24 Hours Of LeMons 2009 Season Awards: BMW Takes Constructor Champion Prize!
With ten races during the 2009 season, 24 Hours Of LeMons HQ decided it was time to deal out season awards. They even used some sort of pseudo-scientific point system to determine the winners, which gave BMW a big win.
Of course, had the Chief Perp and his minions applied negative points for BMWs that finished in the damn cellar (and counted Acuras as Hondas), the Constructor Championship would have gone to Honda... but it's not my place, as a lowly member of the LeMons Supreme Court, to quibble over decisions made against my strenuous objections; I must admit, however, that my refusal to help with the math involved with that idea helped torpedo Honda's chances, anyway. The good news: the team champion drove a General Motors product. USA! USA! USA!
Let's read what those ne'er-do-wells in Emeryville had to say about the 2009 24 Hours Of LeMons season champions, as we lift the text from the official press release:
It's finally here—the day you've all been waiting for. (You know, besides the day when daily beef jerky home delivery becomes a reality.)
Contrary to outward appearances, we've been paying attention this LeMons season, and have five prestigious awards based on the annual accomplishments of the manufacturers, teams, and drivers that make LeMons into the biggest freakshow in motorsports. So, without further ado....
2009 CONSTRUCTOR CHAMPION: BMW
Much to the chagrin of the judges, the relentless stream of LeMons E30s actually paid off in the end. Though plenty of Bimmers performed embarrassingly badly in '09 LeMons events, enough scored top-ten finishes to snatch the crown from 2008 champ Mazda. OK, E30 dudes, you've proved your point—now go get a Fiat and prove you can do it the hard way.
2009 DECONSTRUCTOR CHAMPION: FORD
The Deconstructor Champion is not necessarily the marque that is the most terrible. Rather, it's the brand that is the most spectacularly terrible. While we did have a Mustang win a LeMons race in '09, that feat was more than offset by the typical SHO pit, which always looks like ground zero of a Taurus jihad.
2009 TEAM CHAMPION: THE CALI CAJUNS
Living up to their name, the Cali Cajuns built two cars for west coast and southern events, and scored five top-ten (including four top-five) finishes in the six races they entered. The one hiccup? When they stuttered to 65th place at Goin' For Broken in Reno, driving a lousy Honda Prelude instead of their tried-and-true Saturn SC2.
2009 DRIVER CHAMPIONS: JEFF GRANBERRY AND SCOTT MCLEOD
Though the Cali Cajuns lost some cool points by punting the LeMons Event Manager mid-corner at the Arse-Freeze-Apalooza, we were too lazy to re-think the awards. Plus, these two freaks contributed to all five of those top-ten finishes—no one else even comes close.
2009 24 HOURS OF LEMONS COPPA di BONDO: RUBBER BISCUIT RACING
The Coppa di Bondo is awarded to the team that whinelessly plugs away, race after race, despite incessant mechanical tragedy. After adding a horrible VW Rabbit to their existing (and equally ghastly) Honda CRX, the Texas-based Team Blue Goose was certainly in the running. But after promising us hot girl bartenders from the team captain's restaurant and failing to deliver race after race, we passed the honors on to the Caprice-exploding Rubber Biscuit racing. Spotted at LeMons races from Toledo to Texas, the Biscuits always bring a smile, a little southern applejack, and a Chevy that's guaranteed to launch its con-rods into orbit. Never mind the fact that they could easily finish if they just bolted in a stock smallblock instead of trying to cheat with some guy's backyard "race motor"—these guys simply get it.