Turn a curse around

I mentioned the diversity of teams and the good cooperation at LeMons, but there is one element of the weekend that is not about camaraderie -- the selection of one car as the "People's Curse," which is destroyed around the half-point of the race. If you look in our gallery of photos from the event you can see the carnage wrought upon the unlucky car by a large construction claw.

The unlucky team at the Houston race was the Bum Steers and the MooPoo Crew LeMons Team -- voters may have thought their Miata was a former Spec Miata race car, not the junker that it was. It's ironic that their team was chosen since they're the people who contacted the LeMons organizers to suggest a Houston race.

Anyway, the small silver lining of the carnage is that it gave the Bum Steers a chance to emphasize to the crowd that they were not just racing for fun but also to publicize a charity, Heifer International, that works to combat hunger in poorer nations. If your finances permit, I urge you to click through to the Bum Steers' website and make a donation -- I donated something comparable to my lunch expenses for the last few days. If the MooPoo Crew get more donation money for their chosen charity perhaps it will lessen the sting of the People's Curse.