bg82x
Bob Grasch
The "Doing Time in Joliet" Lemons race was Saturday. This was our teams 2nd attempt with a 1974 Fiat X1/9. Our first attempt didn't go quite as planned. So here was our chance at redemption. We are running a 1300 and a 5 speed in the stock class. Yes the Lemons judges laughed at us again taking pictures of our "stock" engine.
This 40 year old Fiat just completed 5 hours of testing and 14 hours straight of "right foot to the floor" racing... The last three hours in the dark. It consumed 1 quart of oil, zero coolant, 2 ounces of brake fluid for the clutch, and 1 Fiat 500 wheel. Finishing third in its class of eight cars. The last several hours running without a working clutch pedal.
We were just happy that we were able to run the entire race with only a few minor tweaks needed throughout the 14 hour race. Plus with nobody on our team with more than 2 Lemons races as experience we were happy to check off running the whole race from our bucket list. Then at the award announcements we found out that we were the 2014 autobahn 24 hours of Lemons Doing time in Joliet Index of Effluency Winner.
The grand prize (and considered by some to be the "true" winner) is the Index of Effluency award, presented to a car considered unlikely to finish the race at all, let alone finish with a respected number of laps completed... The prize is always $1 more than the team could win by winning the race or their class.
Thanks to my team members Tom B, Rich and Tom M as well as Matt Brannon from Midwest Bayless. Matt's advice and work he performed on the head made a big difference over our first attempt in April. I'm looking forward to our 3rd attempt this October.
This 40 year old Fiat just completed 5 hours of testing and 14 hours straight of "right foot to the floor" racing... The last three hours in the dark. It consumed 1 quart of oil, zero coolant, 2 ounces of brake fluid for the clutch, and 1 Fiat 500 wheel. Finishing third in its class of eight cars. The last several hours running without a working clutch pedal.
We were just happy that we were able to run the entire race with only a few minor tweaks needed throughout the 14 hour race. Plus with nobody on our team with more than 2 Lemons races as experience we were happy to check off running the whole race from our bucket list. Then at the award announcements we found out that we were the 2014 autobahn 24 hours of Lemons Doing time in Joliet Index of Effluency Winner.
The grand prize (and considered by some to be the "true" winner) is the Index of Effluency award, presented to a car considered unlikely to finish the race at all, let alone finish with a respected number of laps completed... The prize is always $1 more than the team could win by winning the race or their class.
Thanks to my team members Tom B, Rich and Tom M as well as Matt Brannon from Midwest Bayless. Matt's advice and work he performed on the head made a big difference over our first attempt in April. I'm looking forward to our 3rd attempt this October.