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Lemons and more...
Posted by
Joe (dad) Jordan
,
01-23-2011
·
2,925 views
Well we made it too Buttonwillow for the Lemons race the first weekend in December. Our beat up $500 Miata had an AWR Cage put in it and all the Safety equipment...We ran two test days one at Buttonwillow and one at Chuckwalla. We ran 3 drivers through their first HPDE events at Phoenix 2 weeks before the race.
Team Jailbait
was ready to give their best shot in the Lemons race. The theme (team Jailbait)since my daughter and son are under 18...and we had the host of to catch a predator Chris Hanson on the hood.
We were number 17.9 (almost 18)
Their is no qualifying, practice or anything you show up go through a drivers meeting and race on the track with 164 other cars... We decided to allow my son Joey (16 years old)to start the race, he showed good situational awareness in the test days and in the HPDE event and was ready to attack the huge field.
Unfortunately, he is tall 6'1 with a long torso and with no hard top to hide in and in his excitement he got the seat pad stuffed under his rump so the top of the helmet was deemed to high so we were black flagged. We came in and decided to change drivers, as the green flag fell. Jahna my 17 year old daughter dove in the car and entered the track for the first time in the crowded field. We were now 2 laps down in dead last! Oh well a long way to go.
Jahna consistently improved and passed a ton of cars and moved her way up the field. We decided to pit after 1 hour to make sure both kids got to drive before the 166,000 mile engine gave up the ghost or burned to much oil it was our safe way to check the oil and get the next kid in. During the stop we filled the car with gas checked the oil, took the padding out of the seat to fit my sons 6'1 inch frame and long torso....
Joey got back in the car now his head well within the roll-cage
He ran for 1 hour and 45 minutes and pitted. We were now in double digits!!! We were in the top 100.... Now it was Mom's turn. Janice who is 47 and has some motocross experience 30 years ago was now in the car...the key word was cautious, she managed to pass 2 cars a limousine and a fiat 500 and that was it. After 20 minutes she had enough. The rest of the day went on and the High school pit crew was having a ball.
The crew was all my kids high school buddies, myself and another Dad who has crewed in World Challenge oversaw everything, but it was mostly the kids....
By the end of the day Jahna had gone off the course once and otherwise we were very clean. We had moved up to 47th place...the to p 3rd of the field. Joey got 4.5 hours of track time, Jahna got 4 hours and 15 minutes. Mom got 20 minutes.... We were tired but ready for Sundays 8-9 hours of racing!
Team Jailbait
was ready to give their best shot in the Lemons race. The theme (team Jailbait)since my daughter and son are under 18...and we had the host of to catch a predator Chris Hanson on the hood.
We were number 17.9 (almost 18)
Their is no qualifying, practice or anything you show up go through a drivers meeting and race on the track with 164 other cars... We decided to allow my son Joey (16 years old)to start the race, he showed good situational awareness in the test days and in the HPDE event and was ready to attack the huge field.Unfortunately, he is tall 6'1 with a long torso and with no hard top to hide in and in his excitement he got the seat pad stuffed under his rump so the top of the helmet was deemed to high so we were black flagged. We came in and decided to change drivers, as the green flag fell. Jahna my 17 year old daughter dove in the car and entered the track for the first time in the crowded field. We were now 2 laps down in dead last! Oh well a long way to go.
Jahna consistently improved and passed a ton of cars and moved her way up the field. We decided to pit after 1 hour to make sure both kids got to drive before the 166,000 mile engine gave up the ghost or burned to much oil it was our safe way to check the oil and get the next kid in. During the stop we filled the car with gas checked the oil, took the padding out of the seat to fit my sons 6'1 inch frame and long torso....
Joey got back in the car now his head well within the roll-cage
He ran for 1 hour and 45 minutes and pitted. We were now in double digits!!! We were in the top 100.... Now it was Mom's turn. Janice who is 47 and has some motocross experience 30 years ago was now in the car...the key word was cautious, she managed to pass 2 cars a limousine and a fiat 500 and that was it. After 20 minutes she had enough. The rest of the day went on and the High school pit crew was having a ball.
The crew was all my kids high school buddies, myself and another Dad who has crewed in World Challenge oversaw everything, but it was mostly the kids....By the end of the day Jahna had gone off the course once and otherwise we were very clean. We had moved up to 47th place...the to p 3rd of the field. Joey got 4.5 hours of track time, Jahna got 4 hours and 15 minutes. Mom got 20 minutes.... We were tired but ready for Sundays 8-9 hours of racing!
