LeMons Chuckwalla Day One: Top Five On the Same Lap, Four Are BMWs

California 24 Hours of LeMons races always feature plenty of BMWs in the mix, though some racers got much more creative with their car choices, but many of the E30 3-series and E28 5-series cars tend to sink into the mud of the standings when their delicate electrical systems and breakage-prone rocker arms act up. Today, however, was different; when the checkered flag ended the first race session, six of the top ten places were filled with Bavarian machines (the other four are held by two Mazdas, a Nissan, and an Oldsmobile).

Five teams ended the day with 144 laps, with the Cerveza Racing ’83 BMW 533i holding a lead of a few seconds over the field. The Cervezas have taken two overall wins in tough California races this year and have become the West Coast team to beat this season.

The Faustest Team’s devilish ’86 325 has been campaigning in West Coast LeMons events for several years, they’ve always been among the faster teams, and insiders say they’re overdue for a win on laps. They don’t dare blink Sunday as they try to catch Cerveza Racing, because right behind them…

…is the Lipstick On a Pig ’91 Nissan Sentra SE-R. The Lipstick On a Pig team has been battling in California LeMons races for as long as the Faustest Team, and they’ve got several top-three finishes to show for it.

Also on Lap 144, the If It’s Not Punk It’s Junk CP ’92 525i has the quickest best lap time of the top contenders (2:11 flat versus 2:12.798 for Cerveza Racing). The IINPIJGP E34 5-series has taken an overall LeMons win before, but not since the 2011 season.

Rounding out the Lap 144 brigade is the ’87 BMW 325e of Team Prickstine. This car is an E30 3-series modified to look like the ’58 Plymouth in the film Christine, and it has a LeMons pedigree stretching all the way back to the Altamont Raceway era. Like The Faustest Team and Lipstick On a Pig, the Porcubimmers have often contended but have yet to claim an overall LeMons win.

Speaking of Altamont veterans, SoCal-based car writers Mike Finnegan and David Freiburger have dusted off a car that we hadn’t seen on a LeMons track since the spring of 2008. The Roadkill 1973 Plymouth Fury needed some work to get its five-year-old safety equipment up to current standards, but it roared onto the Chuckwalla track on Saturday afternoon.

The struggle for the Index of Effluency, the top prize of LeMons racing, remains difficult to call. With a good dozen teams in the running for the IOE this time and quite a few of them making strong cases for the award, there’s no telling how things will sort out tomorrow. All we can say is that a race with a Humber Super Snipe wagon versus a Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz versus a Subaru BRAT versus a six-banger Ford Fairmont is a good race!

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Roberto Guerrero Maurício Gugelmin Dan Gurney Hubert Hahne Mike Hailwood