We've Been Racing Our EV Without Full Throttle for Years. Finally Fixed for the 25:01 of Thunder Hill, May 2026.

In our defense, we didn't know.

I'm Daniel Martin, one of the drivers on Team Arcblast, and this past offseason we did what every race team should do when nobody is watching: we poked around the car. And we found something embarrassing.

When you mash the throttle in our race car, the pedal sensor sends more than five volts to the motor controller, which interprets that as "there is a problem, ignore what the human wants" and trips itself off. A hard reset every time to fix it. For years. Every race we've run, every record we've set, has been with the throttle politely refusing to fully commit. We have, technically speaking, been racing a very polite EV.

That gets fixed for Thunder Hill in May. Which is going to be interesting, because we have a record to break.

What we're trying to do at Thunder Hill

Last year at Thunder Hill Raceway in Willows, California, we ran just under 1,100 miles (382 laps) in 24 hours and set the EV distance record for the 24 Hours of Lemons series. Nobody has broken it since.

This May we're going for 1,300 miles. That number isn't a typo and it isn't a Lemons-specific stretch goal. If we hit it, it's a new wheel-to-wheel EV endurance record, period. Not just in Lemons. In any series. Anywhere. Worldwide.

No pressure.

A quick primer on 24 Hours of Lemons (yes, this is a real thing)

If you're new here: 24 Hours of Lemons is a play on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Same idea, dramatically different vibe. It started in the early 2000s with a delightfully unhinged premise: build a race car for $500 (in 2000s money, so basically a sandwich today) and race it endurance-style for 24 hours.

Three classes, three different levels of "do we actually think we can win this." The judges care more about the spirit of the $500 rule than the literal number, which is good for everyone involved.

The series has been weirdly supportive of EVs. There's a standing $50,000 bounty for the first outright Class A win by an EV, and in true Lemons fashion, the prize gets delivered as a dump truck of nickels. We are not making this up.

24 Hours of Lemons is “Racing for real people”.

What's actually changing in the car

The throttle, as established, has discovered it has a job. This is the big one. We expect a meaningful pace bump from being allowed to drive flat out for the first time. Also a nicer drive: when the throttle isn't going to randomly cut on you mid-corner, you trust the car more.

The brakes are now installed correctly. Turns out the right front pads were on wrong, which probably explains a chunk of the squirreliness in the rain last race. In our defense (again), we almost never use them: it's all regen. Three years on the same pads and we haven't gone through half the material.

Cool suits, hopefully. The worst part of a 24-hour race in May in Northern California is what happens to the inside of the car. We're working on getting cool suits set up: basically a cooler full of ice that pumps cold water through a shirt you wear under your suit. If you've never tried one, trust me: it is the single biggest quality-of-life upgrade in motorsport.

Warehouse stock chasers. New to the operation this year: a small fleet of 24-volt, three-wheeled warehouse tugs that, according to Tyler, do "awesome wheelies." We will be using them to tow battery packs to and from the chargers in the hot pits. This sounds silly. It is also, mathematically, probably worth the entire record on its own. Faster pack swaps = more laps = the record. We may also use them to drift around the paddock at 3 a.m. but you didn't hear that from us.

Battery towing will be easier than ever with these! repurposed stock chasers.

The not-so-glamorous problems

The team isn't standing still. Tyler outlined several key improvements in the works for this season.

The first is a braking system overhaul. Currently the car uses lift-off regenerative braking on the rear axle only, which has worked well in dry conditions. But when it rained mid-race at last year's High Plains event, they had to dial back the regen significantly to keep things safe. The fix: swapping from a brake switch to a brake pressure transducer, then tuning the regenerative braking to work proportionally with front brake input. The result is better brake balance and more consistent regen that adapts to conditions.

Second is tire experimentation. The team has been running Hankook RS4s, which have been remarkably durable hitting nearly 1,200 miles per set, almost unheard of in endurance racing. Originally chosen because of the car's weight, those tires have served their purpose. But with a better understanding of the car's handling and grip limits, the team is ready to try something stickier to shave lap times.

Beyond the car itself, the team has also invested in a new enclosed trailer with heating and cooling. For a team doing overnight endurance stints, this is a huge quality-of-life upgrade that should reduce logistical stress and help everyone arrive at the track in better shape.

How to watch (or come heckle us in person)

We'll be running the Sentinel livestream from inside the car again, on YouTube and possibly Twitch this year. We had some dropouts last year: there's new streaming software we're testing that should be a lot more reliable. Fingers crossed.

If you want the real experience, come to the track. Lemons sells spectator passes for around $40, and unlike most racing series, that gets you full access: the pits, the stands, walking around looking at 100+ of the most spectacularly weird race cars on Earth. Last year had something like 113 cars. Every one of them has a story, and most of them are happy to tell it to you.

Pro tip: bring a helmet and safety gear. Teams occasionally need a fill-in driver, and a friendly stranger with proper kit has been known to find themselves strapped into a race car.

We'll be back with a full race recap afterward: the wins, the unforced errors, and almost certainly something briefly on fire.

Until then: have fun wrenching, and be safe out there.

A suspicious looking bunch, but you should come say hi anyway.