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03:02
Who hope to one day be the world's greatest driving heroes,
03:06
created from the cosmic legends of the universe,
03:09
comes our team captain, The Vision, Bill Fisher.
03:14
And there soon to be Wonder Woman, Vicky Fisher,
03:18
and our captain Marvel and head flight trainee,
03:22
Jennifer Scriptjunk.
03:24
Their mission to fight injustice,
03:28
share what is right and wrong to get you out of your house
03:31
and come out racing with them and serve all mankind.
03:36
They are the garage heroes in training team.
03:42
Welcome to the garage heroes in training podcast.
03:44
I'm going to be one of the hosts for that episode.
03:45
My name is Bill, who else is hosting?
03:51
And hot off an explosive race at some point,
03:57
we thought we'd take an opportunity to turn over
04:01
into the next year and perhaps look back on last year.
04:04
So who else to talk to about this
04:08
that would be better than Eric Rue.
04:12
Hey, thanks for having me.
04:13
Yeah, you know, always exciting and glad to be here.
04:18
Yeah, I had to make reference to the explosions
04:23
and the rolling over.
04:24
But anyway, so Eric.
04:29
We're going to hit you with the hard question first.
04:31
The rumor that's going all around the internet's
04:33
did the 24 hour of lemons team buy pit race?
04:38
Yeah, actually we're turning it into a data center.
04:42
I think is that what the go rumor is?
04:45
Well, your social media presence is huge.
04:47
So I understand your need for a data center.
04:49
So yeah, I mean, we're going all AI.
04:51
We're actually going to do all AI, everything, racing,
04:56
cars, people, all that.
04:59
Okay, so you're confirming.
05:01
So we're breaking news, breaking news.
05:02
Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot.
05:03
Yeah, you got the exclusive on that one.
05:05
All right, excellent, excellent.
05:07
All right, so, so Wally Stefanovic,
05:09
whoever you might be on the internet,
05:11
garagehearsandtrainingatgmail.com.
05:13
If you have any comments to the contrary.
05:15
Anyway, I wonder how he did on election.
05:17
I think he ran on election post to save pit race.
05:19
But anyway, we'll talk to him.
05:21
I don't know if you know who Wally is, you know.
05:24
Wally will be a great guest if you can get him.
05:26
We've gotten him before.
05:28
He just doesn't want to show his face.
05:29
He keeps that, you know, quiet, subdued persona.
05:34
He's a quiet subdued kind of guy.
05:36
Yeah, yeah, yeah, very conservative.
05:38
Very, I wish he'd come out of his shell
05:40
just a little bit more.
05:41
I, yeah, you know, been working on that with him, so.
05:48
So, Eric, 2025 in a nutshell.
05:51
Yeah, what do you want to talk about?
05:53
Like, in general, I mean, it's...
05:56
How did it view from the perspective of the organizers did?
06:00
From Lemmon's perspective, it went great so far.
06:03
Obviously, we have three races to go.
06:05
Still, we're recording this right for our MSR.
06:10
Which is a sold-out race.
06:16
Yeah, and people have brought a lot of really crappy cars.
06:22
Lots of really good stories from the year.
06:25
You know, it'd be really hard to recap.
06:27
I mean, we'll do a recap video.
06:28
Yeah, but it's tens of minutes.
06:31
Yeah, and it'll be tens of minutes.
06:33
So, recapping the year would be extensive.
06:37
But I can tell you some of my favorite things
06:40
that have happened this year.
06:41
We would love that.
06:44
One of the things that I've been...
06:45
I've found really awesome is that, you know,
06:48
generally speaking, Lemmon's doesn't care too much
06:51
who wins these races.
06:53
But this year, more than any other year,
06:57
I can remember there have been a whole lot of people
06:59
who have worked for over a decade trying to win a race,
07:03
finally getting one.
07:05
The table for one guys out in California,
07:08
they won this spring with their E30.
07:11
The Rusty's guys with the Maider Miata,
07:14
they're out of Texas, they won in NOLA.
07:19
The Leho Fook guys out of the South, North Carolina,
07:23
that's, oh my God, I'm blanking on his name, Steve.
07:28
It's the pressure of a podcast.
07:32
But guys, they actually won,
07:34
they were the first BMW E30 to win in like 2008.
07:37
They have not won since then.
07:39
The Focus Club guys, Jerry Ringles guys out of Texas,
07:44
and of course, Tom Lomino.
07:46
And there was one more.
07:50
So, Adam Garall's team,
07:53
the Bavarian cream motor sports guys, one of the tops.
07:56
So like seven or eight teams that have been trying
07:58
to do this forever, finally doing it all in one year.
08:01
It was really awesome to see.
08:04
Yeah, I think Lomino has figured out
08:07
that in order to win the race, he has to finish the race.
08:12
Yeah, well, you know, the common sense approach to it
08:19
is great, the reality of it, frequently a little more difficult.
08:24
I'm sure you guys don't know anything about that at all.
08:27
No, no, no, we gave that up for length a couple of years ago.
08:30
Yeah, that's right.
08:31
It runs flawlessly and then some really bad cars
08:37
winning IOE this year.
08:41
The Spank brought the Daff back for Button Willow,
08:44
which is the Dutch CVT car from the 60s.
08:48
It's easily the scariest looking car I've ever seen.
08:54
The worst thing in the world be a CVT rotary engine.
09:02
No, no, it actually wouldn't.
09:04
Noise wise, yes, they say about the rotary
09:09
that it works most efficiently at a steady RPM.
09:13
So it actually would be ideal with the CVT,
09:16
but it would be terrible for everybody involved.
09:18
Well, I was strictly thinking my ears.
09:22
Yeah, that is the worst part.
09:25
I don't know, there's just there's been so many great
09:28
lemons cars I've got my cheat sheet up.
09:31
So obviously I'm cheating here.
09:33
But, you know, we had our first Pontiac G3, you know,
09:37
for an example of something that's weird
09:39
that I liked seeing this year.
09:40
So but I think in general, lemons rolls on
09:45
with a bunch of really awesome people.
09:48
And that's that continues to be the best part of it.
09:52
Was there anything that was surprising?
09:57
Surprising, because, you know, yeah,
09:59
lemons, lemons does what lemons does.
10:02
And sometimes when that that little golden nugget shows up,
10:07
anything like that?
10:08
Sometimes it's not.
10:09
I would say among the things that I found
10:13
delightfully surprising were the Italian job guys
10:17
at New Jersey with the the confessional was just
10:21
one of the best things.
10:23
Yeah, it was just they nailed it.
10:26
That was a weekend.
10:28
They showed up with the cake like horse head.
10:32
Yeah, they did the living room, too.
10:35
Right. Whole with plastic covered.
10:39
Yeah, we had Nana's living room in the penalty box.
10:43
You know, they had the confessional.
10:45
They were shouting.
10:46
They had the the big Italian family.
10:50
That was one of my favorite themes of this year.
10:53
Maybe my favorite theme of this year.
10:55
Although the airplane theme at at some point
10:59
in the top three, I think you guys you guys crushed that one.
11:04
We we tried to give you what you always want, which is.
11:12
I mean, you guys should really if you haven't done a podcast
11:16
on how to do a good HMG's level theme.
11:21
You know, there's some good content you guys can put out.
11:23
But, you know, for me as the one of the people making up
11:27
the trophy sheet at the end, you know, it's a good idea
11:32
that you carry through for the whole weekend.
11:34
And in a perfect world, you involve everybody in the panic.
11:37
And those are the three things that I love seeing the most.
11:40
We have developed a formula.
11:44
There is a formula for it. Excellent.
11:48
And the formula goes, if Jennifer can say,
11:51
you have to have something that is
11:56
recognizable, that something to taste,
12:00
something to hear, something to see.
12:03
And it's something that involves everybody.
12:06
Yeah, I agree with that. Right.
12:08
Yeah, like Dodger goes it.
12:10
Yeah, the dodgeball theme was great, too.
12:14
What? I mean, New Jersey is really where
12:19
I have to say that's where the theming all comes together.
12:22
That is the most thematic race that we have every year.
12:25
And it's spectacular.
12:27
So if you have listeners who haven't
12:29
been to New Jersey for lemons, I cannot recommend it enough.
12:34
Racing is terrible.
12:36
The racing is terrible there.
12:37
Terrible, but the but the party Saturday night
12:40
and the theming is just tip top.
12:44
I think with Jersey.
12:47
I think that it's the I know that we race
12:50
leading up to that.
12:52
We have one race, but I think that is the first warm weather one.
12:56
Yeah, so everybody's excited to kind of catch up
12:59
with all their friends again, and then it gets a little crazy.
13:03
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's it is.
13:06
Yeah, that is very well stated and summarized. Yeah.
13:11
Yeah, pit races, obviously not on the calendar next year.
13:15
And that's kind of a shame.
13:16
It's a nice warm ups, not the right word for it.
13:23
Yeah, you know, keep everybody put everybody
13:25
on their toes to begin the season.
13:27
I think is the right tamper for it.
13:31
And it's such a great track.
13:33
Wind, you know, rocking the trailer so much
13:35
that I thought I was going to roll over in the middle of the night.
13:38
Yeah, or waking up with a half inch of snow on the ground.
13:44
You know, it gets all the weather.
13:47
In one day experience.
13:49
That race in twenty two or whatever it was,
13:52
where we had all of the weather in the space of about two hours.
13:55
That was it was a unique lemons experience as well.
14:00
Luckily, we took our windshield wipers off of the race car.
14:02
So Vicki had no trouble in the one lap.
14:05
She finished in the snow with a half an inch of snow on her window.
14:08
It was Brian. Yeah, that's fine.
14:11
Yeah, well, we'll miss pit race.
14:13
I can I can say that unequivocally.
14:16
Really great facility and do you really need it to be a data center?
14:20
I mean, seriously, you know.
14:24
Yes, the answer is yes.
14:26
All right, well, all right.
14:27
No discussions at all.
14:29
Every placing that time slot somewhere and anywhere as an excellent question.
14:35
Yes, we are actively working on a replacement, not a replacement.
14:41
We're working on another date at another track.
14:45
We're having a couple of conversations simultaneously.
14:49
And so it's it's one or the other, but I can't tell you which ones they are.
14:53
It's hard because it was so late, right?
14:56
Yeah, I mean, we were.
15:00
Ten days out from releasing a schedule.
15:04
There was something like that. Yeah, it was close.
15:06
And then pit race had confirmed that particular date with us.
15:09
So we were all set.
15:11
That was that was signed, sealed and delivered on the calendar.
15:14
And then got yanked.
15:16
So and that that also is the case for everybody else who had dates there.
15:21
So, you know, there's 30 dates floating around out there
15:25
that people are looking to find alternatives for.
15:28
So I know some of the scrambles like that.
15:31
Is this the first time that you got hit with something like so close?
15:37
You know, honestly, every year,
15:39
there's some stuff that's kind of like that, but never quite on this scale.
15:44
You know, usually it's can we get extract
15:48
to actually say definitively that these are our dates for next year?
15:52
And, you know, there's some who will just say we don't.
15:55
We don't confirm anything for sure until December 1 or whatever,
16:01
you know, and then everything's tentative.
16:03
You know, so if there's a tentative date on our schedule,
16:06
it's usually something like that.
16:08
I don't think we actually have any of those this year.
16:11
Kim was way ahead of things.
16:13
Do you think it's harder for lemons to get in with the tracks and with other race series?
16:20
It's an interesting question.
16:22
Also, I think most places have a pretty good idea who we are
16:28
if we're not going there.
16:30
We have a reputation.
16:33
Well, I mean, honestly,
16:36
I'm not trying to two lemons particular horn here too loudly,
16:40
but, you know, amateur race series tend not to last 20 years,
16:45
which we are coming up on next year is our 20th year.
16:51
So, you know, just by by sheer presence,
16:57
I think most racetrack operators know who we are,
17:01
whether they're going to give us a date or not.
17:03
I don't that that that's always the hard part.
17:06
And it's usually not cut and dry, right?
17:08
You know, there's just a lot of demand for dates at race tracks
17:14
because there's not very many of them.
17:16
And of the tracks that exist,
17:19
there are several that just are not equipped for us either.
17:23
So, you know, any track where the
17:28
paddock is inside the perimeter of the track
17:30
and there's no tunnel or bridge going into the paddock,
17:33
that's a no go for lemons.
17:35
We just can't go there.
17:36
You know, you get somebody who needs to be transported
17:39
from the paddock because of an injury or something.
17:42
You know, it's it's when time is of the essence,
17:47
that kind of thing is very difficult to manage logistically.
17:49
So we just don't go to places like that, for example.
17:53
But, you know, there's a couple of places
17:55
we tried a few times to get into and just won't return phone calls.
18:00
It's just kind of the way it is, you know,
18:03
whether that's their schedules full and they're just not taking phone calls
18:07
or those guys absolutely not, you know, I don't know which the case is.
18:19
Oh, nothing, Vicki, you were saying?
18:21
No, I was I was thinking that I'm sure that the
18:26
the type of tracks that they are are a consideration.
18:29
Also of a absolute no go.
18:33
And I keep thinking that the level of racing
18:37
that we introduce new people to versus a track with lots of walls
18:42
is probably not the best or not great enough.
18:47
Yeah, those are those are definitely factors.
18:53
It's it's probably not.
18:57
Trying to think how to phrase this.
19:00
I think Jay's approach to those kinds of problems
19:05
used to be a lot more conservative just because we didn't know.
19:09
We didn't know our people or know how far we could trust them.
19:12
And I think in general, we know we can trust our people,
19:16
our drivers to be a lot more conservative than other places,
19:20
other series or sanctioning bodies.
19:24
Just because novices of which lemons has a lot, you know,
19:28
there's a certain risk aversion kind of baked into that.
19:34
So, you know, are we going to go race at Daytona?
19:40
You know, there's some big stuff to hit there, you know, but
19:45
some stuff that was probably off the table 15 years ago
19:48
is stuff that we're at least considering
19:51
or at least going to send somebody to go look at a little more closely.
19:56
Well, you do have quite a bit of seasoned racers also.
20:00
Yeah. And and, you know, not going not going too rudimentary
20:05
or off the off the beaten path here.
20:07
But I think what lemons has going for it is this incredible variation
20:13
of absolute novice who has never been on a racetrack.
20:16
And, you know, well, Tom Wilmino is a good example.
20:19
A guy who's been doing this for 17 years at this point, you know,
20:24
and has hundreds of hours, you know, because this car does work
20:28
a lot of the time, you know, so Tom's got a lot of hours in the car.
20:32
So you have this kind of variety.
20:35
And I think for the Tom Luminos of the world
20:39
that having the novices is a selling point almost because you have this.
20:48
It adds an extra challenge.
20:50
And I think that holds true.
20:53
So yeah, but we, you know, 15 years ago,
20:57
we didn't have the Tom Luminos with 300 hours in a race car.
21:04
And somehow it all works.
21:06
It really, really does.
21:07
And somehow it all works.
21:08
Yeah, you know, for the most part, you know,
21:12
sometimes four cars catch on fire in one day.
21:15
And that's just how that goes.
21:16
You know, that wasn't.
21:20
They weren't all on track.
21:22
Wouldn't mean to spread it around.
21:23
Yeah. Well, I mean, only two of them were real fires.
21:27
Two of them were engine failures that, you know, if you've seen
21:31
the Rob thrown out of the block, you know, there's this puff of fire.
21:35
It burns the oil real fast.
21:37
And then it goes out.
21:38
So that was the last two in the day.
21:40
They're both engine failures.
21:44
The other two were, I don't remember what.
21:48
I shouldn't be drinking beer, apparently.
21:50
Um, I'll let that out for you, Eric.
21:54
You fix that in post for me.
21:59
So, um, yeah, go ahead.
22:01
What if what if we we had an episode earlier this week
22:05
where we speculated race tracks and and you just nod.
22:10
You don't say anything.
22:11
And it's an audio podcast, no deal.
22:18
We would like to go to V. I. R.
22:23
That's about all I can say about that.
22:32
You said it wrong, but we'll let you slip.
22:34
No, it's Nelson's ledges.
22:37
Oh, I thought it was Nelson's ledges.
22:39
Oh, man, I had this wrong the whole time.
22:41
It was it was sister sledge all along.
22:43
Oh, you know, we are family, right?
22:46
Yep, I Nelson's ledges.
22:51
I just know the name.
22:52
I've also never been.
22:54
So I can't say definitively.
22:55
OK, what else do we say?
22:57
Oh, we we nominated Monticello for another return trip.
23:03
We didn't get a reply yet.
23:04
But I mean, I'm going to say it probably a hard no on that one.
23:10
And we said no to Watkins Glen before you even asked.
23:13
Um, that would be one we would have to go look at pretty closely.
23:19
My understanding is they also don't allow outside tow companies
23:24
and they don't do hot tows and those are.
23:26
Oh, you might as well not start the race then for that.
23:30
Yeah, I mean, that's that's ultimately what it would be.
23:33
Because we've we've had that happen before at tracks
23:36
that weren't quite ready for limits.
23:38
We did come up with a proposal for you during that episode.
23:45
We were totally the guy making all the money decisions, by the way.
23:47
Well, I mean, I'm the right guy to be asking about with the data center.
23:50
I figure you your second form of income.
23:53
Yes, a double header at NJMP.
23:58
Now, you want to do like one day on lightning and one day on Thunderbolt?
24:01
No, two different weekends.
24:03
Ah, do people like lightning?
24:06
No, but we're trying to get another race.
24:08
So, you know, we're grasping, man.
24:10
You want to race two hours from you is what you want.
24:13
No, that's still four hours from us.
24:15
So is it four hours?
24:16
Yeah, we're ridiculously north and Pennsylvania and Philly's in the way.
24:21
So that's always an hour just for itself.
24:24
Yeah, yeah, Poconos.
24:25
Poconos like close, but we don't want you to go there.
24:28
No, don't go there.
24:30
You know, I don't I don't we don't know very much about Pocono,
24:33
frankly, my understanding is it's a NASCAR.
24:37
NASCAR runs there, at least, you know, theoretically, that is awesome.
24:42
Our it's got an internal infield, but it wouldn't have a place for robotic.
24:47
Right, it's it's problematic in several ways from the very little I know about it.
24:52
Now, if you wanted a flashback to Altima, the outside
24:55
parking lot periphery has a great layout for for fundraising.
24:59
That would be tremendous, but I don't know it's possible.
25:03
You know, I tried to sell Jay on going back to Toledo Speedway
25:07
you know, as a replacement for pit race.
25:08
He wasn't very receptive to that.
25:10
That was that was 2008.
25:15
I think we had one more one more option for you that we know.
25:28
Rumor has it they're not the easiest to work with.
25:30
But I think they're in.
25:36
They're in an interesting category is is a track we know we could operate at.
25:44
Hang ups with that place, yes, operationally.
25:47
That's a nice way to put it.
25:50
What about a beginning of the season event at NHMS?
25:53
See, you know, you know, if you're going to freeze and have the beginning
25:58
of the season for New Hampshire's like June.
26:02
That is that is to hang up there.
26:04
Yeah, we'd have to go on like May if we were going to do that.
26:06
And I don't I don't hate that idea.
26:10
I don't know that we have enough just New England teams to make it work.
26:14
That's the only downside.
26:18
Maybe is a possibility, but not for 26.
26:26
I like I personally like
26:29
Palmer has problems as well.
26:32
We'd have to go look pretty closely at that place.
26:36
And Club is the one that's way up in New Hampshire.
26:40
And that's far from everything, but also has a really weird
26:45
paddock or something.
26:46
It's it's a strange place, from what I understand.
26:49
Yeah, it's not very big either.
26:53
And that's the other thing is there are many tracks.
26:56
Being built and my experience in paying attention to these things
27:02
for the last 15 years is that for every track that's being built
27:06
for every three tracks being built, one of them actually gets done.
27:10
I think that's the normal ratio of it.
27:13
Maybe it's two to one, whatever.
27:15
And with all that spare room just sitting around looking for places
27:19
to come up with something in the Northeast, it's not easy.
27:22
So yeah, the Northeast actually for the amount of people
27:26
there, obviously, you know, from DC to Boston and West of Pittsburgh
27:32
and Buffalo for the amount of people there, there are not very many
27:38
race tracks. It's pretty it's pretty threadbare considering,
27:43
which is kind of crappy.
27:45
You would love to have a ton of races in the Northeast
27:47
because there's a ton of people there.
27:50
Yeah, this year was the first time in or maybe it was last year or two.
27:55
Let's say the last two seasons.
27:57
You had a few sellouts.
27:59
Is that surprising to you?
28:02
Because the economy, yeah, plus or minus.
28:05
It's an interesting thing, right?
28:10
New Hampshire sold out last year.
28:13
And so we had already kind of planned to put some
28:15
at point on the calendar because we had seen that coming.
28:20
In New Hampshire was a problem of race track space.
28:24
Like there's just not enough space for 125 cars there.
28:30
We alleviated that by adding a date that would kind of split the crowd.
28:34
You know, possibly unpopular if you're trying to win the points
28:38
championship or whatever, which, you know, gives you and we care about that.
28:44
I, you know, again, I've had two people in the last couple of weeks
28:48
like send me proposals on fixing the point system.
28:52
I'm like, this is not a thing that we care about at all.
28:58
So we we relieved New Hampshire by adding some at point,
29:02
which is something we had intended to do anyway.
29:05
So it worked out really well, actually, had 190 something entries
29:10
across the two races, which is fantastic.
29:14
And then MSR sold out a couple.
29:20
Tauley, I think, did both and someone else did.
29:25
That's hard to back them.
29:26
Yeah, it's I mean, that's you are banking on everything
29:31
going right the first weekend or at least not going really, really wrong.
29:37
And then, yeah, MSR is sold out in Houston.
29:41
That's like a 2.3 mile track, which is, you know,
29:45
it's roughly the same size as New Jersey.
29:48
And we're sold out at 120 something.
29:51
And that's because there's just no paddock room there.
29:54
Like it's a really weird paddock.
29:56
And there's just there's no space for more than that.
29:59
So Kim Harmon has been working really hard to find some extra space
30:05
in the paddock, asking the track to move some stuff around.
30:07
So we have a little extra space.
30:09
So, yeah, we're at 120 seven nine, something like that.
30:16
Yeah, which is great.
30:17
And you're you're to answer actually answer your question.
30:20
I don't think it's something that we expected, honestly.
30:27
I think I think if you're a cognizant
30:32
and attention keeping person on the news,
30:38
you're aware that the economy is not amazing right now.
30:42
But our numbers have been almost identical the last year,
30:46
which is kind of surprising, you know.
30:50
So, yeah, to have a sold out race this year was not expected, I suppose.
30:56
Yeah, I have a pet theory that lemons is probably not as affected
30:59
as much by any tariffs because nobody buys new parts.
31:03
So, you know, the junk car doesn't charge the tariff.
31:06
That's true. It's all old crap.
31:08
Yeah, or it's been in a warehouse already for 30 years.
31:12
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
31:15
Ladies, did we miss anything for last year before we move on?
31:18
All good? OK. Well done, Miss Vicki.
31:21
You're muted, by the way.
31:24
So, Eric, rumor has it you're going to try this again
31:28
for a celebratory two zero next year.
31:32
Yeah, 20 years or 20th anniversary in October.
31:41
tentatively planning something that will be announced later
31:46
to commemorate that.
31:49
But yeah, our 2026 calendar is out.
31:53
You can sign up for all the races now and save your number
31:56
at all the races if you want. That's already done.
32:00
Yeah, I figured, you know, but, you know, if you have people who are new to this,
32:04
you know, you go in, sign up for 22 races and put your number in there.
32:12
And I might recommend that you pick a number that is, you know, uncommon
32:17
that most other people wouldn't pick, you know, something like 43, right?
32:21
Oh, yeah. Yeah, just pick 43 for all the races.
32:25
That's what you guys should do. Yeah, three, you know.
32:28
Yeah. No, something like seven.
32:32
Seven. Yeah, that's a good one.
32:36
And that's an easy number to make on your car.
32:39
Also, you may with all straight lines is great.
32:42
Anyway, that way, no one will ever take take your number.
32:47
But numbers are first come first serve, which is why I mentioned this.
32:50
But yeah, 26 calendar looks pretty similar to last year.
32:56
It's not really any major changes.
32:57
Obviously, pit race is not on it.
33:00
And we swapped Gingerman and Road America, which were September.
33:08
Gingerman had been in May, Road America had been in September.
33:12
So we swapped those.
33:13
So Road America is now May 9th and 10th, which is Mother's Day weekend.
33:19
And then Gingerman's September, first weekend in September.
33:24
Yeah, five, six, which Gingerman in the fall has always been
33:30
perfect, the weather's always been really great.
33:32
So now that I've said that, it's going to be miserable.
33:34
But any any possibility of running one of my favorites?
33:39
Gingerman counterclockwise?
33:43
No, we are not ever going to run Gingerman counterclockwise.
33:47
Yeah, sorry. It's so much fun.
33:50
We've looked at it and it's not it's not great.
33:54
And in pit out are the problems, right?
33:56
Yes, that is correct.
33:58
As usually the problem with reversing a circuit
34:01
is the way the pit in and out works.
34:06
And how about usually somewhere?
34:08
How about 10B one day, 10A the other day?
34:13
You know, what's funny is we ran, we used to run 10A,
34:18
which is a shortcut, right? The shortcut, yeah.
34:20
Yeah, we ran that for years.
34:23
And that was like our that was our our version of Gingerman was 10A.
34:28
And we showed up one year and like it was just like overrun with weeds.
34:36
It's like they had not maintained it.
34:39
And there was giant like swales potholes and stuff.
34:44
And we're like, hey, what's going on here?
34:46
And they're like, oh, yeah, nobody uses that.
34:47
And we're like, but we use that.
34:49
And they're like, well, it's not in use anymore.
34:53
So that has been basically discontinued.
34:55
That was like 2017 or something.
34:59
So is I would love.
35:02
We would love to use it
35:03
because it makes the terminal speed on the back street much lower.
35:07
But at last, is that a rare experience?
35:12
And do you have issues where you show up
35:15
and they're not actually prepared for the number of people that you bring in?
35:20
Um, it's pretty rare.
35:23
I think I think in that case,
35:27
they had been trying to phase out that particular section of track
35:30
for whatever reason.
35:33
And, you know, it was it was fine.
35:35
You know, we looked at it as kind of a nonissue when it was.
35:40
But I would say for the most part, tracks.
35:46
Well, most of the tracks we run at,
35:48
we have been running at for a long time.
35:50
So there's not a lot of surprises in those going to a new track
35:54
is always a little bit of.
35:58
It's a learning process on both ends.
36:00
You know, you kind of gauging the management,
36:04
which is always a giant wildcard.
36:07
But for the most part, some it was some, it was pretty strict.
36:11
But they were not ready for a theme.
36:15
Yeah, they they messed up our theme.
36:22
I didn't I didn't hear that part.
36:23
What happened? Oh, no, we just had a bunch of stuff all taped up around.
36:27
And they're just like, oh, no, can't do that.
36:29
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah.
36:30
The the janitorial staff was not
36:34
enthused about things being hung in the bathrooms.
36:37
Yeah, I forgot about that.
36:38
Yes, they were really not enthused when we hung them up the second time
36:41
because they took them down the first time.
36:42
Right, exactly. Yeah.
36:44
But then the the lie.
36:49
Oh, she froze or I froze.
37:03
Sorry, I froze for a minute.
37:04
I lost all the victims. Yeah, you're you're good.
37:07
Yeah, you look at you look at the size of the inside of that race track.
37:11
And then you realize that the paddock is very small
37:15
for how much space there is inside the racetrack.
37:18
Yeah, you feel like they probably could have.
37:22
Made a little more paddock space.
37:24
So it's it was a lot tighter in the paddock than I was expecting.
37:27
It's on it, but it's a very well run facility.
37:31
It is pleasant, pleasantly surprised by that.
37:35
They have otherness of the bathrooms meet pit race standards.
37:39
Nothing. No, nothing.
37:43
But, you know, it was it was in the middle tier, I would say.
37:47
You know, it's not Gingerman.
37:49
It's not Sebring. It's not Thompson.
37:52
Oh, Thompson's rough.
37:56
Anything with a low ceiling and a bathroom is just a bad combination.
38:00
Well, you know, it's also is.
38:04
There's no there's no ladies.
38:08
So it's it's communal shower.
38:12
Yeah, I surprised some crusty old white guy
38:15
who's particularly thrilled to see me in the line.
38:21
Tell him feel free to use the ladies.
38:23
He said, oh, this is so progressive.
38:28
How did he say it like multi gender?
38:30
And I was like, no, this is misogynistic.
38:33
They didn't make one for the women.
38:36
And that sounds correct.
38:41
Yeah, this was also my first year 2025.
38:46
It was my first year going to high planes in Colorado, by the way,
38:50
which is a pretty primitive racetrack, but a fun.
38:54
It's a fun place to be.
38:56
I recommend that as well.
38:58
With a recent migration, it may be even more fun coming up.
39:03
You got that going for you, which is nice.
39:05
Yeah, I didn't think about it until now.
39:08
Some it's got two or three tracks.
39:10
Would one of those work?
39:12
So we used to run Shenandoah, which was the other track.
39:17
And it's actually longer.
39:19
But there was a couple of things in it
39:22
that are not great for lemons.
39:26
You know, besides a.
39:29
Yeah, besides that.
39:30
No, there's just there were a couple problems
39:34
with that particular layout and also the paddock is even smaller.
39:38
Oh, that that was a it's a limiting factor.
39:42
Yeah, I just saw the three colored lines on the asphalt,
39:45
which didn't mean anything to me until like Sunday afternoon.
39:49
Jefferson's the other one.
39:50
And that's not really set up for wheel to wheel racing.
39:54
It's kind of a track day, HPD, driving training situation.
40:01
Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer.
40:05
What else is going on?
40:06
You know, one of the things I think is happening next year
40:09
is that lemons is the only.
40:14
Amateur series with a 24 hour race at all.
40:17
And we have two of them.
40:22
Yeah, Thunder Hill.
40:23
We are doing the 25 hours in one minute, the longest race.
40:28
And then we're back at High Plains in the fall for the 24 hour,
40:32
which, again, is a great place to do a 24 hour race.
40:35
It's it's kind of crazy.
40:37
It's that track is so in the middle of nowhere that.
40:44
We worked in shifts.
40:45
I went back to the hotel.
40:47
I took a nap and I drove back and it was still dark.
40:49
And you just kind of driving in the middle of nowhere.
40:52
It's completely dark.
40:54
You come up over this brow of the hill.
40:56
You just see these little lighted ants going around the racetrack
41:00
from like two or three miles away.
41:01
And it's just really fun.
41:05
They don't see where they're going.
41:06
They keep going the same spot, too.
41:07
That is right, hopefully.
41:10
Yeah, they end up right back where they start.
41:15
Yeah, racing is pointless as it turns out.
41:18
You know, you got to get nowhere fast.
41:22
Racing is all about getting nowhere fast.
41:26
And then also next year, we have six Lemons rallies.
41:31
Is that more awesome?
41:33
It's the same as this year.
41:34
Same. We have our 10th anniversary rally,
41:37
because the first rally was in 2016.
41:40
That's in California.
41:42
And we're also doing the Oregon Trail in May.
41:46
That's going to be awesome.
41:47
So if you want to if you want to do the Oregon Trail
41:52
come out to Kansas City in May and.
41:55
Run that one. It's going to be really fun.
41:57
I want you to know that I'm not a history buff,
42:00
but I believe Oregon is not near Kansas City.
42:05
So it starts in Kansas City and it ends in Oregon.
42:08
It's one way. Oh, it's a one way.
42:10
I thought it was a loop. I was like, that is a big one.
42:12
OK, now that would be a big stupid loop.
42:15
But it's also it starts on Memorial Day.
42:18
It ends the Friday of Memorial Day week.
42:21
Oh, through the weekends on each end to get to
42:26
to and from the rally start finish.
42:29
Most of the cars can't make it to never mind from.
42:31
I mean, yes, you have.
42:35
Several days to acquire a rental car to get your
42:39
broke ass home while the car goes to a junkyard.
42:42
OK, I just wanted to set expectations
42:46
right where they needed. I mean, yeah, you're you're correct.
42:48
Thank you. I appreciate that kind of bringing it down to the the basic, you know.
42:56
Your broke beater is not going to make it, dudes.
43:00
But that's kind of the point. Yeah.
43:04
Yeah. So that's that's kind of the gist of it.
43:07
I think ladies, do I see a rally in your future?
43:12
You haven't done. I was just going to think about rallies.
43:15
We couldn't do the rally this year,
43:16
because I had a daughter who went off to college
43:20
and that was parent weekend.
43:21
You still do, but I'm just saying.
43:23
Yeah. Well, for this year, it lined up with with that.
43:27
And I'm just like, ah, but I got to tell you, me and Audra, we really.
43:33
That was a zero notice. That was so fun.
43:35
Me and Audra bond over the rallies.
43:40
I remember with Audra, with Audra.
43:44
Um, I went to go help to go help.
43:51
I went to go help Stops. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
43:54
And and I needed to go and I called up Audra
43:57
because I knew she was up there in Massachusetts.
43:59
So I'm like, hey, Audra, what are you doing this weekend?
44:03
Nice. And and and I barely knew her.
44:06
I barely knew her and and and and she said, why?
44:11
I said, because there's a rally.
44:12
Before I could finish, she said, yes, awesome.
44:16
Hey, you should say, too, I was out of work at the time.
44:19
So anything sounded good to me.
44:23
I mean, it was awesome.
44:26
I love the rallies.
44:30
There's such a low pressure way to kind of carry on the lemons attitude,
44:36
I guess it's they're just they're great.
44:40
I haven't done one in like a year.
44:42
So I probably need to do one of the ones this year.
44:44
There's one leaving out of Chicago.
44:47
So I should probably do that one.
44:49
I suppose if you want to, we can put you in touch with Jeff Stops.
44:52
He's kind of in charge of the rallies.
44:58
Prepare to be unimpressed.
45:02
We're very fortunate to have one that that that starts like in our town.
45:09
Yeah, almost in our town.
45:11
So that that's really nice to kind of go.
45:13
It's the winter one.
45:15
Yeah, we we made up for it though.
45:17
We had Bish for a week because his car didn't start.
45:20
Yeah, there was that that whole thing.
45:23
Yeah, he's coming up a lot this week.
45:27
Vicky, do you remember the young kid and his grandfather
45:32
with the cry of the British team?
45:34
They were next to us at New Hampshire.
45:39
Yeah, he was old enough now to actually race in such a great family.
45:45
That car of their racing is insane also.
45:48
So it's an Audi A6 with the V6 in the front.
45:51
And then they have a snowmobile engine
45:55
like where the back seat would be.
45:57
And it's chain drive to the drive shaft.
46:02
I don't really understand exactly how it works,
46:04
but it basically acts as like a supercharger kind of.
46:09
But mostly it makes a whole bunch of noise and is stupid.
46:13
I was one of my favorite cars.
46:15
And so when I eventually Max was crewing for them, I think last year.
46:20
So when I put those two together,
46:22
like I put that figured out who he was in relation to that.
46:25
I was like, oh, this kid's like amazing,
46:28
like top 10 lemons kids that have ever been around.
46:32
This is super cool.
46:34
I just remember when we were doing the rally with them and it was
46:39
the grandson's birthday
46:42
and everybody, whatever crap they could find on the side of the road,
46:47
or anything that was left free for anybody to take,
46:51
they just picked it up and he just kept giving it to him.
46:53
So they had this stuff all taped and tied and wrapped onto his car.
46:59
It looked like something out of, I don't know, the Grinchestall Christmas.
47:04
Yeah, the best part of that is that it's an MG midget.
47:09
And so there's like 10 feet of stuff stacked up on the deck lid.
47:12
It's just absolutely perfect.
47:16
That was so much fun.
47:17
That was our that was our first ever rally.
47:20
And we're just like, oh, my God, this is hilarious.
47:28
Tune, fine tune the rally to be
47:31
a just a complete absurd three days of your life that
47:36
you should be laughing the entire time.
47:38
So yeah, especially if you like trains.
47:41
Yeah, I mean, there's always going to be trains on the rally.
47:44
One of one of our in jokes, I guess, is that, you know, we're always trying
47:49
to shove as many forms of transportation into the rally as we can.
47:52
So, you know, airplanes, trains, obviously cars,
47:56
fairies, cable cars, fairies, any any way we can get that stuff on there.
48:01
We will absolutely put it on there.
48:09
Unless we have more about 2026, we have we have something
48:11
that is local that we we wanted to introduce you to.
48:15
And perhaps no lemons as a whole.
48:20
So we live relatively near what is lovingly called a ski mountain,
48:25
more like a hill, you know, Pennsylvania mountain, mountain in quotes.
48:37
Pre-spring, they have a festival.
48:40
And during this festival, they fabricate.
48:49
Vehicles that are then propelled down the hill.
48:53
And I believe it is only.
48:57
An opportunity for you to groom future lemons racers, because they're already dumb.
49:05
Is they know how to seem?
49:07
Yeah, I think it's a I think it's a bonding opportunity.
49:14
That is interesting.
49:16
It's mostly like kids.
49:17
Is it like a no, it's it's full-fledged adults.
49:19
I'll send you some videos.
49:21
So this is like this is like the porta potty races in one town.
49:26
It's like the soapbox derby, but for grownups.
49:31
And then in Ohio, it was actually on the rally.
49:36
It's one of the checkpoints is where they have a.
49:41
Cardboard box boat race.
49:44
You have build your own boat out of a cardboard box
49:46
and trying to sink in the Ohio River, which is not a thing
49:50
I would personally do, but I appreciate that it exists.
49:53
Yeah, that kind of stuff's awesome.
49:55
I love all of those kinds of things.
49:57
So maybe maybe I need to go check that out.
50:00
I'm just thinking it's a it's a grooming.
50:02
You know, you kind of bring them in.
50:04
They're already halfway there.
50:05
Just just sink the hook just a little deeper.
50:09
Dare I ask Miss Vicky?
50:11
Are you frozen or do you remember it?
50:12
No, no, it is the cardboard box races at Montage.
50:18
And it's it's it's the Winterfest is what it is.
50:23
And I got to tell you, it is it is the craziest.
50:27
It reminds me of an elements downhill.
50:31
Yeah, it's it's like the Barbie Jeep racing coming right.
50:34
Kind of. But these things are like 20 feet, 30 feet.
50:38
Oh, there was a there was literally a 30 foot Barbie bus
50:42
and everybody was dressed in it like Barbie characters.
50:47
I think last year they had like they had
50:52
Jack Sparrow's pirate ship and this thing had to have been
50:55
about 30 feet long going down the hill.
50:58
And of course, you have Santas that are all at the top,
51:02
you know, at the hill that are assisting and there's nothing funnier
51:07
than as you're going up the ski mountain and you're kind of going
51:10
going around and the Santas are up there against the trees
51:14
going to the bathroom. Oh, yeah, of course.
51:18
It's it's hilarious.
51:21
Santa drank a little too much
51:22
mulled wine, if you know what I'm talking about.
51:24
Yeah. And I know last year they had the 20.
51:27
I think it had to have been a 20 foot E.T. going down the hill.
51:33
Yeah. And to sweeten it just a little bit,
51:35
if you do manage to go where someone from Lemon Staff goes,
51:39
we have the ability to bribe with large pieces of cow.
51:43
Drink and everything.
51:44
So yeah, and like the winter fest is crazy
51:48
because they bring in really great bands that used to play in the 90s.
51:52
Oh, yeah, you get the better than Ezra's and what better than Ezra
51:56
was actually the band I went to go see.
51:59
And they were phenomenal.
52:02
They play at the zoo, a block from my house.
52:08
Them in live and elsewhere else from the 90s.
52:12
Yeah, they had spin doctors came out one year.
52:16
The dream of the 90s is alive at midsize festivals.
52:21
It turns out. Yeah. Yeah. Indeed.
52:25
But we weren't sure it had made it out to Lemon's HQ,
52:28
but we wanted to make sure that since you are the everything bagel,
52:32
you were you were aware of such festivity.
52:35
It's I haven't written down how to look up.
52:38
There you go. When I should be working.
52:40
So I'll be doing that instead of.
52:44
So when we do our season wrap,
52:46
we usually ask you what what are you looking for?
52:48
What what do you need?
52:50
What what what scratch has not been itched or what?
52:53
It's scratched. I don't know. That's a great question.
52:56
We still have never had the two car lemons team.
52:58
Let me pull on my wish list here.
53:00
The two car lemons team with the
53:04
Mazda RX 7 and the Nissan Nissan
53:07
Mercury Cougar XR 7.
53:12
That's that's at the near the top of the list.
53:20
Verano and the Suzuki Verona
53:23
two car team, you know, Verona, Verona.
53:26
Those are on my list of things that I really want to see.
53:29
But, you know, I think they should do a knack theme for that.
53:32
And they could be exactly at my Verona.
53:35
It's right. It's right there.
53:39
Speakers play my Serena the entire weekend.
53:43
White t-shirt, white white beer t-shirt, you know, it's done.
53:50
But I mean, there's always I've got my wish list pulled up of cars.
53:54
I want to see we finally saw Ford Aero Star this year.
53:57
That was one of the highlights of 2025.
53:59
So, you know, that one's off the board,
54:02
although I'm never going to be like disappointed
54:05
if more Ford Aero Stars show up.
54:07
That's kind of like a perfect case for lemons.
54:11
An entire race full of Chrysler C-brings and Ford Aero Stars
54:14
is really what we're going for.
54:17
And maybe a broken crossfire.
54:19
Yeah. Well, I mean, if you're going to bring crossfire,
54:22
it's going to be broken.
54:24
I mean, you know, it's standard equipment, not even an option.
54:27
You need to do. Yeah, exactly. This comes. Yeah.
54:31
Man, you know, there's I have a whole list.
54:34
Whole wish list of cars I want to see.
54:36
But I mean, even if you go through that and you find the cars
54:39
that have actually showed up like Cadillac, Katerra,
54:42
we had one of those a long time ago, like bring a Cadillac, Katerra.
54:45
Like that's perfect.
54:47
That is exactly what lemons should be.
54:50
You know, Chevy Corsica.
54:52
You know, when was the last time you saw Chevy Corsica?
54:58
I thought they'd all return to the earth.
55:03
We've never had a diesel Ford Tempo.
55:06
I mean, that's that's right up my alley.
55:09
Big Ford Tempo guy.
55:10
So yeah, I mean, there's there's there's a running list of things.
55:15
If you're ever really curious about it
55:17
and you want to bring something off the list,
55:19
I will share the list with people.
55:21
But I did hear we have a rally coming up in Texas in a month.
55:27
Somebody's bringing a Nissan Murano cross cabriolet,
55:32
which I am very excited about as the terrible Nissan Murano
55:37
convertible that weighs 5,000 pounds.
55:41
So on the rally, no weight limit, perfect.
55:48
What else do I want to see?
55:49
I want to see good themes from everybody.
55:52
That's the best bribe you can do for the judges
55:54
is to bring a good ass theme when you bring a car.
55:59
And if you have questions, if you have no idea about themes,
56:02
email me, I will give you like 10 good theme ideas.
56:06
We have we have lists them forever.
56:08
And that's I mean, this is this is the reality is that the teams
56:12
who seem well, the the garage heroes,
56:16
the leagues of legitimate Nigerian businessmen,
56:19
they have Google Docs full of good themes,
56:22
which have just spun out of conversations, right?
56:24
Like you say a dumb idea and somebody's like on the list on the list.
56:31
Yep. That's how it works.
56:37
You guys could probably lend a few out.
56:39
We could consulting company.
56:40
We could theme consulting garage heroes and training.
56:44
I mean, there's your theme right there for your first race next year.
56:47
Exactly. Garage heroes theme consultants.
56:51
Clipboards, you know, issue out some consulting,
56:56
you know, demand payment, whatever.
56:58
When when we were doing the airline,
57:01
did you see the video of us when you when we were doing the airline
57:05
stortices to your speech?
57:07
Because every time you kept turning around to look at us,
57:09
we had stopped already.
57:11
I know it was it was going great.
57:14
And I was in for all of it.
57:15
But then, like, when it got to the rookie meeting,
57:17
I was like, they are in my head at the moment.
57:20
And I have to stop.
57:22
I can't focus right now.
57:23
Yeah. We put our head downs in bolted.
57:27
It was it was a fantastic bit.
57:29
It just was just a little too distracting for my, you know,
57:34
we took it as a victory. Don't worry.
57:38
That is the correct interpretation of that situation.
57:43
That's fine. It's fine.
57:44
We can do that. Yeah. Perfect.
57:47
Oh, the theming thing is so much fun.
57:52
It really is. It really is.
57:55
My car ran like crap, but it was fine.
58:00
The guys who did the hippo theme last year in 2024
58:05
might have been three had never done.
58:07
They had never done any themes at all.
58:09
And like, oh, half way through the weekend, they were like,
58:12
this is the most fun we've ever had.
58:15
Like ever, like this is this is so stupid.
58:18
We've thought of every little detail.
58:22
We're enjoying all of this.
58:23
This this is the best weekend we've had.
58:27
And so, you know, you have to take my word for it.
58:30
Those guys were right on top of it.
58:32
Ask Phil, Phil from that team.
58:34
So he'll be right on top of it.
58:36
So we were having a discussion throughout Summit Point.
58:40
And we were saying how hard it was to race well
58:49
Has anybody pulled off the double?
58:53
Well, Boston Winers won HMG and the overall
58:59
They did a hot dog theme.
59:00
They were trying to change their theme for us.
59:04
So which those are that's another team where.
59:09
You know, they've been around forever.
59:12
Ten years at this point, I think.
59:14
And, you know, they're a competitive team
59:16
and their cars are boring.
59:18
And, you know, I basically said, hey, look,
59:23
make it more difficult on yourself.
59:24
Bring a theme or I'm going to give you laps.
59:26
You know, like you guys are going to kick
59:28
everybody's asses if you don't get laps, you know, whatever.
59:31
And, you know, they're like, haha,
59:33
and then they showed up and we gave them laps.
59:35
And they're like, oh, you were serious.
59:36
And then they came back with a theme
59:38
and they like pretty much for the last two years,
59:42
they've been they've been trying, at least.
59:44
And then like this year, they finally
59:48
they finally got it.
59:49
And I think that, you know, they realize they can do both, you know.
59:54
Which those guys run, they run four lemons races a year
59:57
and they run elsewhere three or four times a year.
00:01
So they're in a car all the time, basically,
00:04
which means they're always preparing a car,
00:06
which means that they're very good at preparing a car,
00:09
which means they have time left over to theme.
00:13
They have been taking advantage of that.
00:14
So that's the first double with the HMG.
00:17
If you go all the way back to ISOR racing
00:22
like 2010 with their Miata,
00:26
they used to do crazy, big, crazy themes every time they showed up
00:32
I think they have 10 race wins or something like that.
00:36
So, yeah, I mean, that goes back.
00:38
That goes back to the pretty early days of lemons.
00:40
Good themes and competitive cars are not mutually exclusive.
00:45
Yeah, it's it's hard to do both because if you're doing the theme
00:48
well, you're kind of you're focused on that, right?
00:53
You know, if you're doing it right, you know, 12, 14 hours a day, three days.
01:00
And if you're if you're trying to actually do pit stops
01:03
and everything between that it's a hard weekend.
01:07
It makes Monday actually Tuesday, usually Monday, usually you just feel junky.
01:11
And in Tuesday, you feel, oh, my God, it hit me.
01:15
And then, yeah, sometimes you record a podcast
01:17
with two zombie females on my team.
01:20
And yeah, it was I asked this, like, 15 or 20 second question
01:29
trying to lead into stuff.
01:30
And the answer was, yeah.
01:34
OK, this would be a long podcast.
01:39
There are days after a race.
01:41
It wasn't it wasn't like the early beginning,
01:44
like the early races that we had because that wiped us out to like Thursday.
01:50
But now we can kind of get, you know, Tuesdays to day, we can function around.
01:55
You get one crash day.
01:57
Yeah, I distinctly remember.
02:01
The Monday after my first race, I I went back into the office.
02:05
Like I was working a crappy office job.
02:08
And like, I just remember sitting at my desk and feeling like the volume on
02:12
everything in the world had been turned down to like half, you know, I was just like.
02:19
I don't know what to do with this.
02:20
I've been around like this noise, nonstop noise for three days.
02:24
I've been running around.
02:26
We did an engine swap because we blew up a motor.
02:29
Like it's just like this frenetic 48 hour period.
02:33
And then like it all stops and you're just like.
02:38
It's it's a constant.
02:40
Yeah, it's a constant adrenaline rush and a dopamine hit at the same time.
02:45
And all of a sudden it's gone.
02:47
Yeah. And then you just tired.
02:49
Yeah. So it was like after lunchtime on that first work day.
02:52
I was like, oh, I'm powering down like I don't know what to do with this.
02:58
I probably slept in my cubicle if I was to bet.
03:01
But yeah. Yeah, that that.
03:05
And I think for me doing what I do now.
03:09
Yeah, it's like Wednesday before I'm a human being again.
03:13
Usually. So the post racing over applies to judging as well.
03:21
Probably not a little known fact.
03:23
I'm a bit of an introvert.
03:26
But, you know, when I go and work a race weekend, you know, I'm around people I'm
03:32
familiar with at least, you know, if not, if not personally, you know,
03:36
personality wise, you know, if you're showing up to a lemon's race.
03:41
I already agree with you on some principles and there's some common ground.
03:44
So it's easy for me to communicate and.
03:48
Glad hand and talk and do the judging thing.
03:51
But yeah, once the race weekend's done, usually like, all right.
03:55
Everybody just I'm going to be over here.
03:59
Don't talk to me. Just don't talk to me.
04:01
So there's this like all the shades on the windows.
04:04
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
04:06
There's like two days of yeah.
04:08
So if you're ever trying to email me like the Monday after a race,
04:12
looking for something not going to happen, you're going to have to wait for that.
04:16
So I might see you Wednesday, right?
04:19
Yeah, maybe Wednesday.
04:21
We'll see how it goes. Yeah.
04:23
Well, we wanted to thank you and everybody from lemons for another great season.
04:29
We had a ton of fun.
04:32
You know, it's it's an opportunity
04:35
that I think more people should take a chance on just do it once.
04:38
And then, you know, you'll probably get sucked in.
04:40
But, you know, if you don't do it once, you don't really get it.
04:42
Or at least maybe come visit.
04:44
Come say hi. We're here.
04:45
Yeah, I hear my advice is always the first time you see lemons,
04:49
you have no idea what the hell you're looking at.
04:51
So, you know, just give yourself a weekend
04:54
to be shocked by the weirdness and then, you know,
05:00
come and try a second weekend
05:01
once you have a better idea of what you're looking for.
05:04
You should try it twice is what I'm saying.
05:06
Yeah, like sushi, you know, the first time you don't know what you're getting.
05:10
That is completely that is a great analogy.
05:13
You know, lemon, sushi, whatever.
05:16
Yeah, I will also add two quick things about 2025.
05:20
I had two of the most fun races of my entire lemon's career this year
05:24
at at Hyde Plains, first time there, and at Summit Point, first time there.
05:30
Just two of the absolute best times I've had on skiing races.
05:33
So I thank you to the lemons racers for making those enjoyable events.
05:38
And, you know, the other 10 races I worked were also great.
05:42
But, you know, those two were just tip top new experiences that were a lot of fun.
05:47
So I really love that.
05:49
So thank you to anybody who's been to a lemon's race or is coming to a lemon's race
05:55
next year and come see me if I'm there and chat me up. Absolutely.
06:01
Well, make sure to pass along our thank yous to everybody.
06:03
And please remember, we're all counting on you.
06:11
That's all. I got nothing for that.
06:14
Thank you, Eric. Thank you.
06:42
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