24 Hours Of LeMons Arse Freeze-A-Palooza Über Gallery: Mazda Madness

If there's one marque that could be said to dominate LeMons, Mazda is definitely it. An RX-7 won the South '08 race, a Miata won the New England '08 race, a Protege took the win at Arse Freeze '07, and the Top Ten at most races tends to be packed with Mazdas. Why doesn't Mazda use this in their advertising? "Even when it's a total piece of crap you can buy for 500 bucks, a Mazda is still a winner!" But be warned, you teams considering entering a Miata: nobody believes in $500 Miatas, so you need to get a really hideous one to avert suspicion from the other teams.

As a member of the new Mega Cheater class, this team started the race beneath the crushing weight of 800 penalty laps. A nice, shiny FC RX-7 for 500 bucks? This lil' orange devil ran a crazy-fast best lap of 1:35.990 and finished 97th... ahead of the other Mega Cheaters.

These guys are serious RX-7 racers who really know what they're doing, and thus it was tough for them to avoid a 20-lap BS penalty. Without it: 8th place; with it: 23rd place.

Here's the 3rd-place car from Arse Freeze '07; this time they got 67th place. Their 1:38.424 best lap speaks for itself, though.

Pitmates to the RotoRevenge and SNOT RAcinG Mazdas, the Old Punks are also Arse Freeze '07 veterans. They finished 8th last year, and 26th this time. 1:36.263 best lap- hey, those old RX-7s are quick!

Everyone loves the bewinged Miata from Altamont, though we suspect it would have been quicker than 1:39.385 without the added weight.

Team Eyesore Racing is a genuine member of LeMons-veteran royalty, with a People's Choice win at LeMons SF '08 and some excellent wheelmen and wheelwomen. The nightmarish-yet-incredibly-cool Ghettocharging setup on their patched-together-from-corpses race car looked like it would blow up for sure on the track, but instead it held together for a 4th-place finish. Not only that, its best lap time of 1:32.692 was second only to the post-Curse Blues Brothers Crown Vic!

Yet another quick RX-7; the Loose Nuts '84 ran a best lap of 1:37.117 and came in 37th place.

Tip for wannabe LeMons racers: when you put a Jackson turbocharging setup on a non-thrashed Miata and don't provide any sort of convincing documentary evidence of how much you paid for that stuff (no, allegedly copy/pasted text from a Craigslist ad doesn't count), you're going to pay big in the BS Inspection. The Dead Smurfs took their punishment like real men, however, and they very kindly let the car-deprived Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys take some laps in their car.

Hey, it's the former Autoblog racer from LeMons Demolition Derby '07 (aka LeMons SF '07)! Mechanical problems limited this team- made up of fellow Alamedans and pitted right next door to the Black Metal V8olvo at Thunderhill- to a 68th-place finish.