Those grease-huffing papas from the Bernal Dads Racing Team had an excellent adventure during last weekend’s 24 Hours of LeMons endurance race at Thunderhill, and they represented Bernal Heights with honor. A few highlights:

• Two of the Dads flew to the race track in a private plane, which gave the whole team a little bit of jet-set flair:

• Both of the Dads’ cars received new paint jobs. The Whale, a battered a survivor of 12 previous LeMons races, adopted a new olive-drab livery, with a Flying Tiger-style shark mouth painted on its nose, to commemorate its war-weary status:

• Meanwhile, the mutant Miata-Volvo cross-breed “Molvo” was repainted gold after a vertigo-inducing trip to a Walmart, where six cans of gold spray paint were discovered on an aisle not far from the Gatorade. Naturally:

• The Whale blew a head gasket late Saturday afternoon. The car managed to limp through the day, then two Dads rushed to Sacramento (rather stylishly, in a borrowed Porsche convertible) to buy replacement parts. By morning, the new head gasket was installed, and the car was ready to race. Go team:

• The Molvo accrued so many penalties on Saturday afternoon that it was banned from the race. Luckily, some desperate pleading (while using a 6 year-old kid with a broken leg as a pity-generating prop) morning yielded a reprieve on Sunday morning, as the LeMons judges allowed the car to return to the track:

On Sunday afternoon, when the checkered flag was finally waved after some 15 hours of racing, both of the Dads’ cars were still running smoothly out on the track. They finished in the middle of the pack in their class, and in the middle of the pack overall, which was not exactly great but not shameful either. Most importantly, all the Dads returned home safely to father another day, and a very good time was had by all:

PS: Lots and lots and lots more photos from Thunderhill right here.

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics