Spectating a LeMons Race

I love the concept of LeMons racing, but lack the time or money to get into crapcan racing. But what's it like spectating one of these?

I've heard pleanty of glory stories about participating, but how fun is it to watch the chaos unfold? Any suggestions for a first time spectator? I'll probably make it out the NJ event this year.

I went twice to Carolina Motorsports park for Lemons as a spectator/ amateur crew helper with friends. It was a hoot. Both times the car they brought crapped out by midday Saturday and we were left drinking and acting silly. It is better with a group that's about all I have to add.

Hell yeah, man! It's fun. More fun if you help. Volunteer as parts/food runner. Or just get drunk and watch the silliness.

I have been to Summit to watch LeMons. After a while it is just a bunch of goofy looking cars going around the track. Unless something happens on the track. Which thankfully, is about every 10 laps. Now that I have made rude comments and then praised it with more potential rude comments, I can say I would rather be involved with a team than watch..... (Not that I have done that either... But I want to...)

Watched one a couple of years ago and brought my 4 year old son. It's really hard to figure out what's going on. It basically looks like a big practice session for terrible cars that are trying to die. It probably would have been more fun with a group of friends. By the time I was getting the hang of it my son was melting down. Like most amateur road racing, there was nobody at the track who wasn't either racing, crewing, or married/related to a driver.
As much as I want to drive a lemons race, I came away thinking it was a pretty lousy spectator experience.

I have a cousin that comes along with me to all the CMP races and he has an absolute blast meeting people, watching the race, and helping with the car occasionally. He doesn't have any race safety equipment so he can't help fuel or anything but he'll work on the car if there's something to be done. The night time festivities it doesn't matter if you're on a team or not. It's a bunch of car guys hanging out drinking. I won't make it to New Jersey this year, unfortunately. (Fortunately I'll be driving on the Nurburgring at the time! :-)

It might get a little dull if you're not good at meeting people. But if you're not afraid of charging up to a group of guys and introducing yourself, and repeating that until you find some folks you like, you'll probably have a blast and find some new friends.

Good point ^^^ I suppose it depends on the track, but LeMons at CMP is some of the best racing I've seen.

80 cars on a .9 mile track? YES PLEASE!!!

Hint: There's an App for the phone you can download to track the leaders. Makes it a lot more interesting. No phone? At the last one at CMP that I went to, they had a big screen TV for a leaderboard.

Our team (3 Pedal Mafia) will be there with 4 cars: Civic Wagovan, Boat, TR7 V6, and the debut of the Rolls Royce. Feel free to stop by and hang out. Spectating is a lot more fun if you have a team or three that you "know" to pay attention to, class battles to watch, etc. having Race Monitor also helps to give you an idea of what is actually happening in the race, to give more context to the cars going around the track. And, as was said, the evening festivities are lots of fun.

It can depend. We have had extremely satisfied and extremely dissatisfied spectators. I hate spectating because I'd rather be part of it, but, twice now I have brought Tunakid #1 and #2 to watch with me. With young kids, the experience is frightening. Normal race cars are hard to see out of, loud, and difficult to drive in the paddock. Lemons cars also are always overheating, low on oil, have no brakes, and are questionably constructed to begin with. I clung to my kids like they clung to me when I tried to throw them in a pool for the first time. They did enjoy it in small doses though. Without a team to go root for/with, it might not be as much fun, but you could easily make a few friends and have a good time.

Most of the exciting stuff happens in the Pits or the Penalty Box. Walking around and meeting people, checking out the cars, watching the repairs, etc. is half the fun. If you've a vested interest in a particular team, watching their progress as they fight it out with their closest rivals, keeping an eye on timing/scoring, paying attention to their pit strategies, etc. can be fun. The 1000 foot view of the race is probably not that interesting.

I will say at summit point it is probably the best because if and or when you get bored it is in the middle of hyperfest so there are INSANE amounts of things going on during the day.

+1 on the summit point lemons/hyperfest weekend extravaganza. a lot of fun stuff to do.

Show up. Bring beer. Find an underdog to root for. Have fun.

Seriously. Because there are crap cans, find a car that looks like it may not be able to make it to the end of the first day. Every lap it completes will be a victory. My friends and I once cheered on an Audi as it struggled to make it up the hill on turn-2 at Infineon. Everyone danced for joy when it finally got to the top.

Will be flagging lemons at summit for the third year in a row this year.

About as fun to spectate as any amateur road racing.

Being out on station all day it quickly devolves into finding more little jokes on the cars as they circulate, which can keep you amused for a very long time.

Lots of people over at hyperfest and stuff to see over there as well. (but I am always on station when cars are out, so wouldn't know)

This will be the first Lemons at Summit that I don't have a ride. Should have gotten off my butt earlier :( But yea, if you go that weekend even if you get tired of spectating Lemons, there's NASA racing, drift, karting, rollover contest, car show, rednecks, etc. to see. You won't be bored at HyperFest.

I like watching the idiots who get black-flagged come in for their penalties. At Gingerman a few years back, they had the "Arc Angel"—a woman wearing metal angel wings and a welding helmet—attach penalties to cars. They had a hard time finding metal in the roof of the Bucksnort team's E30. Most of it was Bondo, and smelled like Bondo burning when she finally found enough metal to weld to.

Beer Baron wrote: Show up. Bring beer. Find an underdog to root for. Have fun. Seriously. Because there are crap cans, find a car that looks like it may not be able to make it to the end of the first day. Every lap it completes will be a victory. My friends and I once cheered on an Audi as it struggled to make it up the hill on turn-2 at Infineon. Everyone danced for joy when it finally got to the top.

One team's terminally-rusty '60-something Thunderbird blew up a trans mightily early in one race I went to see. They spent all weekend trying to find the right combination of Ford bell housing, axle, etc. to get it back together and running. When they did make it back on track mid-day Sunday, they got a standing ovation from the crowd (of about 30 people).

A few dozen laps later, the torque converter started on fire.

Watching a LeMons race is always fun.

There's as much (if not more) happening in the pits as there is on the course. Watching the bodging is as much fun as watching the race.

Yeah. The more I think about it, as little of a fan as I generally am of WATCHING racing, LeMons is the only series I'd pay a few bucks to watch. I get the sense that people who love watching NASCAR but find LeMons boring are not so much car guys, but car-related soap opera fans.

I'll always find somebody to root for, usually (as someone else said) the underdog. We go to the dirt oval once a year or so. Even the girls get into it, because the races are short, and we all pick a favorite car.

I didn't find it to be that great. I should gone for the first day instead of the second though.

Guessing the track makes a big difference too. Road Atlanta is spectator-friendly for ANY kind of racing. CMP was pretty badass when they were running the short course. You could stand on a bucket and see the whole track, or sit in the bleachers at Turn 1 and be no more than 40' from the action (seems like it's closer than that, but I didn't want to exaggerate.) You may even get lucky and see the Tunachuckers' tire go flying by at 80mph...and keep going, and going, and going, and then see the car come sliding by at 20mph a few seconds later.

This is true too. The track I went to (Autobahn Country Club) has a lot of trees and you can't really spectate the more interesting back part (for those familiar with the place, it's the north section only). So it was basically the same section over and over. Road Atlanta is in a different class altogether.

poopshovel wrote: You may even get lucky and see the Tunachuckers' tire go flying by at 80mph...and keep going, and going, and going, and then see the car come sliding by at 20mph a few seconds later.

THE COMPRESSOR WAS UNPLUGGED!

Life lesson. Never use an impact gun to tighten lug nuts.

I was a staff member at a few and raced in one.

Tech inspection was kinda fun as the arrivals got the opportunity to present their themes. There was some hilarious stuff. I was literally in tears laughing at some of the things people came up with.

I got burned out after a few events, though, and the events themselves seemed to lose a lot of energy, as well. The first few times the humor was fresh and intense, but it got stale and repetitive after a while. It became more and more about the money for the organizers and about winning by the participants. It was less and less about being creative and entertaining. So, for me, the spectator value has dropped off considerably. I'd still like to race in one, but I couldn't be bothered just watching. It might be different if it is your first time.

Diminishing returns. And I'm with you. If I'm not making money at it (whatever "it" is,) then I'd much rather have fun than win. The last couple events have definitely been about 50% of the fun as the first couple. Such is life.