Where The Elite Meet To Cheat Day One: MX-3 Leads, Monte Carlo Close Behind
After a long, occasionally rain-soaked race session, it was no surprise to find that Hong Norrth, winner of the Cain’t Git Bayou race (and two others in ’11) held the lead at the end of the day.
The Hong Norrth MX-3 is quick and the team doesn’t spin out or commit cone-icide (though they did benefit from ownership of several Get Out of Penalty Box Free cards in escaping from pass-under-caution busts today). It looks like Mazda may end the season with the manufacturer’s trophy, which would be a huge upset over 2010-dominating BMW.
However, a lot can happen between now and tomorrow night’s checkered flag, especially with the Simon Says Integra menacing the MX-3 from just three laps back. The Acura is a bit quicker than the Mazda, so Hong Norrth can’t afford to make a single mistake on Sunday.
14 laps behind the Integra, we find the extremely rusty Team Molde Carlo Chevy. Yes, it should be impossible for this monster to hang with the nimble front-drive Japanese cars on CMS’s tight, twisty road course, but the Molde Carlo has threatened to win several LeMons races at similarly cramped Carolina Motosports Park in the past. A rash of black flags and/or minor mechanical problems for the Acura and Mazda would be the invitation the Monte Carlo has been waiting for.
Meanwhile, Unununium Legend of LeMons Speedycop has done it again, with this… this… well, I’m not sure quite what to call this car. It’s a rollover-victim BMW E36 with (if I recall correctly) ’42 Buick fenders, a ’50 Dodge roof and hood, and a ’51 Plymouth grille. Aside from an unnerving tendency to scrape the bodywork on turns, it’s looking pretty quick on the track.
The Tunachuckers managed to keep their ’75 LTD Landau on the track, in stark contrast to their bad-fuel-system nightmare at the last South Carolina race. The Landau is on the ponderous side, but reliability counts for a lot in LeMons racing.
We’re hoping the weather will be a bit nicer on Sunday, after being forced to throw the checkered flag 15 minutes early due to a massive rain shower that flooded the storm drains on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s road course. Life was hard for the teams that didn’t show up early enough to grab the covered garage spaces.
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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Here is a potential racer for So Cal teams: http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/cto/2613992857.html It just needs a Toyota drivetrain, a cage, and a theme.
The Mazda leading makes me remember... I think someone said something here on TTAC about the 323 being a great car, well I found one on CL for $850 near Buffalo, NY http://buffalo.craigslist.org/cto/2613378212.html Needs plenty of work, but maybe someone can make it their project car hell or something. Good luck.