Buttonwillow Day 2 - Sunday Dec 5th

Sunday morning, day two of the Arse-Freeze Appalossa at Buttonwillow. We are feeling good, here is the car jacked up so we can give everything a once over to make sure everything is tight and secure. Fill up with gasoline and ready for an early drivers meeting, 8:30am.

Everyone gathers under the shade structure to listen to Jay Lamm's instructions for Sunday. Most of everything he says is routine until he says, "Well, you guys have been doing so well on the track yesterday, we have decided to mix things up. For today we will run in the opposite direction, counter clockwise instead of clockwise."

A huge moan from all the drives, lots of looks of disbelief! How could he do that, everything we learned on Friday test session and all day yesterday goes out the door. We have no idea what it is like to run the opposite direction. Also, Jay added another corner into the circuit, right in the middle of the "Drag Strip" straight away. Actually that sounds good, slows us down a bit. But the biggest shock to everyone is that no one has practices going counter clockwise. So perfect Lemons, the only thing constant with Lemons is change! Just like the weather.

I am the first driver again, so I have just the smallest advantage in that the two or three parade laps before the green flag is waved will be very slow and I can at least figure out where I would like to be on the track for each corner. Everyone else on our team will have to learn the track at full speed their first time out!

So first we line up before going onto the track. The top 10 finishers from yesterday get to line up at the front and the rest of us fall in behind them. Here I am on the second row of "the rest". So we wait for the Top 10 to make it onto the track and then we roll out behind them. I immediately start thinking about where the best line around the track is in the opposite direction.

Another change for Sunday, the little Fiaguzzi (remember Fiat 600 with a 1000cc Moto Guzzi motorcycle engine in the back) must race with the blue and yellow flag permanently mounted to the side of the car. This flag means to move over, you are about to be over taken. Perfect for this little car as the corner workers were working overtime on Saturday waving this blue and yellow flag at them. Also, this flag make the little Fiat much easier to see ahead of time and plan a place to pass them. Great decision by the Lemon's Staff.

The crowd favorite was back out again, the Lincoln Towncar horse and cowboy.

But they soon had problems on the race track, drew a black flag and ended up in the Penalty Box. Here is the team dressed in pink prison outfits, chained together having to parade around the pits as their penalty. The pink prison outfits are actually used at the Maricopa County prison outside of Phoenix, AZ. The county Sheriff is notorious for treating prisoners with very little respect, make it tough so they will not want to return. An amazing idea! I like it, and I enjoy seeing our Lemon's team dressed the same way, just so long as it's not us.

And thankfully, again, the Dirty Duck Racing team ran clean both days, no MAJOR black flags, well maybe just one. Well there was one little one on Sunday, hardly worth mentioning, why even go over it, are you sure you want to know? OK, seems that when Paul first went out in the morning, on his first lap they waved a black flag at him. He couldn't believe it, how could he have a black flag in one lap? But he came into the pits and the course worker, positioned as you first come off the track, waved Paul over and told Paul he MUST slow down sooner when coming off the race track. Paul grinned and said that this was his first lap out but he would tell the other driver, Mr. Unruly, to slow down. Paul was then pointed back on the track, no lengthy penalty, no visit to the penalty box. See, a black flag hardly worth mentioning! So lets just forget it!

This is a picture on the added corner for Sunday, call Lost Hill or Phil Hill, in the middle of the Drag Strip straight, an up hill and then left and downhill. Fun corner, could take it very fast in the Magic Rabbit. But took a while to learn as we had never seen it in either direction.

White helmet, so this is Paul coming down the "Esses". You can see the top of the new turn, Lost Hill and the corner workers in the background.

Here is a shot looking back at the Esses, a series of three quick back and forth turns, run them flat out. Here you can see the Fiat on the curb trying to stay out of the way of the Jeep Cherokee and the Help Dubai Porsche 924.

The Magic Rabbit ahead of a Porsche 924 with the topless blowup doll riding her hobby horse!

And here we are battling with Christine, the BMW E30.

Closeup shot as the Magic Rabbit turns onto the start/finish straight away. You can see Bugs Bunny riding Shotgun. He loved the wind in his face. In fact his face got very dirty after two days of racing.

Traffic at the "On Ramp" curve, that Volvo station wagon in front of us was the same car that hit us at Thunderhill. This time we were faster and could pass them.

On our inside is the past winner at Thunderhill, Ice Cream for Children Nissan 260Z.

The last driver on Sunday was Tedders, we put him in with a hour to go, we thought. The clouds had rolled in and it was starting to sprinkle when Tedders went out. Immediately the skys opening up and for 15 to 20 minutes Tedders was racing in the rain, heavy at times. In the link of the blog post earlier, the video now includes right at the end, video of the Nissan truck spinning out in the rain right in front of Tedders. He did a great job of keeping the Magic Rabbit on the black stuff and right side up!

As 4pm came and went, we realized that our expectation for a 4pm checkered flag was erroneous! So now we started to worry, will we have enough fuel to make it to 4:30. We hadn't refueled at the last pit stop. We held our breath and we just made it. During that last 30 minutes our standing just moving up, from the high 40's, then into the 30's, then the low 30's. Our competitors where spinning, breaking and having to pit for more fuel. Our little rabbit kept chugging away.

At 4:30 the checkered flag flew, WE MADE IT! And better yet, we finished 30th overall! Over the two days we completed 263 laps or 684 miles. That is 164 miles longer than the Indy 500!! and 64 miles longer than the longest NASCAR race, the Coca Cola 600! With no major mechanical problems, just awesome!

We were all amazed and thrilled at our success. High fives all around and thanks to all the support from out fans.

The awards ceremony at 5pm, first the overall winner of laps completed went to POS racing and their BMW E30 with the F'ed Up theme. They had come very close a number of previous races, this was their first win. $1,500 for them.

And look at the dark clouds behind them.

And the award for the best theme went to the Cowboy and Horse atop the Lincoln Towncar. It finished the race. The team arrived on their stick ponies to accept the trophy.

And the favorite price, the Index of Effluency or IOE award, and $1,501 cash went to the Fiaguzzi! The 1964 Fiat they ran the whole race and stayed out of everyone's way. The car with the least that did the most! They brought the blue/yellow, "move over you are about to be overtaken" flag with them to the victory stand.

Congrats to every team, it was another great time, a total blast. Can hardly wait until March for Sears Pointless at Infineon Raceway.