Monday, July 2, 2012

Movie Monday: The Real Econobox(es)

This week, we head back to one of the most notorious 24 Hours of LeMons events.



We've talked to many survivors of The Lamest Day at Nelson Ledges Road Course in northeastern Ohio and the general consensus is that it was one of the strangest, most surreal, most miserable, and most frightening events in the series' six-year history.

Last week, we showed the brutality of the early races, but this was a different kind of challenge. Nelson Ledges is a tricky road course in the middle of the country--the perfect place to hold what would be many teams' first true 24-hour race.

Between torrential downpours, the resulting ankle-deep mud, chilly October temperatures, and the treacherous conditions on the car-clogged track in the pitch-black dark, nearly every team that was there possesses a well-woven web harrowing moments.

The first tales we ever heard of Nelson Ledges came from Team Flaming Fiero, who pitted next to one of the car's we drove at a previous race. While recalling most of the weekend, the Fiero pilots' eyes glazed over in a thousand-yard stare. The trance was only broken to describe one of the two big morale boosters of the weekend: the first (and so far only) Lada in the 24 Hours of LeMons and Team Lamest Mess' Shanty Town.

Read about the Lada HERE.

Watch Team Lamest Mess construct Shanty Town below.



Though the Des Moines-based Infiniti Q45 team only turned 86 laps the whole weekend and finished a mere handful of places from the field's absolute bottom, their particular brand of insanity became part of the lore of Nelson Ledges.



Got a LeMons story from Nelson Ledges? Tell us in the comments!


And while we're here, enjoy a bonus video of awesomeness with a lot of familiar faces and cars:





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