24 Hours of LeMons sells out to The Man!

Yokohama becomes official tire of hopeless hooptie hacks

It finally happened, the semi-satirical 24 Hours of LeMons, a “racing” series for “cars” that cost less than $500, used to be funded by the entry fees of starry eyed racer-wannabes ... and by the bribes paid to their scrutineers, including LeMons chief justice and Autoweek regular Murilee Martin. It was a simpler time back then. No one had any money and every performance part was made of either PVC pipe or of something someone found in the backyard under a tarp.

Not anymore. Now the 24 Hours of LeMons has a sponsor. Sure, it’s just a tire sponsor, but this is the start of the slippery slope where race winners will thank Wonder Bread and Pepsi instead of doing something crude but humorous on the victory podium.

Yokohama, a perfectly legitimate tire company, has become the official tire sponsor of the 24 Hours of LeMons.

“Imperiling decades of customer trust and the goodwill of countless race victories, Yokohama has just become the Official Tire of 24 Hours of LeMons,” read a release from the series, obviously written by former (and he loves to emphasize former) automotive journalist-turned-Bernie-Ecclestone Jay Lamm. “The new partnership means that in theory one now could say ‘Lemons’ in the same breath as ‘Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama,’ though of course no one actually will.”

"We're as perplexed by the whole thing as you are," said Lamm, whose LeMons official title in the series is Chief Perpetrator. "We even told them that we wouldn't mention the Porsche GT3 Cup thing, but they said, 'Go ahead.' I can only assume someone in marketing is trying to get themselves fired."

Autoweek contacted Lamm directly to get clarification. Will this mean respectability for the series at last?

“God, I hope respectability is not the inevitable result, that would be a disaster,” said Lamm. “But no, we’ve had various sponsors before. We have had Peak antifreeze and oil for about five years now, though you would never know it … and (he named some other car magazine/webcast/publishing entity) for the last three. Granted, all of them combined equal about enough to purchase a really nice dinner, but what price respectability...?”

For its part, Yokohama remains blissfully ignorant of what it’s done. Just read its release:

“Sweet deal for Yokohama which is now the official tire of the 24 Hours of LeMons, the wacky race series featuring cars that only cost $500 or less (not including tires, of course).”

Created in 2006, the 24 Hours of LeMons has evolved into the biggest endurance-race series in the world. Somewhere around 9,000 drivers participate in its 20-25 nationwide events each year, including international races in Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s certainly the first racing series we’ve been involved with where the tires cost more than the cars,” said Fardad Niknam, Yokohama’s senior director of consumer product planning and product marketing.

As of press time, Niknam still had a job.

And you can still enter a LeMons race for less than $500. In theory, anyway. More info available here.

SOURCE: AUTOWEEK

AUTHOR: Mark Vaughn