted themes
"Our Lady of Perpetual Downforce" (I know...some odd team names...)
This team was called Bumble Bee racing. We thought our bee theme was better. These guys only raced a few laps on Saturday and then didn't hit the track again. They must have had a major breakdown.
Because the race was held the same weekend as the predicted Rapture, one team themed their car accordingly
The Cheese car
This was a team of Firefighters from Goose Creek - the city where Craig lives. They had a siren on their car which they used frequently during the parade
The Simpsons car was a popular one. Homer's head made it through the race with no problems
At least one car had problems even before the race. These guys got lots of cheers for pushing their car up the street
The Chuck Norris car was raced by Mike Smith - a neighbor of Craig's. When the guys began working on their car for their first race back in September Mike noticed the activity and stopped to chat about it. Turns out he's a LeMons racer as well, but he wasn't racing in the September or February races. He very generously volunteered some of his tools and a lot of his expertise to the team. They were glad he was racing this time. You can't see it on the car, but they had taken a sharpie and written "Chuck Norrisms" all over the car. I loved the hairy chest!
Our car was near the end of the parade. Craig was driving with Charlie on the hood, Paul in the window and Paul's girlfriend riding on top. Jerry had already hopped off.
The Judges again - notice Speedycop off the bar stool and using his crutches
Unfortunately, the race didn't go so well. On Saturday they only got in 20 laps. Since the track was hot from 10am to 7:30 pm you know they had major problems! They even resorted to an engine change during the day.
When they finally got back on the track on Sunday they had a couple of black flags requiring serving a penalty. The first flag was because the car spun and was hit by the then 2nd place car. Broke our steering arm which we were able to repair but took the 2nd place car out permanently. When we were ready to race again the penalty was to take sparkly stick-on letters and do this:
Remember the Rapture guys? They didn't get off as easily for their penalty. Two of their guys were shrink wrapped to the top of the car and they had to drive around announcing the pending end of the world
We had an additional black flag penalty on Sunday which required the team to get lunch for the LeMons staff.
The next race is in September and will be held at Charlotte Motor Speedway. They're looking forward to it, but will need to do some work on the car so they can actually race!
Right after the race we moved...more about that some later post.
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