Scrolling through recaps of “All Things Considered,” you don’t expect a GRM sticker to catch your eye.
But here we are.
On an apparently a slow news day, one of NPR’s flagship shows chose to profile racers in the 24 Hours of Lemons series. Reporter Bill Chappell examined …
I missed that one but they're my go to when I'm traveling and can't tune in or stream my local indie station.
I heard it on the radio yesterday. Super surprised but happy none the less.
Mega!
I think they like to throw in fun news segments to help offset all the serious stuff going on in the world. My local station has a habit of including a funny animal story at the end of each top of the hour headline report.
I hope this leads to a few new faces turning up at Lemons races in the near future.
stuart in mn said:I think they like to throw in fun news segments to help offset all the serious stuff going on in the world. My local station has a habit of including a funny animal story at the end of each top of the hour headline report.
Part of why I've always enjoyed listening to NPR are stories like these. Heard it on All Things Considered on my drive home and about laughed and smilied hearing about it.
They also had a story on Ice Racing back in Feb on Morning Edition
In reply to aw614 :
I've lived in Minnesota all my life and have always wanted to check out ice racing in person, but have never got around to it. Standing around on a frozen lake isn't the best environment for spectating. 
Once you filter out the politics, NPR has some of the best journalism in the biz. But you can get almost all the good stuff streamed individually and not have to filter at all.
I was really surprised about this. wish they had also mentioned chump car, babe rally, ect. their listeners need to know that low buck racing is a thing
Babe rally hasn't been a thing since like 2012.
NPR mentions a couple of times (and it is in the title to the story) that the cars have to cost $500 or less. How does this actually work?
I know that this magazine's $20xx challenge keeps track of expenses, some things are exempt, there are rules for trading/selling parts, claiming FMV on parts already owned, etc. How closely does Lemons look into budgets? Just wondering if folks are actually endurance racing $500 cars.
I also heard the report, and mentioned it to my wife who had also heard it. She really isn't interested in motorsports, but she said that it sound like fun racing.
SEADave said:NPR mentions a couple of times (and it is in the title to the story) that the cars have to cost $500 or less. How does this actually work?
Hokay, so...
In the beginning lemons actually was about $500 cars. They wanted you to bring the craigslist ad, the bill of sale, something. Then they started letting the judges work it out. Maybe you brought a car with some nice shocks and a case of yuengling. Is this cheating? Yes. Is it acceptable? Also yes. As years went by people realized that the organizers want it to be in the Spirit of Lemons, not a hard fast $500. So if you bring a cheaty car, be ready to take penalty laps. If you bring a car that shouldn't be on a racetrack, be ready to be classed lightly. Bring something really dumb that won't be competitive(like my teams' diesel Benzes) and they won't care that you spent thousands of dollars to be noncompetitive.
It turns out that bringing a more expensive car doesn't win you a 14 hour endurance race. Bring a car that's reliable and have fun. I get more track time in one race than a lot of people would in a year, it just so happens that it's in a slow old diesel mercedes.
In reply to buzzboy :
Like that Viper V10 Rolls Royce?' Fiy hunnert dollars mhy ass. Little do the keyboard jockeys realize that that thing will never, ever win. Its rad. Its stupid. It's not a threat to winning.
Neal Losey, Music Director/Host of Morning Cup and Night Train at KCBX Public Radio (NPR station) in San Luis Obispo, CA, also enjoys the sport of low buck racing.
From his bio, "Besides sharing music, Neal loves racing cars in the 24 Hours of Lemons (he's the 2014 West Coast points champion) and Chump Car racing series ..."
We are an eclectic group!
Our team is the B210 team and the lady with the Lemons earrings is one of us.
The NPR guy was an interesting fellow. We talked to him for a while Friday night and he tracked us down again on Saturday.
Maybe someone should invite NPR in the future for such festivities.
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