Six of the eight Toyota at Thunderhill were MR2s, which is understandable: mid-engined sports car with Toyota reliability; you think someone is going to show up with a legit $500 supercharged one someday? Toyotas, as all LeMons fans know, have done pretty well in past races. A Corolla FX16 won at Houston, a Supra won at Detroit-ish '08, and a Supra won at Flat Rock '07. We're still waiting to see a LeMons Cressida or- dare we hope?- a Corona wagon.
With a 1:38.612 best lap and a 19th-place lap ranking, the Pole Position MR2 did quite well. We'd like to see a better-executed theme next time; the blow-up doll on a stick smacks of last-second theme slacking.
Here are some serious LeMons vets, as you can tell by the oft-bashed sheet metal. They were sidelined at Altamont with some ill-fitting main bearings- who knew that 4A engines came with two different types?- but knocked off a great 17th-place finish and best lap of 1:38.178 at Thunderhill.
We were really rooting for these guys, as they were the ones who managed to roll their MR2 on the very last lap of the '07 Arse Freeze (no, this isn't the same car). With a 16th-place finish, they've got much to be proud of.
We're not quite sure what happened to this team, but with just 31 laps finished and a 1:51 best lap, we can assume mechanical woes took their toll.
These guys were pitted near the Black Metal V8olvo, and they showed up with the car totally undecorated. After the whole squad attacked their MR2 with stencils and rattle cans, they had a pretty credible last-second theme done.
Sometimes the simplest thing will really make your car stand out on the race track; in this case, it was the spotted owl on a stick mounted on the Free Range Racing car's roof. The owl's wings flapped most realistically at high speeds… until they finally tore to shreds. 70th place, but a very respectable 1:40.484 best lap.
We were pretty hard on this team during the judging, hitting them with a 20-lap penalty for insufficient documentation, then handing them spray paint and forcing them to de-lame-ify their car's theme. Of course, it turns out they were telling the truth about their car's genuine crappiness, and they managed only 23 adjusted-for-penalties laps. Let's hope they get the car running right for Reno!
Another veteran of multiple California LeMons races, the We Each Hit Racing team scorned 2-way radio communication; instead, they had a crew member hold up the giant inflatable Corona bottle as the "PIT NOW" signal to their drivers.