Back in 2006, after planning and running several road rallies known as the Double 500 (500 kilometers in a $500 car), Jay Lamm wanted to start an event that would challenge both man and machine on a more extreme level and the 24 Hours of LeMons was born. As the parodic name might suggest, the idea was to have a 24-hour endurance race in those very same $500 cars on proper road courses. The idea was a hit! Bringing a much more relaxed and lower barrier of entry than other, more traditional racing series, the LeMons events quickly grew in popularity as teams found the worst and most ridiculous cars they could get their hands on to take their shot at capturing some strange form of glory.
The premise is simple, albeit genius, and that’s probably what has attracted so many people to this ridiculous series. Find some buddies, buy a $500 (or less) beater, prep it for the track while staying under that $500 limit, and race to your heart’s content—or at least until the car breaks! To clarify, the price limit does not include the safety equipment added to the car, the brakes, or the wheels and tires, so you can, in fact, stay under the half-a-grand limit fairly easily, but if you don’t, the LeMons “BS Inspectors” will assess the car and tack on lap penalties based on how far over the budget the determine you might be.
We tagged along as around 130 hoopties invaded Sonoma Raceway for the annual Sears Pointless at HooptieCon to photograph and film all the festivities. If you want to see a bunch of clapped out, and generally undesirable cars take on a proper world-class road course, click through the gallery and gaze upon the unique and truly bizarre creations from this year’s race!
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