He’s not racing for the awards. He’s racing because he wants to be there. 

For junior Rory Pilcher, racing is never far from his mind. Underneath a gray hoodie, he typically wears a shirt from the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team to school.

Thanks to a $500 loan from his dad, Pilcher bought a 1985 Porsche 944 this August that he hopes to race in the 24 Hours of Lemons endurance race on Nov. 2-3 this year.

“A lot of [the] people you see who are racing for Ferrari when they’re 17 have been go-karting since they were 4 [years old],” Pilcher said. “Their parents have millions of dollars and have funded them through these steps.” 

Pilcher, freshly licensed at the age of 16, registered for the 24 Hours of Lemons endurance race at the MSR race track held in Angleton, Texas. The 24 Hours of Lemons race is a play on words of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestigious endurance races in motorsports held in Le Mans, France. According to Lemons’ website, “racing isn’t just for rich idiots, but all idiots.” 

The race allows each team a captain and crew of at least two drivers. Pilcher is the captain, and his crew consists of two childhood friends: Henry Gronnerud and Toby Jukes, who both attend Strake Jesuit High School. 

The three will take turns driving the car over the 24 hours of the race and switch drivers when the car runs low on fuel, roughly every two hours. 

The drivers race cars at an average of 70 to 80 miles per hour, occasionally reaching 100 miles per hour when driving in a straight line on the racetrack. 

While muscle memory helps Pilcher drive the car, it’s critical that he remains aware of his surroundings.  

“While in the car, you kind of zone out, [and] rely a lot on muscle memory,” Pilcher said. “You need to know where on the track you are, where other people are and where your car may go. Knowing all of that is going to help.”

“If you’re thinking too much [or] if you’re too conscious while you’re [racing], you’ll overthink, you’ll worry too much about it, and you’ll mess up,” Pilcher said. “There’s a balance between knowing where everyone else is and worrying about them and worrying about yourself.” 

 Pilcher’s passion in motorsports also led to connections beyond the track. Junior Arvin Rahmatian met Pilcher during their freshman year, connecting over their love of cars and motorsport. 

“Somehow the topic of Formula 1 came up and that gave us a mutual interest we could talk about,” Rahmatian said.

 Soon the two were go-karting together on the weekends, a hobby Pilcher started when he was 10.

“My mom’s ex brought me go-karting once, and it was amazing,”Pilcher said. “ I just kept going. I started doing league races for go-karting, and I started getting good, so I just kind of stuck with it.”  

For the past six years, Pilcher has spent hours at the track every month to improve his racing technique and endurance. Pilcher’s love for cars led to involvement in school, such as the Art Car Club, sponsored by HADV Algebra II and AP Precalculus teacher Sandra Wallace. 

“I [had] never heard of [the 24 Hours of Lemons] before and honestly the idea of a group of high schoolers taking the initiative to go out and buy a car to be able to race– that’s not something that many high schoolers can say that they’ve done,” Wallace said.

As a member of the Art Car Club, Pilcher attended almost all build days to work on the car in preparation for the 2024 Art Car Parade this April. Wallace said he “jumped right in” to learn the skills necessary to build the car.

“Rory is very dedicated to what he’s passionate about,” Wallace said. “He’s studious, he’s bright and he’s respectful.”

This dedication isn’t new for Pilcher.  When Pilcher got his car, he immediately started repairs during his free time. To ensure his safety, Pilcher stripped the car of all unnecessary weight, including replacing the interior seats with racing seats and removing windows that could shatter. During races, his team installs a full FIA-approved roll cage and fire suppression systems to prevent the car from explosion. Pilcher also took on the task of rebuilding his Porsche.

 “This car’s raced in Lemons since before 2017,” Pilcher said. “So it’s seen a lot of rough racing, and it’s been destroyed and rebuilt many times.” 

The Porsche has blown up three engines, transmissions, an axle and a couple of differentials, which are gears that allow the left and right wheel rotate at different speeds. When the broken differential blows up, the engine torque may not be transferred to the drive wheels, making the vehicle unable to move under its power. 

“This race is about as safe as driving on the Houston roads,” Pilcher said. 

The race has rigorous safety rules and his team plans to spend around $10,000 on safety gear to prevent any damage.

“Everyone who’s doing the race wants to be there and [has] worked to be there and paid to be there,” Pilcher said. 

Drivers in the 24 Hours of Lemons are very cautious to prevent any accidents with other teams and [limit] damage to [others’] cars that they worked so hard to design.

“A big thing at 24 Hours of Lemons is it’s supposed to be an art car parade mixed with racing,” Pilcher said. “So having a proper theme, design, costumes [and] decorating your car is a big part of it. That’s half of deciding who wins the overall awards at the end.” 

As for the future, Pilcher doesn’t think he will continue karting at a higher level. Instead, he plans to earn a motorsports engineering degree at Purdue University in Indiana, the only university in the US that offers motorsports engineering. In a video interview with Fox59, Chris Finch, engineering director of motorsports at Purdue said that the university had a motosports engineering student or alum on 32 of the 33 IndyCars at the Indianapolis 500 in 2023.

Pilcher said he would like to complete a master’s in motor sports in Europe and then find internships with racing companies there. 

“Europe has more options for motor racing,” Pilcher said. “Motorsport racing is huge in European culture.” 

European countries often host races, such as the actual 24 Hours of Le Mans. His dream is to work in Formula 1. 

“That is a long way away,” Pilcher said. “It’s going to be a challenge. I know there will be ups and downs, but it’s not every day that you get to rebuild a Porsche with some of your best friends and race it.”

Pilcher knows the race is going to be tough, but he said it’s worth it. 

“This will definitely be a memory I look back on in the future.”