We did it!

We did it! 1,2 in class and 4th 5th overall!!! fuel mileage was so close that the cars sputtered just after the taking the checker flag....AWESOME!

Bringing em home

David and Tyler C are out there now for the final hour. We are still holding 1-2 in class and the silver car is 3rd overall.

Final hours...

Johnny just wrapped up a 2.5 hour stint along with Tyler C. Once the sun went back down the cars really started to work. We did some minor changes to the white car that worked well. Unfortunately before the stop LD was hit with another black flag penalty. Glenn and Tyler W are out there now and we are sitting 1-2 in class and 5-6 overall. Just over 4 hours left...

As time goes on...

Another stop... Christian received a black flag penalty but was released immediately. We added some oil and fuel and LD jumped in the white car. JJ took over the silver car from Tyler W and was immediately shoved off track by another car. Everything is ok and we only lost a little time... Next stop will be for tire rotation, slight setup adjustment and fuel. Johnny k will take over the white car and Tyler C will pilot the silver one.

More stops

We just brought both cars in. Christian is now in the white car and Tyler W is in the silver. We did a front tire change on the silver car. Cars are running good. Just under 12 hours to go.

Halfway

We are just about at the halfway mark. Still sitting 1-2 in class. JD and Glen are on track...

8:00 am

Johnny and JJ just finished up their stints We ran as high as 3rd overall and first in class. We are still one-two in class with the white car leading. David is now in the white car with fresh front tires and Tyler Cooke is in the silver one. Trying to stay outa trouble...

Here is one of our competitors ... The family truckster complete with aunt Edna on the roof...

First pit stops

Christian an JD are out am LD and Tyler the wolfman are in. Perfect pitstops. Currently under full course yellow...

Cooling issues

Having a cooling issue with the silver car... Made a back paddock stop. Car is back out and circulating...

Callin the race

The boys are out on track. Pace laps have begun. John is in the silver and Christian is in the white. Johnny is on the radio...

Lemons wedding

Drivers meeting

Lots of folks at this lemons stuff...

24 hours of lemons - Miami

We are at the 24 hours of lemons - Miami with our two-car Toyota paseo effort. This is a true 24 hour race which will begin tonight at midnight and end as the ball drops for 2011...

Our cars are good and testing went perfect. We are doing some final prep before the start of the race. Follow our effort throughout the event here.

24 hours of lemons - Miami

More pics

Can only get iPhone pics up right now. More later.

Bad news bears

Some pics

We're done...

We blew up...................
We are very bummed. I had just finished my stint and we wnet from 14th to 8th before handing the car over to Steve. About 30 mins into his stint, we threw a rod and now the car is sitting in the hairpin, with a pool of oil under her. We had a good run going and were working our way up... We are currently looking for options to fix it and run the 4-hour tomorrow...

stay tuned

(having trouble posting pics, should have some up soon)

GREEN GREEN GREEN!

The green flag has flown and we are about 2 hours into the race. JD just exited the car, Diane is in. We took on 4 gallons of fuel. Johnny gets in in about an hour. We are praying for rain as the Paseo is amazing in it...

more pics comin

Load-in and Tech...

We finished up some prep on the car this morning and loaded up the rig and headed down the road to Sebring International Raceway. Our little Paseo passed tech inspection with ease. We met up with Steve and Diane and registered the team and talked strategy. Race starts @ 9:29am tomorrow morning and ends @ 9:00pm. Driving order will be: JD, Diane, Johnny, Steve.

We added a few things to our car for the race......... (and a competitor brought "Animal")

Team TraKnights takes on Chumpcar's 11-hours & 31 minutes of Sebring.

Team TraKnights takes on Chumpcar's 11-hours & 31 minutes of Sebring. Driver lineup is identical to the TraKnight's 24-Hours of Lemons/Houston effort earlier this year. This includes Diane Mould, Steve Molnar, John Dean II, and Johnny Kanavas. Josh Kuen joins the team as crew for the event. Very similar to the 24-Hours of Lemons type racing, the team will pilot their mighty Toyota Paseo through just short of 12 hours on Saturday (Sept. 25), with an additional 4-hour endurance race on Sunday (for what cars remain).

Follow the effort here.

Prepping for Sebring...

TraKnights will be running their little Toyota Paseo in this weekend's Chumpcar "11-hours & 31-minutes of Sebring". We have been very busy prepping the car for the event and are pretty worn out. The rules are a bit different from 24-hours of Lemons events, so we have added things like a window net, removed all the glass except the windshield, and replaced our tires with a stickier set of Yokahamas.

Follow our effort live from the track on this website. The Green flag flies Saturday morning...

Tracknights Video Summary

Tracknights 24hour of lemons video summary. Check it out!

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn-MluUrl94


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Same vid/ different music.

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=BROCuTyS2Tw

Black Flagged for THIS!?

Track was super slippery. BMW E30 lifted at track out and I tapped him. We were black flagged and our dreams of winning $1500 in nickels was lost. Sorry for twisted camera.

Final wrap up... End of race

We are a little delayed with posting how we ended up as we had to pack up and head back to Florida and haven't had an internet connection until now.

It was an intersting final two hours to say the least. JD went out for his stint which started in the rain. We were instantly fast again and began passing cars like crazy. It almost seemed not fair. That little car in the rain works SO well, its rediculous... I was on the pit box, spotting for JD as we had to no longer conserve fuel and knew we would make it to the end. The track began to dry out and we continued to go faster and were focused on trying to win the thing.

UNFORTUNATELY, JD radioed in that he had slight contact with a BMW on course who checked up as he got sideways in the rain and John did a little tap to the rear bumper as he had nowhere to go. The officials black flagged us and we had to report to the pits. Then it got interesting... Because this is Lemons racing and not regular endurance racing, the officials idea of penalties is a little odd. Both JD and the BMW driver were asked to get out of the car and remove their helmets. From there they had one of their legs taped to the other guy's leg and asked to walk around the pits and find a Dr. Pepper for the official's kid. They succeeded quickly but the 2 liter bottle was "too big" the kid said, so they had to pour it in a cup. Upon opening the bottle, it exploded all over JD. Meanwhile I got the car ready to get back on track, knowing we just lost a TON of laps (and before this penalty we were vying for the win). JD was not happy, but I strapped him in and told him "you know what to do now"... John hit the track again and drove the hell out of the car, ringing its neck for the remainder of the race., passing many cars everywhere...

So, we ended up in 7th place overall (of 128 starters), and 4th in class. We had, by far, the best fuel mileage of any car out there and both the team and car performed flawlessly... (BUT, the car did have a pool of oil under it just as we brought it in at the end of the race, perfect timing... )The event was a bunch of fun and we hope to do another one again very soon.

Huge thanks to Diane Mould, Steve Molnar, Dylan Nelson (crew chief extraordinaire), and the 24 Hours of Lemons staff for a fun weekend of racing.

MANY more pics of the event at: http://cafephoto.smugmug.com/24hr-LeMons-MSRH-2-2010