Latchkey Kids Motorsports

Last February, Ray, one of the founding members of the Latch-Key Kids team picked up and relocated to sunny California in search of new opportunities and much, much warmer weather. The warmer weather came instantly and the opportunities eventually followed…

Anyway, enough of that. The real reason for the post is to highlight the second time one of the Latch-Key Kids has raced with another LeMons team. The first time was earlier this year when Dave Houser raced with the number H1N1 Los Cerdos Voladores at the Buttonwillow Histrionics race. Dave helped the well-prepped team pilot their Swine Flu themed Neon to a 9th place finish and Least Horrible Yank Tank honors.

This weekend will mark the second time one of the Latch-Key Kids (that Ray guy) will race with Los Cerdos Voladores, this time at the Thunder Hill Arse-Freeze-Apalooza. The Latch-Key faithful fans will surely remember that the Chia Neon placed a career-best 2nd place at the first Thunder Hill Arse-Freeze-Apalooza in 2007 after an epic nonstop cross-country drive. Luckily, this time, the drive is only about 7 hours.

The field is looking to be bigger than ever (rumored to be about 160 cars) and will be running the “not for the feint of heart” full track. Hopefully Ray and team Los Cerdos Voladores will be able to rise to the top and continue the streak of Neons winning the coveted Least Horrible Yank Tank award, and who knows…maybe the race too.

Below is a track map for your viewing pleasure. Check back in early next week for a full race report.

The funny thing about a 24 hour endurance race is that you never expect it to come down to a matter of seconds in the end.  This was our biggest mistake . . .

Click through for a full race report.

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Jalopnik has posted the official results of The Lamest Day along with photos of each car.  Head on over, you’ll find our car pretty close to the top, then scroll down and you’ll get a good sense of just how many teams we beat!

Latch-Key Kids Motorsports finished 5th out of 110 cars in The 24 Hours of LeMon’s event at Nelson Ledges.  We ran our best race yet, but the competition is getting tougher every year.  We’re proud to have kept our “fastest yank tank” streak alive, being the highest placing American car yet again.  Jay had some kind words for us at the awards ceremony, Recognizing our reputation for fast, clean, and consistent racing, and joking that it’s only a matter of time before we win the bags of nickels.

Special thanks to Susan and Eunice, who spent the entire weekend with us making sure we were fed, hydrated, and had the right tools in hand, and to our supporters on Twitter and around the web.

Congratulations to the winning 200sx, and kudos to Team Topless, with whom we were battling for 4th place until the very end.  Full race report to follow.

The ChiaNeon now has a twitter feed.  We’ll be live-tweeting from the event starting TOMORROW 10/1/09, so click on over to keep tabs on the race!  This is shaping up to be a very interesting weekend . . .