Race Report: 2013 Monticello There Goes the Neighborhood

Race Report: 24 Hours of LeMons 2013 There Goes the Neighborhood at Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, NY, April 6 & 7, 2013

Drivers: Brandon, Ruffy, Steve, Scot, Carl
Guardian Angel and Good Luck Charm: Zouneda


A 24 Hours of Lemons race at Monticello Motor Club is a rare event; in fact this will probably be the single time it will occur in the history of the Earth so it was imperative that we race there... even if it is to be very very very cold and tractionless.

A Beautiful Course, primped and proper, not at all what endurance racers are acclimated to:



Monticello Motor Club North Course



A bit more to scale I'd say



Tech and Safety Inspection: we mostly passed, with only two warnings... I lost a quart of sweat while the officials negotiated Warning (go race) vs Fail (go home).

 

1) The Kirkely Race Seat we have is a tall back, and the seat harness comes through about a foot from the top of the seat (making a weak point) - we need to add a support bar or brace behind the top part of the seat to keep it from folding back via helmet strike. Note the support does not have to attach to seat, only stop it from folding back.

 

2) One of the roll cage 'star' connection points is weak since someone cut out a section of tube years ago; never mind that the car has been in five prior LeMons races and passed tech - I see their point!

 

Thankfully, they let us race with these two points of 'oppertunities for improvement' with a deposit of promise to fix them before the next race.

MGB GT 50 - Gormless Racing, pic courtesy of official LeMons photo gallery

 

 Last minute check of the car yielded a loose bolt - THE loose bolt - that holds the brake and clutch pedal assembly on. This is the bolt that came off during the 2012 Captiol Offense race while Scot was driving. No coincidence that it is Scot's hand in the photo tightening the bolt!



More tea, Vicar?

In the first 15 minutes of the race, our driver pulled in complaining of loud clacking in the engine. We pulled off the valve cover and sure enough valves 7 and 8 were a bit off (0.016 instead of 0.013 warm), so we adjusted them and sent him back out.
Later, one of our newer drivers got into a bit of a tangle with one of Those Annoying Volvos and smashed in the front fender - luckily the tire was there to stop the steel from bending all the way in.... er....


Ruffy the MGB GT Front Fender Bender Mender - adding airspace between razor sharp jagged steel fender and soft supple race compound tire

We had to visit The Judge twice before we had bent the fender back enough to be deemed safe to rejoin the race:







 

At the end of Day 1 after 7 hours we were in 9th place in C Class and 80th place overall out of 121 entries.

 



MGB GT 50- Gormless Racing in action, pic courtesy of official LeMons photo gallery

The remainder of the race was spent adding oil, or trying to find out where the oil was spraying from, or swabbing the oil out of the engine bay, or borrowing oil from other teams, or cleaning up oil from the paddock.


Scot checking... something, while two supervisors keep him in check.

Cardboard & Kitty Litter - yep, it's British Leyland!

MGB Head Gasket bubbling like overcooked eel pie

MGB Engine Bay - now with built in rubber glove dispenser for oil cleanup!!

We ended Sunday after 14.5 hours in 66th place overall (out of 121) and 6th in C Class (out of 16) - not too dang bad for having 3 brand new drivers and taking our sweet slow time in the pits.

Race Report: 2012 Capitol Offense - The 24 Hours of LeMons

Race Report: 2012 Capitol Offense - The 24 Hours of LeMons at Summit Point Motorsports Park's Shenandoah Circuit in West Virginia

The Mighty Shenandoah - an MGB Friendly track if there ever was one... 22 turns, no waiting!

Never Mind the Bullocks Here's Gormless Racing MGB!

We had over-revved the engine at the last race and grenaded the engine, and so for this race we had installed not only a tachometer but a Rev Limiter as well, set to 5000 RPM - the suggested point at which cylinder 3 bearing starves for oil, melts down and goes all shambolic.

It worked great as far as we knew - engine didn't blow in any event. We sailed though Tech Inspection.

50 Years, 50 Horsepower, whatever

In the first 40 minutes of the race the accelerator cable popped out of the trunnion and left Driver Carl idling around the remaining 80% of the track, until pulling into the paddock. Remarkably no other teams noticed the speed difference. The FAIL was poetic justice, as Carl was the culprit that had gerry rigged the connection in the first place.

"I have NO IDEA why that trunnion would fail. Weird. Why do you ask?"

Dave and Scot hacked in an emergency repair and it lasted the rest of the race. About an hour total was lost.

"Ah HA! Here's the problem - Hamster wheel came off it's axle."

SEEMS LEGIT

We had also noted a half quart of oil "missing". No one would admit to taking it, but our sister BMW team was in the paddock beside us, and something about Germans stealing English oil rings true - they would not confess however.

2 hours and 15 minutes into the race, Scot driving... the entire pedal assembly holding the brake pedal and the clutch pedal fell off! oops. Scot was nonplussed however - explaining that one bolt was still sort of hanging on, and if he tilted the assembly correctly he could EITHER shift OR brake, but not at the same time - which was fine by him, as he swore to never use the brakes anyway. We noted another barrel of missing oil, so we tightened up the oil cooler lines at the engine and adjusted the connection angle.

"Look MA! I made it all the way to Turn 17!"

The rest of day one was only fun fun fun for us, cranking out the laps - slow yes - but laps none-the-less. Added 1/2 quart oil here and there, while wrapping various oil lines (there seemed to be a 'mist' around the distributor side).

Our poor sister team was pulled into a mashup, and smashed up their front end, enough to moved the drive train an estimated 3 inches forward!! They spent the rest of the evening replacing engine mounts, radiator, and trying to get old Ali running again for the next day. Quite a crowd gathered to help out, late into the night.

:-(

The only 'event' we had Sunday was Dave was attacked through the Esses and the gang of cars sheared off the passenger side mirror!

Saturday Night's Race to the Emergency Room: note inebriated skateboarder hanging onto the moving Boat-Mobile... which would later hit a newish expensive car when doing donuts in the parking lot...

Barely any water loss, so maybe head gasket ok. Oil consumption may be valves, rings, leaky oil pan, or leaky oil cooler hose... or all four. Probably all four.

It wasn't raining, and so "Queenie" was mounted to the windshield wiper post and continued to disapprove of our driving the entire race:

No matter what you asked the old girl, it just wasn't good enough

The home-made Cool Shirt cooler & pump worked spectacularly; highly recommended.

All in all: we finished 64th out of 117 starters... pretty damn good for taking our time swapping drivers, having the pedal assembly succeed from the kingdom, and having only 50 horse power.

Brake Light Switch - Sorry Lucas

Sorry Mr. Lucas, but after we were black-flagged and lost 2 hours during last years Charlotte Motor Speedway race because the MGB brake light switch was crappy, we've replaced you with a higher quality switch from a Datsun 240Z, part number GO300, from eBay for $7.50.

I noticed the pedal arm has some play side-to-side, so I installed the switch at a slight angle; turns out it would not have made a difference but there you go; it's just the price of being gormless.

Here it is installed, with the brake pedal NOT engaged :

Here with the brake pedal partially pushed in:

Here it is installed on the Brake Pedal Box. More Tea, Vicor? 

Firewall less holey, more Englishy

Worked on the firewall more this evening, with the help of Ian (cutting and riveting), Maggie (cutting) and Kira (harassment). The brake pedal box cover had been removed by Previous Owner it was quite vexing trying to fit a replacement, but Stiff Upper Lip pip pip keep looking and Bob's Your Uncle the Earl Gray Tea tin box fit perfectly and looks very proper. Only need one 1.70 or 1.75 inch grommet and a few minor patches here and there and we are done with that task.


Also picked up a '73 B's grill from that most awesome place known as Crazy Ray's - it's not quite year-proper, but the grill pattern is tighter than the metal vertical slats of the earlier models, and will therefore stop more race track debris from impaling our poor radiator. Ian was happy to have the honor of zip-tying the beastie on; should look quite smashing with the metal bumper in place... after all: what good is James Bond's Oxford cut suit without the matching tie?