And the Winner Is…

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

For most of the ’11 Goin’ For Broken race, the battle for the overall win seemed to be all about the Spin-N-Out Burger E30 and the Model T GT… but a lot can happen over the course of 24 nonstop hours of road racing. We had snow, gusty winds, dust storms, wild horses, and— eventually— a whirlwind of mechanical problems and black flags that knocked out the top two contenders. You don’t dare make any mistakes when you’ve got the winningest car in LeMons history looming in your rear-view, and Eyesore Racing’s ghettocharged Miata made its move at oh-dark-thirty this morning.

During a drinking bout with Judge Jonny a couple weeks back, several members of 2010 season champs Eyesore Racing indicated that they’d be re-theming their Miata with a full-on Manson Family decorative scheme. “If you don’t paint the car in full Helter Skelter mode,” we warned them, “you’ll be getting 100 penalty laps!” Thinking we hadn’t been serious about the Manson Family thing, Eyesore showed up at Reno-Fernley Raceway with their old Charlie Sheen theme from their last race. Big mistake! Facing those 100 laps, the team bought paint at Wal-Mart and spent the night painting revolutionary slogans and White Album lyrics on their car. I still gave them a few BS laps on general principle, but not enough to keep them from beating the Spin-N-Out BMW by 3 laps. Congratulations on your fourth LeMons victory, Eyesore Racing!

Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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 3 comments
  • Ian Williams Ian Williams on May 16, 2011

    Interesting how the things changed overnight. When I went home around 1930 I figured the Spin N Out E30 or the Model T RatRod would win as they had been running hot all day.

  • Hogie roll Hogie roll on May 16, 2011

    Lame.

    • Erik_t Erik_t on May 17, 2011

      There is nothing lame about the ghettocharging. Derivative, perhaps... maybe more residual value should be assigned (although I personally think not). But it's a legitimate garbagecrap race car.

  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
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