Lime Rock Modified?

Perhaps I mised a thread here, but I've now heard that LRP is being modified and, based on the track map shown to me, ruined by emasculating the Uphill and West Bend. Alan Wilson's work, I gather. Am I wrong about the changes or their effect?

 

No, you are not wrong. But supposedly, the old course will remain in place with a new paddock in the old "B" paddock.

 

Uphill
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Why change the track? next they will bank the down hill so make it warmer and cuddlier

 

Apparently Skip Barber wanted longer lap times and more passing opportunities. Overtaking between the West Bend and uphill chicane might be easier for the prototypes. One heck of a long pit lane with the new course "pit in". It's got a potential to make you a lap or so down when you do a pit stop. It will be most interesting to see how it all plays out. I really enjoyed the course the way it was!

Carol

Here's a link to the entire plan:

http://www.timlinerud.com/racing/Lime_Rock/Lime_Rock_Track_Changes-1.pdf

 

Carol, thank you for the link!

Perhaps Mr. Wilson also could rid Road America of that nasty kink. Why in the world do we see so much of Wilson; has he done any really great track work? Created any first rate signature turns? CMP was so bad they've modified it so that it's merely awful; Beaverun is an autocross course with two drag strips.

jk001 - good point, I was surprised to see the downhill left intact.

 

That new turn 4 leading onto the No-name straight is going to suck.

 

Sorry to say that I'm not too enthused about these changes. Honestly, leave it alone. All of this just for Skippy?

Frankly, I felt the uphill and the downhill separated the men from the boys so to speak.

There's even fewer reasons to now go to LRP.

CW

 

Let's talk about that Wilson masterpiece, Mid America Motorplex! And we can throw in Miller and Autobahn, while we're at it.

Mr. Wilson's formula? A bunch of corner combinations with one increasing-radius corner tossed in for good measure.

 

I loved the old Lime Rock. Where else can you literally run into a deer?

 

Road America - speaking of deer collisions, did you see where deMatta was testing in the DFW area at the new Eagle's Canyon track for GAINSCO - Gurney/Fogarty #99? Here's the link to the story: http://www.grand-am.com/rolex/news/index.cfm?cid=15617 I hope he get's in the second car and is running in May at Laguna Seca.

Carol

 

I can't imagine hitting a deer with a car let alone a formula racer.

 

As a Formula car driver i dare not even think of such a thing. it is bad enough dodging flying parts, tire clag, oil from engines that explode right in front of me... Must have 15x the OH SH*T moments year to year in the formula car versus HPDE. Even dodged a clag 'bullet' heading straight at my visor at around 100mph... was (self) impressed how fast my reaction time was. Wish i had the camera on.

FYI: At Calabogie my Formula car just so happen to behead a chipmunk. So you can now understand just how low to the ground lil chippy was... and how low the car was to behead the cute lil thing

Don't ask about cleaning the mess up, it was not fun.

 

Why do we have to keep screwing with every track? First it was Riverside and then finally its' destruction. Then Road Atlanta...Then Watkins Glen. I could go on...It just seems sacreligious to me.

 

+1! Slow corner combinations...

 

It's not for Skippy, it's for ALMS and all of the faster cars that were threatening not to come back... Looks like they will retain the old layout. They'd have a mutiny on their hands if they didn't.

I think West Bend is the defining moment. After all the other tracks I teach, drive and race, LRP is still my favorite.

I was on the pole in front of 25,000 people for the Vintage Festival on Labor Day in 1991, Mid-way through the race, my good friend George Nelson was reeling me in in his Lotus Seven S1. Going into West Bend was flat in my pip-squeak car (Fiat-Abarth), not an easy flat, but flat and I just caught out of the corner of my mirror George spearing off driver's left at the apex of West Bend. The tire wall exploded behind me, I lost concentration and Jay Windsor in Erik Wensburg's Turner got the run through the Downhill and got me at the flag...

Luckily George was alright, but that track requires a bravery and faith factor present very few other places...

 

"that track requires a bravery and faith factor present very few other places..."

IMO every track should have at least one corner with a "bravery and faith factor." Well put. Perhaps the current liability climate has bred Wilsonian track design.



Steven: IMO the formula car group is the worst in SCCA. The Atlanta National saw a huge wreck at the green flag. Increasingly, I think the best SCCA drivers are found in SRF.

 

I think there are a lot of tracks that use to or currently have those type of turns. So, do we remove those types of corners from all of our historic tracks?

 

Sort of like why the F1 drivers like Spa, Suzuka, parts of Silverstone and Turn 8 at Bahrain.

Sort of why we like the Esses and T10 at the Glen, T2 and T4 at Mosport, the last three corners at LRP (man, iRacing is just superb), T3 and T10 at Summit Point, T7-T10 at VIR, T3 and T9 at Roebling Road, T1 and T12 at Road Atlanta, T1 and T14 at Sebring Long, the Kink and T13 at Elkhart Lake... You know, the fourth/fifth/sixth (top) gear corners in ALL of our cars!

They're still out there. For now, at least.

 

Yep, unfortunately, the liability insurance underwriters are driving a lot of this. Plus, the addition of spectators adds another dimension that require "slowing" or "calming" the track traffic, in their minds...

I'll be surprised if Sebring T1 doesn't get "re-profiled" after Ben Devlin's massive crash in the B-K LMP2 car at Sebring 12-Hour qualifying. I was standing earlier in the corner (behind the worker station) and it did look like the catch fence was not going to stop him from going into the motorhomes area. The top retaining cable broke and the jersey barriers (9000lb x 6, that's more than 25 tons) were moved back a foot as he hit four to six feet up off the ground. He plopped down on the tire wall, but it took them forty-five minutes with forty guys and heavy equipment to fix it. When you consider he was going about as quickly as he would have at the Uphill, they probably do need to do something.

In 1998, when I was a consultant for bringing VIR "back to life," Harvey also hired Dick Lee, the guy that drew the FIM-mandated changes at Laguna Seca, to look at VIR. Mike Rand and I got red-faced when Dick suggested laying a parallel back straight that was both straight and level alongside the original at VIR because, in his words, "cars might go flying..." Thankfully, good sense prevailed and Harvey said, "No, we're going to lay the pavement 100% centerline justified with the old course."

He did fill in the dip a little after South Bend (T10), but the track successfully handles Dyson's LMP2 Porsches, the stillborn Cadillac LMP car and Larry Connor's 122mph average lap in his Benetton B194 just fine.

These "changes" give me a headache just thinking about it...

 

We need a best corners thread. I have wondered about T1 at Sebring - amazed they haven't eliminated the surface change in the corner. And, I agree, the fun of Atlanta's esses is being busy with hands with your foot all the way down.

I guess, with Lime Rock, the proposed changes seem so extensive that I wonder if it's still Lime Rock, or just a small track in CT that isn't open Sundays.

 

How about the changes to turn 12 at Road Atlanta - it reports to be aimed at the bikes - http://roadatlanta.com/nws_turns-2008.lasso

Carol

 

At least it's "Auxiliary Turn 12" and not a replacement.

Still, another great corner emasculated.

 

...and I thought they got rid of the damn church so you can run on a Sunday as well. Damn it!