I don’t always make a 14 hour drive down to a place and spend 24 hours there just to drive 14 hours back. Before I get too lost in the details of the weekend, let’s backtrack to what led me to doing this crazy, but fun, trip. When 24 Hours of Lemons announced they would be hosting a race at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca, I immediately knew I wanted to go. I registered our GUTS Mini Cooper hoping to get the chance to send it around the legendary track with all the other crazy Lemons cars that would be there. The organizers informed everyone that it would be a limited invite based on track limitations and that they would review all applicants and figure out a way to decide who would get the opportunity. In typical Lemons fashion, they did a drawing from a grab bag. Sorry, what I meant to say is, drawing 10mm sockets from a pan of dirty oil. The GUTS Mini Cooper was not picked but I knew several of the cars/captains going down so I messaged them all a congratulations and started prepping for our next race adventure. One of the teams that did get picked was the Nachofriends Celica that I had raced with at the 25:01 hours of Thunderhill.
When Bobby (owner/ captain of Nachofriends) offered me the opportunity to race with them again at the 20th anniversary race I was all in. I was able to make it to their shop and assist with some of the prep like replacing the cracked exhaust header on the Celica. I also chose to help out by being a copilot with the car hauler and they gladly accepted. We set off on the trip at 0 dark thirty on Sunday morning since the race schedule was Tech on Sunday night, race on Monday. The drive down was long but smooth, spending a lot of time making dumb jokes and shooting the breeze with Reagan, one of the other drivers.
Once we arrived we hung out in an auxiliary lot waiting for the opportunity to swing over to the garages and unload. Hanging out there, seeing the other cars and the track for the first time, I was excited and anxious about the race the following day. We didn’t have much work to do on the car that night, mostly confirming alignment and installing the Garmin Catalyst set-up. Sadly, the video didn’t come out but it was fun for all the drivers to observe their lap times in real time. The paddock party that night was really cool. It was almost like a high school reunion but for a bunch of crazy gear heads in random costumes. Catching up with everyone you may not have even had a chance to race with yet, hearing about their builds and hearing of their same giddiness about being there was quite memorable.
The next morning, we headed back to the track after a deep sleep at the hotel and I had the honor of being the starting driver. I suited up and hopped in, took a deep breath and went to start the car just to find we had a dead battery. Once we got the chance to jump it I pulled out and made it just in time to take the green flag. My first corner after it went green just so happened to be the famous corkscrew. I nervously dropped in the first time and it blew my mind how fun it was when the car launched out of the bottom. I didn’t want to push the car too hard because I wanted to ensure everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the thrill of the course, but I still had to make sure to set down a solid fast lap for everyone else to chase. Just before the end of my stint I gave the team a honk and a wave to notify them I was coming in the next lap. After pulling into the pits I handed off the car and waited to assist with later pit stops. I got the opportunity to walk around and take pictures of the car all around the track.
About halfway through the day we checked the standing and were pleasantly surprised and a little bit confused when we found ourselves leading C-class. It was not our plan to be competitive but we were also cruising pretty fast and consistent. It was not meant to be though, as we did run out of brake pads during our second-to-last driver’s stint. Thankfully they were able to save the car and get it back to the garage. We quickly threw in new brake pads and sent them back out to go finish out the race. It really was an awesome time and made it worth towing the car all the way home that night, after getting a solid meal at a Mexican restaurant (of course). Sincere thanks to the Nachofriends crew and I look forward to next time. Hope to see you there!
