Eyesore Racing wins the 24 Hours of Lemons’ 20th Anniversary race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

A car built from two totaled Miatas won by one lap after seven hours, and a wood-paneled Chrysler K-Car wagon took the series' grand prize.

CA, UNITED STATES, November 2, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Eyesore Racing won by a single lap after seven hours on Monday, Oct. 12, in a car built from the front half of one totaled Miata and the rear half of another. The Index of Effluency went to a wood-paneled, road-racing station wagon.

With 5,000+ drivers per year, 24 Hours of Lemons is the world’s largest car-racing series.

“Twenty Ridiculous Years,” the series’ first race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, ran for seven hours on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, to mark 20 years of Lemons.

Eyesore Racing’s 1994 Mazda Miata won overall and in Class A with 203 laps, one lap ahead of Tired Iron Racing’s 1991 Miata.

Dirty Duck Racing’s 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit finished third and won Class B. TPF Racing’s 2010 Mercury Milan won Class C after traveling from Hamburg, N.J.

NSF Racing of Cocoa, Fla., won the Index of Effluency, the series’ grand prize, in a Chrysler K-Car wagon.
All 45 cars made it onto the track and covered about 13,500 miles between them. The field was drawn from more than 320 teams by pulling 10mm sockets out of a pan of used motor oil.

Twenty years after its first event, the 24 Hours of Lemons brought its all-welcoming flavor of racing to world-famous Laguna Seca. “Twenty Ridiculous Years,” the series’ 20th Anniversary race, ran for seven hours on Monday, Oct. 12, and Eyesore Racing’s self-branded “FrankenMiata” won it by one lap.

With two hours left, Eyesore was two laps clear of Tired Iron Racing’s 1991 Miata. Tired Iron got one of those laps back before the checkered flag. The winning car covered 203 laps of the 2.238-mile circuit, about 454 miles. The fastest lap of the day, a 1:46.525, belonged to B Team - Just Plain Stupid’s 1974 Lotus-Chevrolet, aka “Chotus,” which ended up 20th.

Jay Lamm, Chief Perpetrator and Chief Executive Officer of the 24 Hours of Lemons, said:
"I’d say that a great day was had by all, but I also saw plenty of stuff blowing up. So, maybe a great day was had only by some."
The top three were all longtime regulars, each having more than 50 Lemons races behind it. Eyesore Racing first raced in 2007 and made its name with homebuilt turbocharged Miatas. Third place went to Dirty Duck Racing’s 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit, which also won Class B.

Bernal Dads Racing, a parents-and-kids team, was running third in its 1992 Volvo 245 wagon with two hours to go, but the drivetrain fell out of the car a little over an hour from the end and it was classified 12th. TPF Racing made the trip from Hamburg, N.J., and left with the Class C win and the Long Haul Award. Its 2010 Mercury Milan finished eighth overall with 167 laps.

The Index of Effluency, the series’ grand prize for the car that accomplishes the most with the least, went to NSF Racing of Cocoa, Fla. Its wood-paneled Chrysler K-Car wagon had the slowest best lap of any car in the race, 2:38.495, yet still ran to the finish for 115 laps. NSF Racing has won the same trophy in Lemons before, once with a Nash Airflyte the team found sitting in a Florida swamp and another time with the first Studebaker ever raced in Lemons.

Lamm added:
"It takes skill, perseverance, and a pig-headed love of bad choices to score multiple IOE wins. I can’t think of a team that embodies the last of those, anyway, better than Bob Mitchell’s NSF Racing."

Organizers’ Choice went to Team Bean Redux’s 1962 Austin Mini, from Escondido, Calif. Judges’ Choice went to Ran When Parked Racing’s 1951 Triumph Mayflower, a street-registered car from Sacramento that finished 15th. Lost in Translation, from Seattle, won the Heroic Fix award for keeping its 1995 Mitsuoka Viewt going to the finish after a last-minute engine swap. The Viewt is a small Japanese-market Nissan made to look like a 1960s Jaguar.

Some teams had a shorter day. Scrubbing Bubbles’ 1965 Volkswagen managed just 16 laps and won I Got Screwed. Skinny Koyote Racing’s 2001 Aston Martin “Half-Asston,” a crashed Aston body shell on junkyard Ford running gear, completed 24 laps and took the Butt Turrible award.

The idea behind Lemons hasn’t changed since 2006. Teams buy a cheap car, bring it up to a serious safety standard, and then race it wheel-to-wheel for long hours on major road courses, with real flags and real penalties and real racing strategies. The car is supposed to cost no more than $500, not counting safety gear, but going over doesn’t get a team thrown out: It costs them electronic penalty laps instead. Car-to-car contact is banned, and anyone who rolls a car sits out for 12 months.

More Americans become racers in Lemons than in any other series in the world. For most Lemons racers, the series is their first–but often not last–experience of true wheel-to-wheel competition. In a 2026 survey of its entrants, 8 out of 10 said Lemons was the first place they had ever raced wheel-to-wheel, and cost was the main thing that had kept them out before. More than 40,000 people have now raced in the series.

Getting into the race was a lottery of its own. Laguna Seca caps every race at 45 cars, and that limit had kept Lemons, with its usual big fields, away from the track for two decades. More than 320 teams signed up in the first 48 hours. The organizers wrote the team names on 10mm sockets, dropped them into a pan of used motor oil, and fished out 45 by hand, on camera.

Racers arrived on Sunday for tech inspection and a paddock potluck. Monday’s race didn’t count toward championship points; it was run as a 20th birthday party. All 45 cars made it onto the track, and between them they covered 6,042 laps, about 13,500 miles. Spectator tickets were free and included Paddock All Access, and press came in on the same ticket as everyone else.

Dillon McClelland, Marketing Director of the 24 Hours of Lemons, said:
"We had people in the paddock on Monday who had never been to a race in their lives, asking teams how they could do this next year. That’s the whole point. You can walk up to a car, talk to the team, and work out that there’s nothing actually stopping you from achieving your dream of being a race car driver. Lemons is where racers are born!"

The series next races at MSR Houston on Nov. 7-8, then Sonoma Raceway on Dec. 5-6 and Road Atlanta on Dec. 12-13. The 2027 season opens at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama on Jan. 30-31.

Jay Lamm, Chief Perpetrator of the 24 Hours of Lemons, and Dillon McClelland, Marketing Director, are both available for interview.

Results
Overall winner on laps and Class A: Eyesore Racing, #711, 1994 Mazda Miata, Long Beach, Calif. (203 laps)
Second overall: Tired Iron Racing, #189, 1991 Mazda Miata (202 laps)
Third overall and Class B: Dirty Duck Racing, #83, 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit, Los Gatos, Calif. (188 laps)
Class C and Long Haul Award: TPF Racing, #156, 2010 Mercury Milan, Hamburg, N.J. (167 laps)
Index of Effluency: NSF Racing, #20, Chrysler K-Car wagon, Cocoa, Fla.
Organizers’ Choice: Team Bean Redux, #1, 1962 Austin Mini, Escondido, Calif.
Judges’ Choice: Ran When Parked Racing Entry C, #49, 1951 Triumph Mayflower, Sacramento, Calif.
Heroic Fix: Lost in Translation, #67, 1995 Mitsuoka Viewt, Seattle, Wash.
Halloween Meets Gasoline Prize: Italian Job Racing, #58, 2003 Mini Cooper S, Souderton, Pa.
Hella Sweet: Chase Race: The Best Damn Garage in LeMons, #51, 1952 Hudson Hornet, Duvall, Wash.
I Got Screwed: Scrubbing Bubbles, #16, 1965 Volkswagen “Scrubbing Bubble,” Sacramento, Calif.
Butt Turrible: Skinny Koyote Racing Team A, #700, 2001 Aston Martin “Half-Asston,” Royse City, Texas
Fastest lap: B Team - Just Plain Stupid, #74, 1:46.525
Full results are available at 24hoursoflemons.com/results-2/?id=457

Images
Photos from the race are available to download here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IBXq8kt2BWlYCzRg-6feIOKxBC6vwPiC?usp=drive_link

Note to editors
The series name is the 24 Hours of Lemons, written with normal capitalization. Lemons is correct; LeMons and LeMONS are not. Please use the full name on first reference.

Press contact: Dillon McClelland, Marketing Director, 24 Hours of Lemons. dillon@24hoursoflemons.com and 435-655-1897

About the 24 Hours of Lemons
Founded in 2006, the 24 Hours of Lemons is an endurance roadracing series built on the idea that racing should be for everyone, not just for people who can afford it. Teams buy cheap cars, prepare them to a serious safety standard, and race wheel-to-wheel on real road courses across the country. Over twenty years and 367+ race weekends, more than 40,000 people have raced in Lemons, covering nearly 18 million official race miles. In a 2026 survey of its racers, 8 out of 10 said Lemons was the first place they ever raced wheel-to-wheel.

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