As LeMons fans already know, the battle for the ‘2010 season points championship has come down to Calfornia’s Eyesore Racing and Texas’ Red Rocket Ratnest Revival. On Saturday, the Ratnests’ SHO suffered a major mechanical setback and appeared to have no chance at the top-10 finish needed to get those all-important points.
When the Ratnests’ wheel bearing let go on Saturday afternoon, the team lost a couple of precious hours dealing with the fix. Sure, they’d get the 3 regional-standings points for starting the race, but that wouldn’t help them in the national standings— and those are the standings that matter if your team wants the free trip to France. Dry weather for most of Sunday gave the SHO pilots the opportunity they needed to fight for a position in the top ten of the standings. Them Texas boys was really haulin’ the mail, in the words of Judge Sam, with a blistering best lap time of 1:18.323 (second only to— and this has got to be a Timing & Scoring error— the Save The Ta-Tas 3rd-gen Camaro). When the checkered flag waved, the Red Rocket Ratnest Revival SHO had managed to claw its way to ninth place, which means they now have 39 points versus Eyesore’s 44.
Who the heck do you root for here? The Eyesore folks definitely get LeMons and do everything right… but they drive a Miata! The Ratnest SHO gets daily-driving use and was driven to the track for its two overall wins… but where’s the theme? Both teams deserve the prize, but only one gets it. The SHO will be at the New Orleans race and probably the Miami event, while Eyesore will be at Buttonwillow with two cars… and there’s talk that we’ll have the Ghettocharged Miata at the Fulgencio Batista Celebration Of Free Enterprise And Unfettered Capitalism race. Things are going to get verrrry interesting.
Red Rocket Ratnest SHO Bounces Back From Blasted Bearing, Edges Closer To Overall Points Win!
October 26th, 2010
October 26th, 2010 - 3:19 pm
I’m torn: i live down the street from Sergio in the rocket, but I’m a long time fan of Dave from back in his SCC days with his Datsun 510.
I may drive to Palm Beach to watch this shootout. I’ll probably end up rooting for the home team. Sorry Eyesore.
October 26th, 2010 - 6:08 pm
I’m torn, I have been lucky enough to be a SW Regional Judge, I was in awe when I was passed by the RatNest SHO on I-10 heading down to the Bayou. In a way it pissed me off to know they had such confidence in a $500 RatTrap to drive to a race 6 hours away. But as time has gone on I realized this team works hard at being clean drivers with fast driver changes and they do nothing poorly…except for their theme.
I have worked with or judged 5 or 6 races and could not pick Sergio or any of his other drivers out of a line-up and I was looking errrr waiting to see them.
California’s’s Eyesore Racing, I know only what I have read and they seam to be all about Lemons and they drive very well. While I understand RatNest, LeMons is about the full package, Drivers, Themes, Finishes and so on and with that I side with California’s’s Eyesore Racing. If RatNest can re-theme and run well in the Bayou it could be a coin toss but it would need to be one hell of a theme.
October 26th, 2010 - 8:36 pm
That’s a tough decision. I’m a Ford guy and give uber props to them for racing a Taurus AND street driving it.
But I’ve raced against the Eyesore guys since the beginning 3 years ago, and they are a great group who really know what they’re doing and embody the LeMons spirit fully. I gotta go with them.
October 27th, 2010 - 9:19 am
Having come up w the theme for the Ratnest car with Sergio, I think it’s a great story. Not sure if everyone knows the story – you may still think the theme sucks. But…
One of our friends originally had the car. In it’s ‘glory days’ he called it the Red Rocket. When he put it out to pasture, it sat for seven years. During that time, it sunk into the ground, a tree fell on it busting the windshield, and rain repeatedly came into the car for years. Our friend was going to have it hauled off, but offered it to Sergio for free if he’d just come get it.
The car seats were completely eaten up w mold and algae. I mean, it was really an unsightly, stinky, crapheap, gross, bio-hazard. The best part, it still had what was left of a mixed drink in the cupholder… Perfect for LeMons!
Anyway, when they popped the hood to check out the motor it was a complete ratnest; you could barely even see the intake runners it was so full of crap the rats had packed in there to make their nest. The excrement had ruined the finish on what is usually a great looking SHO motor.
It took a lot of elbow grease to get the car back to where you’d even dare to sit in it, much less drive it, but within a couple of weeks Sergio had it running, although when he started it for the first time he had to standby with a fire extinguisher while what was left of the ratnest had to burn off. A true revival!
Ergo the Red Rocket… Ratnest… Revival The theme is truly the car.
We typically glue rats all over the car but lose them all at some point during every event (except for the one zip-tied onto the roof).
So there you have it. I may be a little biased (OK, a lot), but Sergio (my personal favorite guy in the whole world), Martin, & Jay are all great guys, great drivers, and I hope they can pull it off!
October 28th, 2010 - 10:01 am
To Angela P,
I’m glad someone finally explained the name! Awesome story and I’m rooting for the home team Texans, too, although I have much respect, and envy, for the EyeSore team.
October 31st, 2010 - 9:50 pm
Hi Angela,
I’m glad to see that both of our cars started out as abandoned pieces of crap that weren’t worth anything to anyone except idiots who would build them into racecars.
I love that your team daily drives the car (though I’d be scared to death to daily something with a roll cage) and drive it to and from the track. That’s pure badassary. “Badassary” is not a word known to Microsoft.
Is Red Rocket headed to Miami? If so, we want to pit beside you. We’re really anxious to meet your team and think it would be the bee’s knees to have the season come down to the final race with two teams pitted next to each other.
If we get there first, we’ll keep a spot open for you and hope that you’d do the same for us.
See you there!
Kyle
Eyesore Racing
November 1st, 2010 - 9:12 am
Hey there Kyle! It looks like you guys have a leg up on our rat-crap-heap, but we’re talking about all the possibilities and budgetary issues associated with making the trip to Miami.
If we end up deciding to go, we’d be proud to pit beside you and will look forward to meeting you all as well.
Good luck!
Angela
RRRR