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The best we could do was help by welding their tie rod into the rack so they could get the car up on the trailer. Those are my legs poking out from under their car as I try to butt weld a forged steel tie rod back together. This happened while the “Marvin the Martian” E30 318i took the checker in top spot for the weekend. The “MTM” car is another pretty consistent finisher and they earned a good victory in this event.
Some of the other standouts were a group of young racers who showed up with a melange of iron including a Fiat X19 and a Nissan S13 that blew a head gasket and spent most of its time looking like this:
Picked up off Craig's List about a month before the race the Fiat might be a bit too nice for Chump/LeMons but it was great to see it here. 800 treadwear M/S tires and all!!
Overall we couldn't recommend heading down to one of these events more, as it was a real change from the “serious” race attitude so many stateside events are permeated with. Perhaps safety was a bit lax but if the racers keep their heads up the low speeds of this tight street course makes a big mishap unlikely. Furthermore, the Mexican race promoter, Caldera Promotions is really enthusiastic about getting more American racers to cross the border and join in on their unique racing experience. Class rules are very loose so pretty much anything that shows up with a cage and belts will find a group to run with even if there isn't a Chump race going on during that event. The other bonus is that since these races are held in the middle of a major city everything you need is pretty much in walking distance of the track. All in all, other than the 4 hour border return wait, team Geo Metro-Gnome had a great time and that's what it's all about in the end.
