Shelton alumni make lemonade in special race

Matt Baide | Oct 27, 20220

Courtesy of SHS Alumni Racing count

The SHS Alumni racing team poses for a photo with the 24 Hours of Lemons race logo on Sunday at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton.

It was an idea on a whim, but it's safe to say Shelton High School alumni will be part of more 24 Hours of Lemons races in the future. The SHS Alumni team placed 26th overall in the 24 Hours of Lemons race at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton on Oct. 15 and 16.

The race was called Smells Like AMC Spirit 2022, with a logo featuring Kurt Cobain. The Alumni team finished seventh in C-class with a total time of 32 hours, 34 minutes and took home the Organizer's Choice award.

"It was amazing. We had unseasonably beautiful weather, which actually for racing, made it a little tougher on us," Shelton Alum racing team coordinator Mike Beyer told the Journal. "I was kind of hoping and had been planning for typical October, early October, 60 degrees and maybe a little bit of dew and drizzle and it was definitely late June weather, 84 degrees on Sunday, really stressed the car out a little bit but it held together. We got lucky with the dry weather, all being rookie drivers at this, that actually played to our advantage. The racing went fine, all the drivers had a lot of fun out there. They gained a lot of experience quickly."

Beyer said compared to a Lemons race, NASCAR is boring because nothing really happens.

"Out there at Lemons, my analogy is you take 42 feral cats and throw them in a closet and let them just go at it and that's what the corners look like out at Lemons because you have fast cars, slow cars, experienced drivers, you've got rookie drivers. It's just a free for all," Beyer said. "It's just a ton of fun."

Beyer said all of the drivers improved their times throughout the course of the race. One of those drivers was 2020 Shelton alum Maurice Castro.

"It was an amazing weekend. Like he said, you're going out there with 43 cars total so 42 other cars with us and y'all leave at once to start the day and you're pulling in with experienced drivers, slow drivers, fast drivers, I mean, it's a little bit of everything," Castro told the Journal. "It makes you a better driver throughout the weekend like you said and we picked it up quick, going in blind and not knowing what we were getting into."

Castro, 20, was one of four drivers for the team, along with Alei Henderson, Ethan Payment and Miguel Jay. Also joining the team for the October race was pit crew Tami Beyer, Kristyn Payment and Bryce Daddy.

Castro has a background in drag racing, but road course racing is not the same.

"You're comparing two totally different things. Drag racing, you're going straight and lemons, you've got 20 different things coming into play at once," Castro said. "Taking turns, you've got cars to your left, cars to your right, in front of you, behind you, you're hauling butt going into a turn with 10 other guys next to you."

He said he decided to do participate earlier this year when Beyer reached out to him with "a crazy idea."

"That's all it was, I've just got this crazy idea," Castro said. "I ended up talking to him the next day and he's like, come over, I'll show you what I've got planned and what went from a crazy idea that we didn't think was going to happen turned out to be reality. It was months of working and he had the car within weeks. Then it was, the never-ending process of we need, this, we need that, we need to fix this, next thing you know, we were on the track, it happened quick."

Beyer said once Castro figured out his lines, his lap times were consistent. Castro said he's seen the track and seen people race it, but it's different when you're on the track.

24 Hours of Lemons is an endurance car racing series on dedicated road courses with cars costing $500 or less, outside of the safety equipment needed to race. SHS Alumni used a 1992 Toyota Paseo, which held up during the race.

"I've never gone fast in a front- wheel drive car so that was a whole new ballgame for me but going into it, I was a little nervous, leery, you know, a 215,000-mile car, is it going to hold up this whole race while we're hammering on the car," Castro said. "I think after Saturday after that day one of the real race, the car was doing good. (We did) our maintenance that night to get it ready for the next day and going into Sunday, I think we were all comfortable to say let's push this thing and see what it has. Got down to the last lap for my turn at least and I let the car just go, let it have it and the car did perfect. It was probably everything we could ask for for what we were using."

Beyer said he had veteran drivers come up and ask him who was driving during certain points of the race to shake their hand, a proud moment for Beyer.

"They all knew we were rookie drivers and we probably made them a little bit nervous initially, but we raced clean," Beyer said. "Our one and only black flag event was eight minutes before the race and our tires were a little worn and we lost a little bit of control and we went off and self-reported, they never even flew the black flag on us. We just went in, self-reported, they scolded us a little bit and put us out for the last couple of laps. We gained a lot of respect from the drivers and in the pits as well. Our pit times went from atrocious, six, seven-minute driver changes to under two and fueling stops from 10 to 12 minutes down to four and five. Every two and a half minutes, you've lost a lap of your own, maybe more against some of the A and B-class cars."

The 24 Hours of Lemons race comes to The Ridge twice a year, and with one successful race, the SHS Alumni team hopes to continue racing every time Lemons are in Shelton. Beyer is hoping to get some carryover from this team to help lead next year's team and create a scholarship out of participation as well.

Castro was born and raised around racing and has worked on cars professionally for three years, so this opportunity was right up his alley, along with enjoying the teachings from Beyer's auto class.

"He's taught me a lot of stuff so you've got the one teacher you looked up to and actually taught you real life skills that you still use out in the workforce today and just life to life, plus he was bringing my hobby into it so it was a no brainer," Castro said. "I couldn't pass that up and I'm glad I didn't."

Beyer was hoping to have Castro be part of the team in a leadership position when Lemons comes back to Shelton April 1 and 2, which Castro was happy to accept, considering how much fun he had.

"I don't think words can describe it really. It was unreal, you had so many things coming at you at once and like I said, we went into something that none of us have done," Castro said. "We made it happen and we gained a lot of respect and it was even better, for one, representing our high school and doing it in our home town and having all of the experienced racers that do this, weekend after weekend, coming up to us and respecting us and asking us how we did it and wanting us to go back out. We had a lot of racers wanting us to go to their home states and race and that right there really topped it off for us and made us enjoy it a lot more."

Beyer is excited for more people to get the Lemons experience.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, it was definitely a 12. The only reason it wasn't a 15 is because we had a couple stumbling blocks," Beyer said. "We're all learning. It was amazing. I think it's a potent way to test their leadership skills they've learned here in high school and we've never built a race car before. We've never driven a race car before. If I can do this, what can't I do in life? And not only did you do it, you did it well enough to earn the respect of the veterans and that community ... I turned five young adults into unstoppable people in their community and now let me work a little bit into making them better leaders and pillars of the community and that's how it should be. As older adults, we should give back and never stop mentoring our young men and women."