Countdown: The Last Checkered Flag

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

2008 Wrap-Up

I am fully into my post-race depression. After months of pouring so much time, effort, money, and emotions into the team, I find myself walking around in a bit of a stupor, now that there isn't anything to do. I have been reading race blogs, watching YouTube, reading the Jalopnik coverage, and editing together team videos as a way to artificially keep the excitement up, but coming down is an unavoidable part of the ride. I probably just need to get a track event on the calendar ASAP. The problem is - what is a regular HPDE going to feel like now that I have taken a hit off of the racing crack pipe?

Yesterday was the team "wrap party" at Eric's house, so I will try to wrap-up the online coverage, too.

Here is my compilation video "Team Unintended Acceleration vs. Da Judge." Thematically, I concentrated on our troubles with the Texas-style justice at the race, rather than our driving successes. It's just funnier that way. Oh yeah, and we didn't have any driving successes.




RANDOM MEMORIES, THOUGHTS, AND OBSERVATIONS THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT IN THE ORIGINAL BLOG POSTS
  • On the way to Houston, Lily told Ryan and me that she really wanted to help the team in any way that she could. "I'll even grease your tires, or whatever." Bless her heart, she failed the crew interview, but Ryan says that he is going to marry her anyway.

  • Eric started the race in 24th and finished in 10th, with the fast lap of the day: 1:21.153.

  • Andrew started Saturday in 27th, but ended his stint in 8th. Better yet, he was in 7th place for three laps, which was our highest position of the race.

  • Ryan also started in 27th (after Andrew's alleged penalty), but brought us back to 8th.

  • Kang started in 25th (after Ryan's penalty) and fought his way up to 23rd.

  • I started my Saturday session in 26th (after Kang's penalty) and finished in 21st.

  • After my one hour penalty on Sunday morning, Ken started in 31st and finished in 23rd. After his penalty, we dropped like a rock to 34th (our lowest position), before making a steady climb to finish in 25th. Yes, that's right, we started in 24th and finished in 25th. I think we can do better.

  • Ken has been getting a lot of praise for his work part in pulling the Lexus starter. And he deserves some of it. But, much like the controversial flag-raising photograph on Iwo Jima, the iconic photograph of Ken, starter held over his head in triumph, might not tell the whole story. For historical accuracy, I submit this:
In this photo, you can see the team captain is the first on the scene, and is on his knees, searching for the Lexus starter, while our hero...is eating a sandwich. That's right...leisurely eating a sandwich. Does the photograph tell the whole story? Perhaps not, but I also submit these:

In these photos, you can see Ken practicing his special brand of "heroism" a few years ago, by eating a sandwich, while somebody else is under the car making repairs for a race (in this case, the One Lap of America). I'm not trying to start any trouble, but I am suggesting that Ken has a very, very good press agent.
  • Now that I have had a little fun at Ken's expense, I should point-out that when Ken arrived on Sunday (jet-lagged and tired from a Las Vegas bachelor party), we joked around that we had flown-in our fastest driver. Well, it turned-out that we really had! Ken set our fastest lap time of the race with a 1:21.105. Kenny cool.
  • There is a rumor that there will be two Texas LeMons races next year. That's funny, because there is rumor that we will be running two teams next year.
LINK FLOOD OF RACE COVERAGE

Final Race Results
Photos
Video
  • My primary video got leaked to the press (yes, I leaked it) and was published here: "Team Unintended Acceleration vs. Da Judge" at Autofiends
  • The imbedded YouTube video (same as above) is here: YouTube
  • The CRX tire wall incident (interesting comments): YouTube
  • Kang getting lost and the Ozzy Horn punishment: YouTube
  • Footage from the Lemonade team. Around the 1:40 mark, you can see our car trailing two cars going onto the front straight. We pass them both by the chicane: YouTube
Other Race Coverage and Misc
  • Jalopnik: Top 70 Cars of 24 HoL Texas: Jalopnik

  • Jalopnik: Innovations In LeMons Penalties: McCain's Uphill Slog, Obama's Change We Can Believe In: Jalopnik

  • Jalopnik: Advances in LeMons Penalty Cruelty: The Lexus Starter Removal Challenge! This article highlights our team and perhaps our proudest moment of the race: Jalopnik

  • Jalopnik: The Yeehaw it's Texas 24 HoL Uber Gallery: Jalopnik

  • Jalopnik: Tag search: 24-Hours-Of-Lemons-Texas: Jalopnik

  • Autofiend: Tag search: 24-hours-of-lemons-whats-new: Autofiend

See you next year!

Jimmy

P.S. I reserve the right to ninja-edit this post if new stuff gets posted to the Internets.

1 comment:

  1. Great post! Do you think Ken can do some sort of weekend seminar?

    ReplyDelete