AlanBDahl Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 This last weekend my teammates Sean, Doug, Scott, Bret and I competed at the Reno 24 Hours of LeMons race at Reno-Fernley Raceway in Fernley Nevada. As you may recall we were originally entered in the Thunderhill race back in December but we were cut short by a roll-over crash that destroyed our tow vehicle and trailer but thankfully not the 505. This time we made it down there and were looking forward to the race. At the practice we managed only 5 laps before dumping oil on the track. Turns out that the lines for our RX-7 oil cooler were a little short and the fittings loosened up. Thankfully the local NAPA was able to quickly make us up a couple of extensions for the lines and we were back in business. Saturday things went well for a while but then the shifter jammed in third and we had to use bailing wire to get the shifter working again. Unfortunately the repair cost us 20 minutes but we were back on the track again. I was second-to-last in our 5-driver rotation and finally it was my turn to drive. I quickly learned that road racing is nothing like autocross or the one track day I'd done before. On the second or third lap I got trapped behind a much slower car, jogged to the right around him just at the same time a Mustang tried for the same spot and we came together with a loud bang. I was convinced that the car had been badly damaged but the only evidence of damage was a small bit of white paint on the bumper and one rear wheel. Normally when there is an on-track collision both cars are black flagged and called into the pits for one of LeMons unique judges penalties but neither I or the Mustang was flagged. The car was working great however, it had tons of power and handled incredible. I could floor it the entire length of the curvy front "straight" and just eat up the distance to the drivers ahead of me. The breaks were absolutely incredible. We'd disconnected the ABS on our '88 turbo, replaced the Pug's auto proportioning valve with a manual one, installed Hawk black race pads on the front and Porterfields on the back. I could brake as much as I wanted with no fade at all. We had decided to do short driver stints so we could all get some seat time up front in case the car broke so my session was over after only about 30-40 minutes but that was fine with me because I was exhausted from the traffic, the 85-degree heat and, well the exhaust of some of the junkers I got caught behind. When I came off the track I was called into the judges area and was given the "DMV" penalty for the on-track incident. The DMV penalty required filling out, in detail, a 4-page accident report which ended up giving us about a 30-minute penalty by the time we made it back to our pits. We finished Saturday in 49th place (of 102) and were very happy with how well the Peugeot was working! Sunday it was my turn to drive first off and I instantly felt comfortable behind the wheel and started pushing harder and harder passing pretty much whenever I felt like it. However on a steep uphill section I got checked by a slower car and had to downshift to second. When I shifted back to third the shift lever stopped moving and once again we were stuck in third. We spent over half an hour trying to unstick it before I went back out and just drove the whole course in third. Thankfully it was a fairly tight track so I could do it with the cost of only 10-15 mph on the front straight and a 5-10 mph on the rear straight. Not having to worry about shifting allowed me to concentrate on my driving and braking harder into the turns allowed me to pass all but the fastest cars. By the time I came in I'd done about an hour and a half but still felt fresh because the Peugeot was so easy to drive. My teammates Scott, Doug and Sean finished out the day moving us up to 37th overall and 11th in class. Given that we'd spent about two hours off the track between the repair sessions and the penalty I thought that was not too bad. I think if we had not had any problems and drove longer stints we could easily have finished in the top 10. We'll be back at the Thunderhill race in December and hope to do even better! I'd like to thank all the folks on this forum and here in the Northwest for all their advice, it was very helpful. And a special thanks to Victor Van Tress for sharing his Peugeot speed tips! You can check out more details on our blog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bean Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 AWESOME! My biggest fear was that something would go wrong that took you out of the race and made the car even easier to ridicule... Online it would have been brutal! To see that you guys did as well as you did with the penalties and having to run it in 3rd for so long and still run good times was fantastic to see. Damn good thing you got stuck with 3rd too - probably the *best* gear to get stuck in if you could choose one... Read the blog with interest - can't wait to read the other reports. Nice to see the other team members liking the drive so much. Great work Alan! (And the rest of the team of course...) Rabin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanBDahl Posted May 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 Thanks! We'll be back for the Thunderhill race in November with the problems fixed and hope to do even better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norcal505 Posted May 29, 2009 Report Share Posted May 29, 2009 great job! car looks perfect. just get that rear q.panel fixed! I'm rootin for you guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanBDahl Posted May 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2009 Thanks for the good wishes! BTW anyone who's on Facebook can now become a Fan, just search for "Pujo!" (exclamation mark included) and click on "Become a fan". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanBDahl Posted June 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2009 I wanted to follow this thread up with a quote from our team captain, who was originally reluctant when I suggested running a Peugeot at the 24 Hours of Lemons. He posted this on our blog and I think that the Peugeot community will really enjoy what he had to say: Even I originally thought that racing a Peugeot in an endurance race was a bit of a joke. I certainly don't think that now. What a brilliant car. It did everything we asked of it and more. It shrugged off an impact with a much heavier Mustang (we heard the hit all the way over in the pits) and has very little damage to show for it. It spent 4 hours with its transmission jammed in 3rd and didn't complain, it actually sped up. I'll be proud to pilot this car in another LeMons race. I know the other Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys will be too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick@nite Posted June 26, 2009 Report Share Posted June 26, 2009 I wanted to follow this thread up with a quote from our team captain, who was originally reluctant when I suggested running a Peugeot at the 24 Hours of Lemons. He posted this on our blog and I think that the Peugeot community will really enjoy what he had to say: Yeah 3rd gear is the weakest on these gearboxes, I clipped 3rd at the last hillclimb and it's starting to 2hate me now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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