Anything can happen during Loudon's 24 Hours of Lemons

LACONIA — Motorsports, with its high-horsepower motors and high-strung drivers, can thrill audiences. But it can also be an intimidating sport to get into, especially for people without deep-pocketed sponsors. That’s part of the reason why the 24 Hours of Lemons has taken off, spawning races from coast to coast. Decidedly unserious, the Lemons race is made for everyone who just wants to have fun on a race track.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosts its own flavor of Lemons race this weekend, the 24 Hours of Lemons Halloween Hooptiefest, which takes place Oct. 19 and 20, and which raises money for Speedway Children’s Charities New Hampshire Chapter.

Lemons, conceived as the bizarro universe version of the ultimate in high-class racing, The 24 Hours of Le Mans, starts with a rule: each car must be worth $500 or less. The vehicles, which range from economy cars to sports cars to family wagons, are prepped for the racetrack. All glass is removed, the interior is stripped, and racing seats, fire suppression and roll cages are installed. Then, each team takes to the racetrack to see who can complete the most laps within the time frame.

With the Loudon event having a Halloween theme, teams are encouraged to come in costume and to dress their car up, too.

For Matthew Bean, a Wolfeboro kid studying civil engineering at UNH, it’s too much of an opportunity to pass up. He and five friends, all either in college or high school, who all worked at a local marina this summer, got together to form the team, “Booster Pack.” Their entry is a 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis with 130,000 miles on the odometer.

A couple of the team members have been involved in motorsports before, but this is the first racing experience for Bean.

“Expectations are, it blows up in the middle of the first day, hopefully it’s an easy fix and we limp back on the second day. But I think it will be OK. It’s a pretty rugged car,” he said.

What attracted him to the race? “It just looked like a lot of fun. Get some guys together, something really cheap we could do pretty easily, straightforward at least. That’s what we thought, that’s not exactly how it went,” he said. It was a bit more effort than they initially anticipated, but they’ll be there for the start of the race on Saturday.

“Just getting to the racetrack is the goal, racing it is the reward,” Bean said.

While this will be the first Lemons for Bean, it will be the ninth for Dave Estey, a Wilton resident who is part of the Moultonborough-based team, “Loose Dzus,” racing a Mazda RX-7 that has competed in several Lemons races already.

Estey, who has experience in many other motorsports pursuits and is one of the two racing instructors on his team, said the Lemons races are unlike other races due to the congestion and variety of racers on the course. In Loudon this weekend, for example, there are 125 teams registered, and they’ll all be out on the mile-long course at the same time.

“It’s like very fast moving Boston traffic,” Estey said. “The congestion is pretty tight, but Lemons attracts drivers of all different skill sets, and cars that are meant to be not very good. You really have to be on your toes, it’s not a race where you can relax. I find that to be pretty entertaining.”

It’s a race where anything can happen at any time, due either to mechanical break-down or driver error. And while some contact between racers is inevitable, race marshals will impose penalties for what they determine is bad driving. Those penalties are in keeping with the spirit of Lemons.

Dave Dubois, a Barrington resident and member of “Loose Dzus,” gave one example he was involved in a few years ago. There was a slow-moving car in the middle of the track, and as Dubois attempted to pass on the right, the car unexpectedly drifted into his path. Dubois had to steer onto the gravel to avoid a crash.

“When you go off track, you have to self-report,” he said. When he announced his error, his punishment was to carve a pumpkin with a Mad Max theme. Another time, they saw a car driven through the infield with a driver strapped to the roof of the car covered in plastic wrap, describing his inferior driving skills via a bullhorn.

And then there’s the reality of racing with cars that are one notch above junkyard quality. For Mike Ruggiero, of Moultonborough, that’s part of the appeal. When something fails on the racecar – that’s “when,” not “if” – the collective creativity of the teammates is called upon to get the car back on the track.

They hope that won’t be such an issue this year. The RX-7 campaigned by the “Loose Dzus” came from the factory with a rotary engine, something of an automotive oddity. The engine was showing its wear, so this year they swapped the drivetrain with one they salvaged out of a 1993 Chevrolet Camaro. That engine, a conventional V-6, will have more reliability and repairability, Ruggiero said. That’s only in theory, though. On Friday, he and Dubois were still putting the finishing touches on the adapted cooling system. Their racecar had only been driven once with its current engine, they’ll have to wait until this weekend to see how it runs.

“What I like about Lemons is the team aspect. We have five of us on the team. You’re not out here alone, we’re all here working together. And it’s kind of a fun atmosphere,” Ruggiero said.

For Estey, it all adds up to an experience that strips away any of the pretense and ego that might pollute other forms of motorsport. “It’s a really good time, it’s a fun race to compete in,” he said. “It’s the ‘Lighten up, Francis,’ of races.”

Tickets for the weekend of racing cost $30, and include infield access. For more, visit speedwaycharities.org/NewHampshire or call 603-513-5738.