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| Memorial Day Weekend At LRP |
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The old Bailey bridge had a facelift
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© Andrew S. Hartwell
Memorial Day and Lime Rock Park go together like cookies and ice cream, or pizza and pepperoni, or ham and cheese, or... hold on, I'm getting hungry now.
OK, let's try that again. It has long been a tradition at Lime Rock Park to open the season with a premier racing event held over the Memorial Day weekend. This year, again, that tradition continues with not one, but three professional GT based sportscar series in North America. The Grand-Am Rolex and KONI Challenge series will share the weekend with the SPEED World Challenge series.
And the weekend has started under perfect conditions as explained in this Lime Rock Press Release:
The Lime Rock Park GT Classic weekend got off to a great start on Friday, with beautiful weather conditions greeting race fans and competitors alike on the first day of racing action for the traditional Memorial Day weekend event.
The Friday activities were the first opportunity for fans to see the start of many new track upgrades, including a new bridge for Infield access and an entirely new entry way to the track. The new facility updates are a precursor of things to come, as the track will receive a new layer of pavement and extensive track revisions beginning immediately after the GT Classic event closes out on Monday evening.
The race weekend will feature seven different races on Saturday and Monday, as the Rolex Sports Car Series GT Class, Grand-Am KONI Challenge ST and GS Classes, Speed World Challenge, and the Mazda Invitational (Skip Barber Racing Series) all ran practice sessions during the opening day, with the World Challenge staging a qualifying session as well for the first of the series' two races this weekend.
Race fans enjoyed the first day of operation for the newly named Harpoon Tavern overlooking the spectator hillside while those in camping unpacked and settled in for the weekend.
Not all the cars on track were race cars, as members of the Mazda Car Club, who were parked together in the Mazda Car Corral, got to take to the track behind the Lime Rock Park BMW M5 for some pace laps.
Anticipating A Babe In The Woods
At the tender age of 51Lime Rock Park is about to enter the operating' room with a full facelift scheduled to commence on Tuesday, the day after the Rolex, KONI Challenge and SPEED World Challenge races wrap up. And the doctors of asphaltology' will be bringing the latest earth moving equipment - and paving technology - to bear during the six week plus long surgery.
The plan, announced at a groundbreaking ceremony in April, is to create two Lime Rock Parks'. How will that happen? By first tearing up most of the current track surface and then repaving the entire course and adding a few new sections of track in key areas. Will the old Lime Rock configuration remain as it has been for 51 years? Yes and no. That is, the new sections of track will provide optional configurations for various track combatants - from professional to amateur - to choose from, including the original layout. All told, the long awaited resurfacing is sure to give this already beautiful facility an injection of vigor that can only serve to sustain its relevance as a first class racing facility.
She has already started to look a bit perky with a new entrance and exit traffic pattern cut through the woods recently purchased by the track. And the new paths lead to and from the Bailey bridge that was recently lifted and given new - attractive - support abutments.
We think the old lady will come out of the operation looking like a real babe'.
The weather is predicted to be simply perfect all weekend with no rain in the forecast. High 60's to mid 70's are expected and that has to be a welcome sign for Skip Barber, the owner of Lime Rock Park. Nothing pays the bills better than ticket sales. If you are reading this at home and have been thinking about coming out here, stop thinking and start th
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