Lime Rock Park or Street Circuit?

Lime Rock Park or Street Circuit?

Posted: July 6th, 2006 in American Le Mans
Author: Rich Martin
Photo By: Joe Martin

Last Saturday, July 1st, I had the privilege of being at round 4 of the American Le Mans Series at Lime Rock Park. Lime Rock is a 2-hour drive from my home in Northern New Jersey and is an old friend of mine. In 1969 at the age of 14 my big brother Joe Martin took me to my first racing event, an SCCA regional. He had been going to races at The Glen, Bridgehampton, and Lime Rock among others for a few years and I guess he thought I was old enough to appreciate seeing the action live. I certainly did!

In the following 37 years I, along with family and friends have been to dozens of events all around the country, and even though I am having a problem with the politics of the current racing world, I still love the sport. Not only has it brought lots of excitement into our lives but also camaraderie between us that nothing else has.

The race at Lime Rock this past weekend was, in my opinion, the best of the year so far. It was Audi’s last race with the R8 and a lively duel ensued all day long with the new Porsche Spyders. In a fairy tale ending, the Audi won chalking up its 50th ALMS series win. In GT1 the Aston Martin got a long overdue victory over the Corvette team. The Aston boys really needed that one, and I hope there are more to come to keep the GT category interesting. GT2 also had its share of interesting competition with Petersen/White Lightning taking the win with a brand new car. It seemed to me a great weekend and all was right with the world, but apparently not.

I checked the forums of several well-known motor sport sites looking to read what the masses had to say about the race and to my dismay there was a lot of negative comments. There is a thread on one of the largest forums titled “Lime Rock, repair or replace”. I could not believe what I was reading, the track is too small, there’s no drainage, there’s not enough room for the cars, etc, etc.

There are even guys posting alternate street racing sites, along with proposed road circuit sites, among them a swamp in Jersey City NJ! If I’m not mistaken, they tried racing in the swamp in NJ with CART. Seems like the powers that be didn’t like the attendance, and the event went away much to my dismay as it was only 5 miles from my house, and CART was my favorite racing series.

As far as ALMS going to another street race to replace Lime Rock, that would be a travesty. I for one do not want to see another concrete and fence lined canyon posing as a racetrack. Lime Rock certainly could use some updates but on the whole it is a joy to visit this place. There are a number of excellent viewing areas, the food is good, and the park like setting can’t be beat. The crowd was quite large this year and consisted of everyone from veteran race watchers to young adults pushing baby carriages. From the young to old, man or woman, I didn’t see anyone that wasn’t having a good time. Also, let’s not forget that a track like Lime Rock is a great test for man and machine, the type of venue that needs to be in every racing series to provide the variety necessary to make a well rounded championship, similar to the schedule that CART had when they raced on road, street, short oval, and super speedway courses. Now that’s a championship that someone would be proud to win!

So for all you guys sitting in front of your computers debating whether or not this place should be taken off the schedule I say get in your cars and drive up to this place of history and magic. When you do the last thing you will want is for the ALMS to leave Lime Rock Park.

Rich Martin
PitJournal.com