Concours d’Lemons at HooptieCon CA 2018

What happens when Billetproof, Concours d’Lemons, Radwood, Gambler 500 and Lemons Rally participants all get together at a 24Hour of Lemons race? HooptieCon is what happens. Brainchild of 24Hours of Lemons “Chief Perpetrator”, Jay Lamm, the inaugural HooptieCon at Sonoma Raceway on March 25, 2018 gathered all the misfit and oddball automotive events in one place to hilarious and amazingly fun result. While the usual whacky and terrible $500 Lemons race cars hurtled around Sonoma Raceway’s famed 2.52 mile road course shedding parts, spectators could take in traditional hot rods and customs (Billetproof), the worst of the automotive world (Concours d’Lemons), ‘80s and ‘90s cars complete with period dress, music and video games (Radwood), and ill-advised on and off road rally vehicles (Gambler 500 and Lemons Rally). As if half serious, half comical racing and all the oddball car shows weren’t enough, there was an Engine Heat BBQ Cook Off, a Crap-Cannes Film Festival and parade laps of the track for show participants. While judging the Cook Off, Alan Galbraith, self-described “Head Gasket” for Billetproof and Concours d’Lemons, remarked “Hands down, the best meal I’ve ever had cooked using only endurance racing-generated engine heat.”

To cap off what was an already full day of automotive fun, Radwood and the Concours d’Lemons bestowed Best and Worst of show honors/horrors to lucky/unlucky participants. Jon Sohaei took home Radwood’s Best of Show for displaying a very rad 80’s Lamborghini Jalpa, while the owner of the 1990 Cadillac Allante that took home the Concours d’Lemons Worst of Show trophy wished to remain anonymous, lest he be kicked out of the inexplicably fustian Allante Owners Club. “It is a day filled with automotive fun and idiocy, and we are just dumb enough to do it again next year,” remarked Jay Lamm.

Worst of Show winning 1990 Allante