Big auto racing seems to have lost some of its zip. Indy and Formula One cars just follow each other around the tracks while sanctioning officials sue each other and pursue strange fetishes. NASCAR racers have traded Jack Daniels for manscaping and PR flaks, and their cars no longer bear any relation to what you can find in a showroom – they are like silicone implants without the breasts.

Fortunately for racing fans, there is the 24 Hours of LeMons, where amateur drivers race $500 cars for a full day and night, where winners take home a sack full of nickels, and where cars may be dismantled in front of the fans for enough violations of the sport’s entertaining rules (as the pig and chicken graphics on the LeMons website suggest, some cars are involved, others are committed).  If NASCAR, F1 and Indy are tired sitcoms, LeMons is a chaotic Japanese reality TV show.

Some LeMons cars are raced to win. Many are there to entertain, so you get entrants like this BMW 3-series that has been converted with a Ranchero body.

Races are held all over the country, and the sport is growing quickly. Not exactly a ‘green’ sport, but a lot greener, more democratic, and probably much more fun than what big racing has become.  How soon before Fox starts showing this stuff on weekends?