Lime Rock Park
| Road Racing Center of the East | |
|---|---|
Track layout
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| Location | Lakeville, Connecticut, USA |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (UTC-4 DST) |
| Owner | Skip Barber |
| Operator | Skip Barber |
| Broke ground | 1956 |
| Opened | 1957 |
| Major events | Tudor United SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix (2015) American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix (2004–2013) Rolex Sports Car Series Lime Rock Grand Prix (2000–2001), (2006–2008), (2010–2013) |
| Surface | Asphalt |
| Length | 1.50 mi (2.41 km) |
| Turns | 7 |
| Lap record | 43.112 seconds (P. J. Jones, Eagle Mk. III-Toyota, 1993, GTP) |
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Lime Rock Park Race Track
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| Area | 325.2 acre |
| Built | 1956 |
| Architectural style | Other, Race track |
| NRHP Reference # | 08001380[1] |
| Added to NRHP | October 16, 2009 |
Lime Rock Park is a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lime Rock, Connecticut, United States, a hamlet in the town of Salisbury, in the state's northwest corner. The track is owned by Skip Barber, a former race car driver who started the Skip Barber Racing School in 1975.
History
The 1.5-mile Lime Rock track was originally conceived of in 1956 by Jim Vaill, who, along with John Fitch and Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, built the track utilizing state-of-the-art road and highway safety principles of the time. The first race was held on April 27, 1957. In 2008, the track was re-paved and two new corner complexes were added.[2]
The track has a loyal following,[2] though it did face some resistance from the local community shortly after it opened. In 1959, the Lime Rock Protective Association, with support from the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church,[3] took the park to Litchfield Superior Court in an effort to ban Sunday racing. The court issued a permanent injunction against Sunday racing, and its decision was upheld by the Connecticut Supreme Court. While restrictive, the carefully crafted injunction was also enabling. It preserved the track's right to conduct unmuffled sports car racing on Fridays and Saturdays, plus testing on Tuesdays and other operating benefits. The injunction stands to this day.[4]
The track has featured many well-known racers including Paul Newman, who supported his own Newman-Haas team with Bob Sharp,[5] Mario Andretti, Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, Sam Posey, and Mark Donohue.[2]
The Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series used a configuration which included the chicane at turn five and West Bend.
Track
For years the track was listed as being 1.53 miles in length—the story goes that right after it was built, somebody used the odometer in a Chevy to measure the track length—and 1.53 was taken as gospel. Following the 2008 reconstruction (see below), Lime Rock's operations people measured all four possible configurations, and as it turns out, each was 1.5 miles long, plus or minus a few hundred feet. The "classic" configuration is 7 turns, while the three optional layouts are 8, 9 and 10 turns, respectively.
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.trinitylimerock.org/history/trinity_and_lime_rock_park.htm
- ↑ Lime Rock Park Floats Idea of Renewed Sunday Racing- Lakeville Journal – December 8, 2005
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lime Rock Park. |
Gallery
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Lime Rock Park, Connecticut
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Lime Rock Park, Connecticut
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Lime Rock Park, Connecticut
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- Salisbury, Connecticut
- Motorsport venues in Connecticut
- Visitor attractions in Litchfield County, Connecticut
- Sports venues in Litchfield County, Connecticut
- American Le Mans Series circuits
- IMSA GT Championship circuits
- National Register of Historic Places in Litchfield County, Connecticut
- Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
