By Trevor Jackson
FROM sub-one-minutes runs up the Valley Lakes in the Legend of the Lakes hill climb, to 21-plus hours running an old Mitsubishi Magna around The Bend Motorsport Park, Mick Argoon and Simon Feil are on the pace.
The pair are always fast in the hill climb, but on the weekend took the 23-year-old Magna away, joining forces with Kevin Stock and Brendan Wegener to compete in the Lemons Racing event.
The idea is to take a budget car and race as long as possible and see who is left standing at the end of the day.
“Originally it was a budget racing set up where you had a $1000 budget for a car,” Argoon said.
“You took it out and raced as long as you could.
“It was not about who won by how many laps but a bit of camaraderie.
“It has developed into budget racing with different classes competing.”
The Bandit Racing team were certainly on the pace, claiming the win in their ME2 class – for cars under 200kw – and also finished second overall behind a BMW M3.
The overall winners completed 480 laps, with the Bandits second with 465, spaced out over three days of racing.
Fines come in the form of laps for modifications to the car, which the team suffered due to upgraded brakes, exhausts and tyres.
However, those modifications clearly paid dividends.
However, after 21 hours around The Bend, Magna performed well considering the few modifications which were made.
“We didn’t touch it all weekend,” Feil said.
“We changed the fluids Friday night because it hadn’t run for two years but never had any trouble with it.
“That was not being nice to it, but still conservative – 5000rpm gear changes and hard on the brakes.”
One advantage the team had was fuel efficiency, with the V6 Magna able to run much longer than some of the competitors.
“The car was good on fuel so we were doing two-and-a-half hours stints,” Argoon said.
“That is where we were getting it on a lot of the faster cars – they were 12 seconds a lap faster, but we could be out there longer.
“When you come in you lose about five laps refuelling and changing drivers.”
Over the course of the weekend the team used eight tyres and around 600 litres of fuel, along with half a set of brake pads.
That efficiency ensured they remained at the pointy end of the pack for much of the weekend.
However, Argoon also played an important role, with heavy rain causing some teams problems on Sunday morning.
“I was just having fun,” he said.
“I like when it rains – everyone slows down but you just have to find that level of grip.”
Such was Argoon’s prowess in the wet, he was left in the car for more than two hours.
“That was because we didn’t want to get in,” Feil said.
At the end of the day the event is designed to have fun and raise much-needed funds for Rare Cancers Australia.
Any proceeds after costs are passed on and with around 90 teams across the country, it is certainly a worthwhile event.
As for the comparison between the Legend of the Lakes and the Lemons Racing event, Argoon put it quite simply.
“You must make this car last, not make this car fast,” he said.
“It tunes you in, you become a more polished, professional driver by doing different classes.
“We go from extremes to extremes – we go dirt racing, to The Bend, or a hill climb with a high-performance race car.
“I think we are pretty lucky but we do work hard for it.”
