Chchchanges....

Got a good news / bad news note today.

• The bad news: Wayne Shaver had to back out of the team...the economy is tight & it is what it is.
• The good news: Stephanie Reaves is going to replace him. Love you Wayne, but she's better on so many levels...she 1) has money, 2) is a chick...sure to bring us notoriety! and 3) has money.

We had our first team conference call tonight & discussed the couple of things we need to do to prep the car: brake rotors & pads are ordered. We're going to wire up an old Miata radiator fan as a spare since we had cooling issues in the last race. We're also trying to figure out the fuel system mess...we'll hope a replacement seal on the fuel cap fixes our vacuum issue there. Hey, we've seen dumber things fix stuff!

Gearing Up To Grind Gears!

They're in... After a year out of competition, Hammer's Heroes are back in the mix at the 24 Hours of Lemons, the endurance race for $500 cars.

A new cast of characters are making the team this time around:

• The Heroes are still led by team principal John "Hammer" Palazzolo. "I've said it before, Lemons is the most fun I've ever had in a racecar. To have these guys join me at the track is going to be huge fun!"
• The rest of the team includes Wayne Shaver who worked with Hammer at both Xtreme Measures (a teen driving school) and Chrysler's SRT Track Experience.
• Zack Skolnik is an up & coming shoe who's spending his summer in New Jersey under the wing of Ferrari North America.
• The novice member of the team is an old friend & crew member for Eddie Sharp Racing's ARCA stock car team; Todd Chapman. Todd has never raced anything in his life...this is his first opportunity to pull on fireproof skivvies & live his dreams.

And that's what Hammer's Heroes are all about; living the dream. Want to be part of the Heroes? Drop a line to Crew@HammersHeroes.com. Race weekend is September 24-26 at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC. See you there!

Let's Try This Again!

Hammer's Heroes have been jonesing for a motorsport fix...so, instead of our normal routine of flopping our tail ends on the couch with a remote in one hand, a Yeungling Light in the other... We've decided to blow the mothballs off the team's "racecar" and enter the Fall version of the 24 Hours of Lemons...the endurance race for $500 cars!

The plan is to field a team of 4 drivers, headed up by team principal John "Hammer." "I'm totally jazzed to run Lemons again" said Hammer, smiling a wicked smile. "We've got a car that really should do well...once we figure out the fuel system!

Want to be part of this adventure? Contact Hammer now: John at HammersHeroes dot com.

Hammer's Heroes Need A Hero...

...actually, we need warm bodies with legal drivers' licenses and a few bucks to spend on a great weekend of racing.

Unfortunately, hard times have eaten into everyone's racing budget...even racing this cheap. Short story: Hammer's Heroes have had to withdraw from the 24 Hours of Lemons this coming May.

There's another event in the fall we'll work towards. In the meantime, the car is available to rent and the team is focusing on shakedown runs of a brand new Spec Miata.

It's Official: We're Masochists.

...and we're IN for Lemons South Spring at Carolina Motorsports Park!

The Hammer's Heroes BMW needs help, though. And that means turning wrenches. Before we can run another weekend long endurance race, we need to do a brake job with pads, rotors & fluid. We need tires. We have to throw another spitball at the fuel system mess.

But, we're going for it.

The team members are still being determined...if you have interest in running with us, drop a line to LooseNut@HammersHeroes.com.

How do you say "Jackass" in German?

You'd think we'd learned, but... Nooooo, we've not! Thank goodness, huh?! Hammer's Heroes is back for another exciting season of missed opportunity & unintentional disaster on the racetrack. We've done exactly NOTHING to our 1983 BMW 320i racecar...although it needs some attention (brakes, MORE fuel system work and a fresh stash of used tires from someone's (yours?) Legends Car).

The date for the event is May 21-23, 2010 at Carolina Motorsports Park. We've applied & hope to make our not-so-glorious return to competition then.

Stay tuned for updates!

The official link to the event is here: Lemons South Spring 2010

LeMons CHAMPIONS! Well, sorta...

Dateline, Mooresville NC...

It's no secret that Bayerische Motoren Werke AG makes fantastic vehicles. That's one of the reasons we chose to race a BMW in the 24 Hours Of LeMons. They key to success in the endurance race for $500 cars is a good solid & reliable runner. While most teams decide to run the "E30" chassis (cars from '84-'89), or the old 2002 model from the early-mid 70's...we decided to jump in with a 1983 320i, chassis designation E21. In typical LeMons fashion, the E21 is the most unloved of the 3 series cars from BMW so what better car for us to attempt to endurance race?!

While Hammer's Heroes haven't broken the Top 10 just yet, the marque's consistency has earned it the LeMons' Constructor's Championship for 2009!

Congratulations BMW for an award most companies would run from!

Here's the official piece from LeMons' HQ...

2009 CONSTRUCTOR CHAMPION: BMW

Much to the chagrin of the judges, the relentless stream of LeMons E30s actually paid off in the end. Though plenty of Bimmers performed embarrassingly badly in '09 LeMons events, enough scored top-ten finishes to snatch the crown from 2008 champ Mazda. OK, E30 dudes, you've proved your point--now go get a Fiat and prove you can do it the hard way.