LeMons Texas Day 1: 280ZX Leads, Audi Quattro Likes Rain, LeMons EV Makes Debut

After seeing some very promising machinery during the Friday prerace inspections, we were geared up for an exciting Saturday race session. However, things got a little more exciting than we’d hoped for, with blinding sheets of rain gushing down for much of the day and legions of race cars spinning off into the swampy muck surrounding the racing surface at MSR Houston. When the checkered flag finally came out, a dominating Datsun stood in the lead.

The Z-Wrecks ’81 280ZX took the win on laps at the Yee-Haw It’s Texas LeMons race at Texas World Speedway in February, and the ancient Datsun has contended at most Texas races during the past couple of years. As of Saturday night, this car held a three-lap lead over its closest rival. The formula remains the same as ever: reliable car, quick laps, no black flags.

In P2 is another Nissan Z, this time the ’87 300ZX of Back To The Past Racing. Z cars haven’t done so well in LeMons racing (given their large representation in the series), so to have them in the first two spots (plus another in seventh) is unprecedented.

On the same lap as the 300ZX, we have the ’93 Ford Taurus SHO of Team Redneck Debacle. LeMons racers in Texas love the SHO, and we’ve seen a few of the Yamaha-engined Fords take overall wins here in the past.

The team that was hoping for rain all day instead of just three-quarters of the day is the Blue Goose ’84 Audi 4000S Quattro. This team is just one lap behind the P2 and P3 cars and leading Class B by a commanding five laps. If the downpour continues on Sunday, the Audi has a shot at being the first example of its marque to take an overall LeMons win.

Class C is turning out to be a real slog for the teams involved. At the moment, the Team Sensory Assault Mazda RX-2 holds a one-lap lead over the Apex Vinyl six-wheeled Toyota Hilux.

This Datsun B210 with exquisitely 1980s body kit still isn’t running, but we’re hoping that it will hit the track first thing on Sunday. Just look at it!

We’ve been waiting for years to get the first electric-powered 24 Hours of LeMons car, and it finally happened on Saturday. The Hoonatic Racing Datsun Sports 2000 Roadster, equipped with forklift motor and bank of lead-acid batteries, hummed onto the track and brought LeMons into the EV era.

The batteries came from Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans, and they seemed to offer enough power reserve to allow a fair number of laps for the Datsun

Unfortunately, the car ran out of electrons earlier than expected, and the Fairlady was creeping along at about 5 MPH by the time it had navigated three-quarters of the course. Things Will Be Different at the next race!

After residents of Lubbock fretted about the United Nations invading Texas, the LeMons Supreme Court felt it had no choice but to have a United Nations Texas Occupation Force penalty for bad drivers, complete with goose-stepping blue-helmeted stormtroopers and Texans filling out UN Tax Form 666. They’ll think twice before going four-wheels-off next time!

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Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire Sam Hanks Walt Hansgen Mike Harris