We’ve discussed the AMC products that have raced in LeMons, but we haven’t discussed much about how Jeep—which was owned by AMC from 1970 through 1987—has performed in our race series. You’d think that the XJ Jeep Cherokee, with its solid front axle, high center of gravity, and 1964-era AMC pushrod six engine would be even slower than even the fattest of comfy luxury cars. In the case of Petty Cash Racing and their 1987 Cherokee, you’d be wrong—this Jeep is quick!
Team captain Matt Adair, a Seattle-based rock-crawling enthusiast, had to convince 24 Hours of LeMons Chief Perp Jay Lamm that he could build a RWD Cherokee that wouldn’t wind up on its roof the very first time it tried to turn at a race track. That task accomplished, the Cherokee showed up to the 2009 Arse Freeze-a-Palooza at Thunderhill Raceway in California. The team painted their car Petty Blue, but found that King Richard’s number 43 had already been taken by another team (43 and 69 are the car numbers most sought-after by LeMons racers) and had to go with number 430 for the Jeep.
The team’s drivers came from off-roading backgrounds and weren’t quite ready for the wild elevation changes and challenging turns at Thunderhill Raceway, but the truck handled and braked better than anyone expected, the 4.0 six suffered only a harmonic-balancer failure (a LeMons team that has only one major mechanical failure its first time out is doing very well), and finished a respectable 63rd out of 156 entries.
The team returned to California for the 2010 season and began to get noticed. First, a P45 (out of 147 entries) finish at the first-ever LeMons race at Sears Point, then a Class C win at the 2010 Arse Freeze at Buttonwillow.
Apparently emboldened by the success of Petty Cash, and surrounded by junkyards full of Jeep parts, Martooni Racing of Colorado decided they’d race a Cherokee as well. Sadly, they suffered apocalypse-grade mechanical problems and managed a mere 13 laps at the 2010 B.F.E. GP at High Plains Raceway in their home state. Clearly, Petty Cash’s experience with thrashing rock-crawler Cherokees gave the team an edge.
The crucible of LeMons racing has done a good job of blasting holes in conventional wisdom surrounding allegedly bulletproof cars and engines, and it turns out that the AMC six isn’t quite as unkillable as self-proclaimed experts would have you believe. At the Sears Pointless 2011 race, the 4.0 a.k.a. 242-cubic-inch six in the Petty Cash Cherokee decided that it …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver