Remember that part of Truth in 24 where Jason Statham growls “It always rains at Le Mans?” In the 24 Hours of LeMons, that would be “It always rains at Sonoma.” Ok, not really, but LeMons’ spring and winter races at Sonoma regularly seem plagued by rainstorms that make the already-difficult track even more challenging. This weekend’s Sears Pointless at Sonoma Raceway may find rain threatening LeMons West Coast opener, but with a solid crowd and two Hooniverse writers around to guide you through the livestream of the race, this should be a good one.

ABOUT THE LIVE STREAM

About a month before the race, Julian Cordle from RacerConnect asked if I was interested in heading to this race to help him with some commentary for RaceCast.me. The plan is to have a commentary stream for the racing along with segments from the Penalty Box, paddock, and wherever else we can find LeMons people doing LeMons stuff. With some partnership help from our friends at Fresh Air Systems Technologies (F.A.S.T.)—who make cool shirts, helmet-blower setups, and a lot more—you can tune into RaceCast.me this weekend to find Julian Cordle, Hooniverse writer Bradley Brownell, and myself talking with and about crapcans live from Sonoma
Here is the RaceCast event page for this race with multiple cameras, including the commentary stream.

ABOUT THE RACE

Built on a hill in California’s Wine Country, Sonoma Raceway remains one of the most grueling and difficult race tracks that LeMons visits. With lots of blind corners, high speeds, and large fields, a bent fender or two is inevitable. This race features a smaller entry list (155 cars, unofficial entry list here) than past LeMons races at Sonoma, but the beginning of the race will still feature some of the thickest racing traffic anywhere on the planet.

Of course, the major triumph for our readers will be Hooniverse and Tim Odell building a new ‘62 Ford Falcon Ranchero after the first Los Huevos Ranchero was party to an unfortunate crash at Sonoma last year. The Hooniverse-chero isn’t the oldest car registered, however; we’re excited to see CheesyBeard’s Racing (A+ team name, by the way) registered with LeMons’ first Nash Metropolitan.

You can always count on LeMons for some great engine swaps and this race has plenty. The Wasted Potential El Camino-ized ‘63 Rambler (the “Ramblero”, above) features Ford’s Big Six 300 cubic-inch inline engine. It sounds fantastic, looks like hell, and goes like stink. It likely will race the Bodge Engineering “RoLex,” a Rover SD1 with a Toyota 1UZ-FE V8 from an early ‘90s Lexus flagship.

A pair of water-cooled swaps should keep things interesting in Class B. Ferdinand the Bug from Hella Shitty Racing runs a Subaru flat-four engine in the back of the Beetle chassis while the EASY 908/14 (above) is a Porsche 914 with a Volkswagen 2.0-liter ABA engine in it. Both of them are much quicker than they have any right to be. Just to keep things on an even keel, the Zitronen Commando Volkswagen Vanagon will race with its original(-ish) Wasserboxer.

Body swaps are great in LeMons and while the NAFM Racing “Chevy S10” is registered for this race, we haven’t seen it but once before in LeMons despite registering for several races. I think this is a Pontiac Fiero chassis with a GM 3.8-liter V6 swap and body panels from a Chevy S10 and Oldsmobile Bravada. Whatever it is, it’s great and we hope to see it in Sonoma.

There are also three uninteresting GM Vortec (i.e. truck versions of LS engines) swaps in the field: Team Highway Robbery’s FD Mazda RX-7, Black Iron Racing’s “Brougham” BMW E34, and the Cannonball Bandits’ Toyota Supra. Cheaters!

If you’re running some kind of underground LeMons betting pool, you can probably set odds on the overall winners from the pool of highly successful multiple race winners in the field: Cerveza Racing (BMW E28, 10 wins), the Model T GT (8 wins), Eyesore Racing (turbo Mazda Miata, 7 wins, above). The Faustest Team (BMW E30), Southworst Aviation (Ford Mustang), and Blowe’s Racing (Mitsubishi Eclipse) should factor in somewhere, too.

More importantly, a good Class A car should have a killer theme like the Logjammin’ BMW E30 (above). If you do a J and squint it, looks a bit like The Dude’s Ford Torino from The Big Lebowski.
 

SEARS POINTLESS AT A GLANCE

[Photos: Eric Rood, Murilee Martin, Nick Pon]