If you’re familiar with Macau, you know that track position at the start is everything. Typically, drivers take big chances off the start because there’s really only one good place to pass on the circuit.

Sweet. I hope it pertains to this but larger:

The Pau Grand Prix is tremendous and, like Macau, is functionally speed-limited to F3 cars. There’s not a lot of passing at either circuit so neither is particularly “exciting” in the traditional sense, but if you appreciate how teams and drivers have to approach a weekend program, they’re great. Basically, qualifying…

I was glad to see you get a ride at Buriram, though it obviously didn’t play out the way you’d hoped.

That’s bad. Imagine that at 37,000 feet.

Some other things to add, if I may:

Your name’s like my name!

Non-running 914s? Not worth very much. Carbureted 12As? Worth even less. No one cares what you spend on a paint job because it won’t make the car faster or more reliable.

I’m remembering now that they have some kind of aftermarket cams on them. I think they were new last year, maybe this year. Still probably not $43K of motor there.

It’s an LS3, though I’m reasonably sure it’s not stock. Chevy’s site says peak HP is a bit over 400 and I think the PC cars are closer to 500. Still, the MSRP on a stock LS3 is only $7760, so there must be a lot of ancillary costs on there.

The PC engine has to be the cheapest on the grid by an order of magnitude.

She still makes money on the track, too. A mid-pack finisher in NASCAR makes enough money in sponsorship and prize money (NASCAR and F1 being the only series with real payouts that I know of) to live pretty comfortably. There was an article recently about how her career numbers are virtually idential to J.J. Yeley,…

A friend of mine from LeMons this year made the jump to STL (I think?) in a B18-swapped Civic that he built himself, down the motor. He podiumed in his first weekend and was well on his way to a first win when the engine let go. He paid a shop to do a reasonably good but not crazy rebuild before the Runoffs next…

Was just about to post asking what a typical race team pays in wages for a weekend, factoring in that they must pay people back at the shop to prep for it, too. Surely, what they pay employees—full-time, part-time, temporary, contract—is one of the biggest if not the biggest expense. It is in most businesses, I can’t…

My immediate reaction was: More downforce is more drag. This is another attempt to reduce V(max). Of course, NASCAR will never say that outright because they’ve already taken crap for reducing HP. Pole time in June was just under 202 mph; it was 197.5 this weekend.

Tagliani got hosed by a GWC last year at Road America after running a monster race as the only guy in the field with any ability whatsoever to manage the car on a wet track (OK, Lally did well, too.). He had to make a fuel stop to finish the race, cycled out in 25th place and then passed 23 cars in three laps to…

You don’t need to be gearheads to enjoy LeMons, but it is a hard sell.

Nissan’s page linked below. If it’s anything like B-Spec cars, you buy all of the speed parts as a package from the Nismo catalog.

24hoursoflemons.com
chumpcar.com
worldracingleague.org
americanenduranceracing.com