We arrived at MSR for the second time more tired but excited to be racing. We took up our spot in the paddock and unloaded the car and setup for the day. Not too long after we got settled in we had to attend the drivers' meeting to learn about all the boring but important information about race procedures. At this point we got back into the tech inspection line and prepared for the judging process.

     Normally at most races you sweat the most about meeting technical regulations, for the 24 Hours of Lemons this is only half of the battle. Once your car is had passed tech and you have recived the "Mostly Ok..... Good Enough" seal of approval, you much now face the most fearsome event of the weekend..... the B.S. Evaluation.

     Now comes the part were our captain (currently writing this) screwed us big time! The purpose of the BS evaluation is to prove that you have actually brought a $500 car to this race. In our case this is completly accurate but only if you can prove it. In the hectic pace of the week or so prior to leaving for Houston the records (which were kept) were left in Colorado. So when the judge asked how much we paid for the car, we responded with $400 and they said "yea right, you can't get a CRX in Denver, CO for four benjamins." At this point we tired to argue that the unknown condition and the amount of rust surely drops the value to what we actually paid, but the judge was having none of it. We then continued to talk about how much we sold the interior for, which that value can then be added back to the car. This was still not enough to sway the judge.

      Now is when the crooked judge part comes into play. A nicely timed bribe of alchohol or cash can go a long way to getting yourself out of a bit of a hole with this lot. That is all well and good if you have these bribes on you at the time. We actually checked our wallets and between the two of us making the presentation had a total of four american dollars.

      While temped to try the bribe, it was more likely that this would just insult them and the penalty would be even more harsh. Instead a different tactic was used, the time honored tradition of questioning what they do compared to another event and their rules. In this case the phrase "Come on this isn't the Grassroots 2008 Challenge!" (This is another automotive event that is as much an acounting exercise as it is a car building and racing event). This was the wrong thing to say as the judge fires back "Well right now I'm thinking a 20 lap penalty, but you could keep talking and go for more." Needless to say it was now time for Ben to start talking and our captain to shut up.

     Well, the end result is that we were penalized 20 laps for spending too much on our build. The penalty given to us was the equivelent of if we overspend on our build by $200. Since the clutch was in such an unknown condition still we honestly didn't think that 20 laps would make all that much of a difference.

      So with us offically now able to take part of the race we took the time to drive the car around the paddock trying to figure out the condition of our clutch. After a few decent accelerations up and down the paddock, the hard truth became evident. There was no change in the condition of the clutch as to the prevous day.

     After we stopped the car we noticed some oil leaking from the inside of the transmission. There is a small hole at the bottom of the bell housing that allows oil appearenty to drain out of the housing. So at this point we now know that the oil is leaking from the transmission. We knew this because it was the only freshly changed oil in the car.

      Now comes an important decision that had to be made, do we start the race with a busted car, or do we call it a short day and head back to the garage and try to fix everything. We decided to take to the track and make sure that our transponder works.

      The procedure that the Lemons use to start the race is a little unique. We circled the track under full course yellow for 15-20 laps to make sure that everyones transponders were working correctly. After this period a car would be picked at random and this car would start the race in first. So at the start you have no idea what position you are in. Since our car was injured pretty bad with the slipping clutch our plan was to take the green, get a few laps in, pit ,and pack up and head home to attempt the repairs. This seemed like a good plan except for one thing we had nothing to loose. While cirlcing arround on those pace laps there were at least two teams that had mechanical problems while under caution! At this point the decision was made from the cockpit TO RACE! The team watching from the stands were very suprised when the car didn't pit after a few laps. Before heading out we the team had another plan prior to all the clutch problems that the first driver would go for 45 minutes and then we would complete a driver change. After taking the green flag and dicing through traffic while trying not to get run over comming off corners, it was time to hand off to the next driver. As the driver change was happing Justin was giving Tim a 30 second guide to driving MSR Houston with a slipping clutch. Afterwords as Tim was out on track Justin explained to everyone on the team how we will proceed forward. The decision was made to drive the car untill the clutch completly gave up. We still had the original clutch and flywheel to change when / if the others were destroyed.