RacingJunk.com Gives Life to LeMons
North Adams, MA (PRWEB) November 26, 2013 -- They are the most feared vehicles out there. They live on dirty lots and demolition sites in the seedy parts of town. Even Hollywood implied their involved in organized crime in the movie CARS 2. But RacingJunk.com believes LeMons cars have gotten a bad rap and therefore are partnering with the 24 Hours of LeMons racing series to open the doors and break down the barriers of buying, selling and trading LeMons racing cars.
As one of the fastest growing sectors of motorsports, and one of the least expensive, LeMons cars are hitting race tracks across the country. Car counts for events can reach over 150 entries and often sell out. RacingJunk will provide a free classifieds platform on both 24HoursofLeMons.com and RacingJunk.com to buy-sell-trade LeMons racing cars and equipment. In addition, specific categories will be added to the RacingJunk site for communicating ride-trade and ride-sharing opportunities.
“I recently attended one of their events, and people were having more fun at a race track than I’ve ever seen,” said Shawn Stewart, RacingJunk Director of Business Development. “There was everything from a car that looked like a Corona beer bottle (equipped with a giant lime) to an old ice cream truck. Everyone was in a good mood, having fun, but also truly competing in an endurance race event.”
“I could compare it to Rodney Dangerfield in the Movie Caddyshack. He broke down the barriers of what’s normal for golf at a country club. And he had more fun than those who were so serious about how it’s supposed to be. But yet he was still playing golf to win,” explained Stewart. “After attending the event we wanted to become part of the series and support the racers with a platform to buy, sell and trade the cars and equipment they need.”
According to the rule book racers can’t pay more than $500 for a car prior to the safety equipment. Logic says that you can't get much car for $500, and especially that a lemon couldn’t last for an hour much less 24 hours. But it turned out those heaps are tough, and have found a new life racing in what is now the biggest endurance-race series in the world. Some 9000 drivers participate in its 20-25 giant enduros each year at famed tracks like Sonoma, Barber Motorsports Park, Sebring, and Miller Motorsports Park.
“At the first 24 Hours of LeMons event in 2006, most of the drivers were guys who’d been too slow, too cheap, or too chicken to try ‘real’ racing before,” said Jay Lamm, series creator and long time automotive journalist. “I loved the idea of racing, but hated the seemingly endless costs, hassles, and bad vibes that came with getting started. So I created a just-for-fun endurance road racing series that limited car values to $500 or less, let folks go wheel-to-wheel just on their street license, and pushed away the aggro-fun-spoilers with rules like LeMons 2.4, one that specifically prohibits whiners.”
What’s a good LeMons car? Everything from stretch limos and junked Maseratis to sturdy Toyotas, beaten-down BMWs, and butt-wagging Mustangs are common. Since many races sell out well in advance, weird cars and funny team themes give crews an inside track on making the grid. The drivers are equally varied—one recent team featured three racetrack first-timers plus a former Indy 500 winner. One professional sports car racer, who will remain unnamed, sneaks in LeMons weekends on the side and said, "This really makes racing fun again.”
ABOUT RACINGJUNK.COM
RacingJunk.com, the world’s largest online motorsports marketplace, is a free “one-stop shop” for those looking to buy, sell, trade, or interact with people throughout the automotive and motorcycle racing and performance communities. With over 650,000 registered members, RacingJunk.com connects more than 2.8 million buyers and sellers every month, viewing more than 70 million pages.
RacingJunk.com is a property of MotorHead Media, which owns a portfolio of automotive, motorsports and powersports niche online marketplaces. Other MotorHead Media properties include OldRide.com, HotRodHotline.com, CollectorCarNation.com, SprocketList.com and BikerHotline.com, with a combined total of 80 million page views and 1.8 million unique visitors. MotorHead Media is a division of Internet Brands.
ABOUT 24 HOURS OF LEMONS
The 24 Hours of Lemons is the world's first endurance-race series for cars that cost $500 or less. With its own YouTube channel and 10,000 participants spread across dozens of races at tracks coast-to-coast, no other event creates bigger, weirder, more hilariously irrational challenges than these weekend-long blowouts of door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper competition between cars that are due for the scrapheap.
The 24 Hours of Lemons is restricted to cars that were purchased, fixed up, and track-prepped for a total of $500 or less. At most venues, the racing consists of tech inspection and track testing on Friday, endurance-race sessions on Saturday and Sunday, and breaks for sleeping, eating, and Band-Aid application every night. Watch for a nearby 24 Hours of LeMons race in 2014.
Robert Adams, MotorHead Media, http://www.racingjunk.com, +1 (866) 326-9227, [email protected]
Share this article