On the trailer and ready to go! (Photo: Tim & Daisy Odell)
The clock says
5:00am and I am scrambling to grab my gear. Race suit, check. Gloves and boots, check. Fireproof underwear, check. Helmet, check. Sleeping bag and extra clothes, check. I hop in my mobile hotel, a 2009 Dodge Sprinter, and head to LA to meet the rest of my team. I have entered the
24 Hours of Lemons - Buttonwillow and we have a 2 hour drive ahead of us. The 1982 BMW 633 CSi is on the trailer, in full CSI:Miami regalia per our chosen theme, and my coffee is in the cup holder. Let the fun begin.
The drive to Buttonwillow is a long and boring one, but my teammate Joe and I are blasting Bon Jovi while I pilot the mammoth Sprinter up the 5 freeway. The Sprinter is surprisingly agile and the front suspension-seats are very comfortable but you will hear more about this vehicle in my upcoming review of it.
(Photo: Tim & Daisy Odell)
The car arrived safe and sound to the track and the team and I needed to finalize some items needed to pass the tech inspection, then the BS inspection. Nothing major really, just weld on the sunroof cover, finalize some wiring, and drill the final hole for the harness. Everything was moving along great and our mechanic Tim decided it was time for him to take a much needed lunch break.
To keep the positive momentum going, I picked up a power drill and decided to finish that racing harness. The remaining strap comes up from the floor and is secured via a bolt into the bottom of the car. I began to drill and was surprised to see some liquid which was very quickly followed by a splashing sound on the pavement. I had drilled through one of the fuel lines …seriously.
(Photo: Tim & Daisy Odell)
We thought we were going to coast into tech inspection which was 5 hours away (a 5 pm cutoff) but I just made sure that the whole team would be very busy. Tim put down his burrito and scrambled into quick-thinking engineer mode. We had to wait a long time for the gas to drain but after that is was all hands on deck. Tim was able to fix the fuel line, we finished the basic parts required of the remaining wiring, and we scrambled to the end of the paddock to use a welder for the sunroof. The car was together (-ish) and we got dressed and in line for tech inspection… at 4:35pm.
(Photo: Tim & Daisy Odell)
Thankfully the car flew through tech. I almost ruined our entire weekend with one press of a power drill, but we made it. Next up was BS inspection but came prepared with bribes for the judges. Now, most teams bribe the judges because they have some cheater parts on the car. The judges took our bribes and didn’t even check the rest of the BMW because they knew it was clearly not cheating. Good that we flew through the BS inspection, but bad that we didn’t even attempt to upgrade any components.
(Photo: A tired ME}
Day one was more eventful than it should have been, but the car was together and ready for a long day of racing. We watched as a lot of (very oddly dressed) teams flew through tech inspection. It looked like fun. My team however was quite tired, so all that was left to do was enjoy the clear night sky, breathe in the air of the nearby cow farms, crack a beer, and then I retired to my Sprinter for the evening.
Stay tuned for Day 2 & 3 info. The team experiences its first taste of wheel-to-wheel racing and more fixes are in store for the BMW, plus I will share a mega-gallery of LeMons photos.