Cheap car racing is the best idea of the last twenty years. I’ve got nothing against demolition derbies as a way of thinning out the herd of beaters, but there is a distinct lack of massive barges out there that I’d be willing to use to bash into someone else with, and I’m not trusting a 1984 Cavalier to hold up, I don’t care who built the cage. Events like ChumpCar and the 24 Hours of LeMons, on the other hand, give old Trusty But Rusty one final shot at glory, a chance to be the race car they always had hoped to be…even though they had all the horsepower of a lawn tractor and could get stomped by a borrowed minivan in a stoplight drag. Since LeMons judge Eric Rood was in town to judge the “Kentucky (Demo) Derby” event at NCM Motorsports Park, I figured it was worth the effort to make a quick appearance in the heat and humidity to check out the sights and sounds.

LeMons race cars are a grab bag of what’s both right and wrong in the world of automobiles. First off, you’ve never seen so many late 1980s-early 1990s BMW 3-series hacked up, beaten up, and bodged up in your life. Per capita, BMWs made up a majority of what I saw. From there, take your pick…from a mostly stock Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera that looked like an unwelcome inheritance gift, to a manual-trans swapped Chevy Impala SS that looked about ragged, to what I believe was a 1980s Cadillac Seville body-dropped onto Corvette running gear, what you’ll see is what you get. Just make sure you look carefully. Or don’t, in the case of LeMons regular “Speedycop”, who showed up in a lime-green VW bus turned sideways, mounted on a BMW.

A short visit has given me inspiration. I know where there is a Camry Solara that can be had for cheap after a tree branch took out it’s back glass…