Born in a junkyard as a 24 Hours of LeMons competitor. Survived! Then turned into a track champion earning podium finishes in Redline Time Attack, NASA Road Racing Performance Touring F, 24 Hours of LeMons, SCCA Solo 2 and FRX Rally Cross.

KRIDER RACING

2007 - 24 Hours of LeMons Thunderhill, 2nd in class, 5th overall out of 71 teams!

DRIVERS: Rob Krider, Randy Krider, Dave Schotz, John Linbarger & Mike Fortner

24 Hours of Lemons A Survivor’s Diary

Story by Rob Krider (as published in MotoRacing)

Photos by Steve Kuhtz, Shannon Oren, Nissa Krider and Jim Krider

If life gives you lemons, race ‘em.

It all started out so innocently. It was just a friendly phone call that went something like this, “Hey, you hear about this crazy race, the 24 Hours of Lemons where you race in $500 cars?”

“Yeah, I think I read something about it somewhere.”

“They are doing it at Thunderhill, you wanna go?”

“… sure.”

“Sure,” it’s a four letter word. A binding agreement that unknowingly sent me into an adventure filled with cold rainy late nights busting my knuckles, endless arguments with my wife about “how selfish” I was for racing between Christmas and New Years, and what seemed like hundreds of trips to Autozone who, thank God, is open all night. And all of that before the race even started.

When the race weekend actually arrived I was faced with the task of convincing the Lemon’s judges, who were appropriately decked out in black robes and white wigs, that our little Nissan Sentra (fully prepared racecar painted like the 1972 BRE 2.5 Trans Am Champion Datsun 510) was only worth $500 (not including wheels, tires and safety equipment). I did this using smoke, mirrors, some crumpled up receipts and a case of Natural Ice beer. Bringing a car with a fairly nice paint job to the LeMons event was a big mistake. Most of the cars entered in the event were so ugly a sixteen year old boy wouldn’t even drive one across town to see a girl whose parents were gone for the weekend.

The next task on hand for my team of drivers (comprised of autocrossers, motorcycle racers and a salesman) was to learn how to drive a car around an actual racetrack at race speeds in the middle of traffic. During practice on Friday, I took it upon myself to lead by example and show the team what not to do by stuffing the left front fender of my Sentra into the right rear quarter panel of a really nice BMW. Whoops! My bad. The incident was totally my fault but in the end, whose the real dummy? Me, the bad driver, or the guy dumb enough to bring a nice BMW to a $500 car race? After what I like to describe as “minor contact” the BMW went off course into the mud while the Nissan Sentra sat still as it attempted to make a hard left turn with the left wheel while at the same time making a hard right turn with the right wheel. Not good.

What the team learned from this were two things: 1. I couldn’t drive. 2. The Nissan was soft. Like Mike Tyson's first wife, it couldn’t take a hit. The left tie rod folded up like a wet baloney sandwich. After some blaming, hammering and alignment a la a piece of string we were back on track. Each driver got a chance to scare the rest of the team by sliding the car in the rain and narrowly missing large tire pile chicanes on the front straight.

Race day came and with our new found knowledge that our car was about as tough in a car crash as a moped, we decided our race strategy would be the “run, duck and cover” method of racing. When the green flag waived and 71 drivers got the red mist and started driving like mad men (and women), we just hung in the back and watched the show as crash after crash occurred, and penalty after penalty was handed out. After about the first hour, multiple teams were out with major problems, blown motors, crunched front ends, or large metal pigs welded to the roof of their cars. Once the carnage settled down we started to make some passes where it was safe.

Our spotter on the radio let us know when a menacingly fast Mazda 626, titled the Mazdasaurus was coming up on our backside. We just moved over and waived them by. They had enough metal on the front of that car to make Mad Maxx envious. The car was wicked fast and driven recklessly. Almost like it knew it had a date with an excavator on Sunday courtesy of the People’s Curse Award (which it did).

At hour seven, after some lucky breaks on pits stops under yellows, Krider Racing was in the lead. That was when the right front wheel started making noises. We brought the car in to find that there was only one lug nut holding on the wheel. Three of the four studs had broken. We brought a parts car just in case something like this happened and the team worked furiously and got a new (used) spindle off of the donor car and onto the racecar in 23 minutes (beat that Holman-Moody). We headed back on course but had moved back to fifth position from the pit stop. That was how we ended the first day, in fifth place.

Once the race was done for the day, smart people climbed in their motor homes and went to sleep. We stayed up late and hung out, bench racing, riding bicycles around the race track, trading parts, stories and tri tip with other teams in the pits. Some teams were doing heroic all night motor swaps. Other teams were loading up their crashed and rolled over $500 heaps onto trailers.

The next day, after some much needed Aspirin and coffee we got back in the race and moved up to third place. Then one of our drivers redecorated the right side of our car with a tire barrier. This earned us a mandatory 30 minute penalty where we couldn’t work on the car. So we stared at it while it sat in the penalty box for 30 minutes debating what we thought might be wrong with the car (other than the fact one of our drivers couldn’t drive any better than me).

Once the penalty was over (seemed like forever) I jumped in the seat, strapped in and tried to peddle my way back up the field from our new position of 16th place. Near the end of the race I could hear the right front wheel making noises again (I knew wheel studs were leaving the building). I wasn’t sure if I should take it easy or just go for it. I didn’t really know how much of the race was left (we didn’t think to put a $2 Pep Boys digital clock in the car). Our radios were cutting in and out so I had no idea what was going on. Then I saw someone on the pit wall hold up a sign that simply read, “BALLS!” I figured that was a sign (literally) that the race was coming to an end. I ran the car hard, praying the wheel stayed on and made a last second pass on a quick CRX to claim the 5th place spot overall and second in class.

This is the part of where I jump out of the window of my car just like Jeff Gordon and hold the Pepsi bottle just right so the camera can clearly see the entire logo and take a swig. Krider Racing would like to thank in alphabetical order: Aztech Pool Plastering, B&G Tire, Bay Ex Delivery Company, Bell Products Inc., C.J. Fix Co. Bookkeeping and Tax Preparation, Carbotech Brakes, Circuit Sports (Phase2Motortrend), Dave Wolin Motorsports, Edge Motorworks, Factory Tire, Figstone Graphics,
G Spec, HP 234, Jim Krider for Napa City Council ’08, Jim Wolf Technology, Jimmy Vasser Dealerships, Kuhtz Diehl Insurance and Financial Services, Lowe’s Specialties, M-Workz, Miracle Auto Painting and Repair, Napa Valley Muffler, Nissan Motorsports, NISsport, SCCA Forums.com, ST Suspensions, Silver Auto Service, Sunnyside Body Shop, and Unorthodox Racing. Plus big props to Sara, Steve, Tim and the whole Krider family for feeding us and making mad dash runs to WalMart to get things like rallye lights and fire extinguishers.

Will I ever run the 24 Hours of Lemons again?

“Sure.”

I guess we impressed someone at the 24 Hours of LeMons because Jalopnik.com gave us mad love at the event: Krider Racing / Jalopnik.com

BEFORE LEMONS

After we got the car for $85 at from a tow yard we competed in Formula Rallye-X where we earned 3rd place at Antioch.

Testing the car during the Redline Time Attack at Laguna Seca where we scored 3rd place in the Street Car Front Wheel Drive class. Read about it at: Edge Motorworks/Krider Racing

We ran an SCCA autocross with our Lemon and picked up first place at the Bill Flieg Enduro in E Prepared.

AFTER LEMONS

We replaced the right side of the car. Fine tuned a few things and competed in NASA Road Racing. We finished first in the Performance Touring F Class at Infineon Raceway while running with the United States Touring Car Championship cars.

CLICK HERE TO READ NASA EVENT COVERAGE IN THE REGISTER