By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Scott Smith came back from the Toledo 24 Hours of LeMons with some great footage from the race. The in-car video is a bit choppy because Scott was literally shooting with one hand and driving with the other (I'm not sure our buddy Gary Faules will approve). So here it is, edited together by Andy Hanson, our hot shot video guy. Scott also provided some commentary, which I pasted after the jump. Enjoy!

Opening scene, just set up our pit tent and getting the final checks done on the engine (oil, water, etc.). About three hours before race time and it was absolutely pouring rain, coming down in buckets, the infield chicane portions of the track had areas that were literally one foot under water and things looked pretty grim at this point.

Next scene, our car entering the tech tent where all cars had to be inspected for safety or other types of "cheating" prior to the race start a few hours later. The guys in the white wigs and black robes were the "judges" and actually a bunch of VERY knowledgeable car guys who volunteer for the duty. They gave us crap for having stock HP exhaust manifolds on our 440 saying that they were ultra rare and worth too much $$$. They do give you a chance to explain things like that and try to "talk your way out of lap penalties" which they can hand out at will if they think you spent too much on the car. We escaped unscathed, which is good because of all the cars there, we were probably as close to a true $500 investment budget as any one of them.

Next scene is the line of cars in the pits, then showing them leaving the pits and out onto the track for about 15 minutes of yellow flag practice laps. It had been raining HARD all day, but then as if by some miracle it stopped just before race time and stayed dry for almost exactly 24 hours til the race was over. Then almost immediately it started pouring again. Unbelievable!

Next scene opens with our car taking the green flag on the still well-soaked race track. Tom was driving the opening stint.

Next scene (drivers perspective--in car) was when I had taken over behind the wheel several hours later and did some hand-held in car camera work (driving with one hand was interesting!). I definitely drove faster with both hands on the wheel!

Final scene was the winner of the "Peoples Curse" award. Each racing team gets one vote, whoever gets the most votes wins the award. This marked the first time the same team was awarded "Peoples Curse" as well as "Peoples Choice" (also voted by all for creative team appearances). Their "Ramboized" Chevy S-10 was actually pretty fast but they ran into just about everyone on the track and PO'd a bunch of teams. They had a crew of about a dozen people, half of which were good looking women all dressed in fatigues.

Comments

Trackerrrr
Oct 8, 2008 9:48:37 AM

OMG where do I sign up for this??? Coolest thing since monster truck racing.

wholesalediy
Oct 8, 2008 3:41:09 AM

this is the best video I have seen from any of the LeMons events. thanks for share.

Gary Faules
Oct 6, 2008 3:18:02 PM

The truth is, if you have never tried to drive fast while looking thru the camera lens, you haven't lived. LOL. It's also one of the fastest ways to get black flagged there is. Other than obvious reasons, an unsecured camera is also considered a projectile.

For what it's worth, this is the best video I have seen from any of the LeMons events. Hats off. Loved the part where he asked, "Are you looking for the matching numbers?" LMAO!

With regards to the People's Curse award, years ago I used to attend fund raisers where you paid a few bucks and you where given a sledgehammer and allowed to take 6 whacks at the car. This would be a great way to raise some cash for a worthy cause. Then at least some good would come of the curse.