Shelton grads prep for 24-hour auto race

Shelton High School grads are preparing for the 24 Hours of Lemons race Oct. 15 and 16 at the Ridge Motorsports Complex.

Mike Beyer, Shelton High School's career and technical education auto instructor, was able to get some alums and former students together who were interested in competing in the race.

"It was my idea to try this race and give a shot at an endurance race," Beyer told the Journal. "It's not our first attempt, it's probably going to be our most successful, I think. We tried to do a drag race car a couple years ago so some of the students could participate in the high school drags, but there are legal issues with having enrolled high school students driving at the race track with their instructors' car so the school district attorney said no way."

A 24 Hours of Lemons race is an endurance racing series on

dedicated road courses for $500 cars. If you spend more than $500, negative laps can be assigned to your standings.

The car must be $500 or less to compete, but that does not include safety equipment, brakes, wheels or tires. Special equipment needed includes a six-point or better cage, a race seat, race belts, an onboard fire suppression system, a kill switch and a 10% stock fuel system or pro-quality fuel cell. Drivers need a legal helmet, head-and-neck restraint, and fire-resistant suit, gloves and shoes.

"The whole race is kind of a tongue-and-cheek version of the multimillion dollar cars on corporate sponsorships and professional race car drivers," Beyer said. "Honestly, this type of race car driving is out of the financial realm of the vast majority of the people without a corporate sponsor with very deep pockets. This race enables a group of friends to get together and come up with a vehicle that meets the criteria. For $500, you can almost guarantee that it's gonna break and so half of the fun is to see if you can patch it back together and get it back out on the racetrack before the race weekend ends. The way I view it, it's really about the camaraderie of taking on the project. I think very few of the drivers are really there to win. I think they're all there to have fun."

Beyer said it was tough to find a car for $500 or less, but the cost of the whole project is $14,000.

"The person that listed it was a 1992 Toyota Paseo. He listed it for $600 or best offer and said he would give a 15% discount to active-duty military or Department of Defense civilians," Beyer said. "So I texted him and said would you extend that same 15% discount to LEO (law enforcement officer) families because my wife works for the Sheriff's Office and he texted me back and said you're joking, right? You want me to give you 15% off because you're born in March. I said, no, law enforcement. He said OK so the vehicle was purchased for $510. He pulls in and it had a bad wheel bearing, I could hear it from three blocks away. The backing plate on one of the brakes on the other side was dragging on the rotor, making a ridiculous noise, the engine had a rattle to it. We've been able to fix all those items."

Shelton team drivers are Alei Henderson, Maurice Castro, Miguel Jay, Ethan Payment and the pit crew is Beyer and Kristyn Payment. All of them graduated in 2020 and are some of the first students to take the auto class. He said the pinnacle of employability is being able to work on a team and he teaches that in his classes, which is what this team is all about.

"Whatever project you're assigned, get it done, get it done on time and right," Beyer said. "Half of the fun for us is even though I was a mechanic for 30 years, I've never built a race car before and none of my students have ever competively driven a race car before so we're not even supposed to be able to pull this off. The fact that we can even assemble a team, assemble a car, get it to pass the necessary requirements, and be able to take it out on the track and drive around and have a lot of fun and be safe, that in my mind already makes us winners."

Beyer said he is having a lot of fun with the project and team.

"To really see them put into practice through this project some of the ideals that were taught to them in my CTE class and see it come to fruition is really rewarding for me to see the smiles on their faces and the twinkle in their eye about the idea of taking a car out and racing it around the track for a couple days," Beyer said. "Just coming together and everyone has a skill set and to see how one of them is saying 'We need to do these three things.' And for one of them to say, 'I'll do that one.' To come together as a true team and again, we may not be professional, but I would put our heart and soul of this team up against any professional race team or any other team out there."

The team is looking for support from the community. It is looking for financial support through donations on the SHS Alumni Racing Facebook page. He also hopes people will come out to the Ridge to support Shelton.

"I would love to see a sea of black and red in the stands," Beyer said. "We're the hometown team. This is a national race, it's occurring at the Ridge. The Ridge is a great motorsports park. ... I would just love to see hometown Shelton come out and support these young people, these 20-year-olds race in their Shelton High Alumni racing team."

Author Bio

Matt Baide, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
Email: [email protected]

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