Dirt Mounds and Ditches, Slippin' and Slidin' at LRP in the 70's.
The opening picture of today’s installment shows Big Bend, also known as Turns 1 and 2 at Lime Rock Park race track, as it exists today. Just look at all that lush green Connecticut, USA countryside. No matter how they change the track, they can never change the beauty of the hills that surround the oldest road racing track in the good ol' US of A. As pretty as it is in the summer, LRP is even more beautiful in the fall.
Those familiar with LRP back in the 70’s will easily note the changes that have occurred since Skip Barber, owner-operator of the Skip Barber Racing School, bought and re-built entire the facility back in 1985. The run-off area outside of T1 has been paved. In the old days all we had was an escape road, an extension of the main straight, that might have helped a driver who might be going a bit too fast at the entry, but not much at all if you went off near the center of Big Bend. Gone from the entire course are acres of slippery green grass, large dirt mounds and ditches that used to stop cars which had broken loose from the tarmac.
… soanyoldways … a couple weeks ago in the Paddock Club of the Premium Members Forum, we explored some of the oddities that could be found at the old Bridgehampton Race Track: http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/bridgehampton-race-track-something-unusual-in-photo.147544/ . If you are not a Premium Member, why not join now and not miss any of the conversations. This week we’re going to look at some of the … interesting … and maybe dangerous characteristics found at the old Lime Rock Park racing circuit. Like big dirt mounds in run-off areas, drainage ditches (again … right where cars can run off) and, last but not least … all that lush green grass. Slipperier than Andy Granatelli’s STP … even in the dry, and way slicker than Slick 50 in the wet! That green, green grass is the topic of this week’s installment.
Back during the 1970’s and 80’s I was able to get press and photo passes which allowed me to take photos much closer to the action than spectators normally get. Please note that by this time, I had a lot of experience working flag stations and knew to speak with the crew working the corners and follow their directions very carefully. I have a bunch of pictures old racing tracks from back in the 70’s and 80’s. Unfortunately, almost all of the stuff that survived one or another of my divorces exists in the form of 35mm slides and negatives which take a bit of work to search through. I haven’t seen many of these pictures since the Ronald Wilson Reagan Presidency.
There is a virtual version of Lime Rock available for Assetto Corsa, which is the only Sim I race on. Unfortunately, this mod replicates the NEW facility that Skip Barber built after he bought the place in 1985. Barber added a bunch of new, fancy buildings … and some sort of footbridge just before Big Bend, the first two turns of the track. The track layout has also been changed a bit notably with the installation of a chicane bypassing the hump after T5 put in to keep the really fast cars from taking off and flying away among other things. Considering the changes that have been made, LRP sure ain’t the track that Sam Posey broke the sub-60 second barrier in a McLaren CanAm car back in 19 and 67. That was big news back in the day, but now? Almost all cars racing at LRP are turning times below 60 seconds routinely these days. True, improvements in brakes and tires account for the faster lap times, but folks who know the old track remember just why it was they named the front straight after Sam Posey.
To refresh myself, I took a drive on the AC version I have of LRP and was amazed at the difference that 40 years makes. I did make note of all the changes that have been made in the interest of safety, but, for the record … I rather liked the way the track was back then, and hope that one day some modder will take the time to put together a version from the 1970’s. But that’s just me I guess.
The following series of photos are from a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National (i.e., a big nationwide event, not a small regional one. America is a BIG country) race held at Lime Rock Park Race Track (Connecticut, US and A) on a VERY rainy weekend back in 1978. Please Note: I had NO motor drive on my old 35mm Canon TLB SLR camera … so I did miss a couple shots.
First, some background. Bob Sharp established a pretty good racing team back in the 1960's, racing what was known in the US at the time as Datsun's ... for the US market, the Nissan name would come later. He had good success racing various Datsun sedans and 1600cc or 2000 cc Fairlady (from the movie, My Fair Lady ... GTS!) roadsters. After Bob sharp broke his wrist in a crash at LRP, he retired from driving and had a number of guys driving for him, Sam Posey and Elliott Forbes-Robinson come to mind, but Paul Leonard Newman took over all the driving for the team about 1976.
It was raining pretty hard that day, and the mist prevented me getting a decent picture of the start. Newman had gridded up on the pole, and the other Datsun on the front row was driven by a fellow by the name of Don Devendorf, if I remember correctly, but it was 40 years ago. Heck … It could be ANYBODY.
The first photo shows PLN just after the green flag dropped. You can just make out the nose of the P2 car poking its nose in the right side of the first photo as they enter Big Bend.
Now, to be honest, there should be a photo here showing the P2 car coming into the picture, hitting PLN and startin’ all the drama. But I wasn't expecting that to happen ... and I totally missed that shot.
None-the less, the second photo shows the two cars tangled up and spinning.
Remember all that lush green grass? When it was dry, it was REAL slippery. When it was wet ... well hell, I've seen cars slide SO hard, and SO fast and SO far ... they disappear in all those bushes and slide almost all the way to the Housatonic River, which is very nearly 5 miles away!
The third photo shows car two hitting the dirt mound after sliding all that distance.
Of COURSE, Newman hit him … no photo needed.
Immediately after Newman hits this guy and pounds him into the dirt mound, he backs up ... works his way over the slick grass back onto the track and takes off after the pack, but now is second to last. And then the race got REAL interesting. Newman took off and drove, as they say, “like a man possessed”. Within 8 laps he worked his way back up front and was challenging for the lead … when he got hit passing a back-marker and knocked off the track again... in very nearly the same place.
Regaining the track, he eventually finished ... with a 3rd place! In a downpour.
Yeah ... no kidding. Newman was THAT good.
Sometimes getting closer to the action with a camera or working as a corner worker wasn't all that good of an idea. I was once part of a flag station that got overrun by an orange Porsche 914 which had broken a left lower ball joint at speed. Fortunately no harm was done, and the Porsche only suffered minor scratches. In the sequence below, we see a Formula Ford the driver of which had a moment with another open-wheeler coming out of Big Bend. The sharp-eyed among us will note that the driver is looking and turning into the direction of the slide, and very much string-straight towards me and the course workers I was huddled up with.
To his credit, the driver was able to get the Ford pointed in the right direction relative to the track, but he was unable to overcome the sheer weight of Newton's First Law of Motion, which predicts that Formula Fords and everything else will remain in motion at the same speed and the same direction until acted upon by another force or object. In this instance, a dirt berm with a drainage ditch in front of it kept the car from sliding through the flag station I was standing with. Other recently made tire tracks are visible in the grass show that this Ford was not the only car that made this trip.
In the above instance, the Formula Ford got away with no damage whatsoever, but not everyone who tangled with the slick grass and dirt berms of Lime Rock were so lucky. The Spitfire below went off at The Downhill (Turn 7) and tapped a mound outside of that corner.
Finally, the slick grass, dirt mounds and drainage ditches were not the only hazards to be found off track at LRP. The corner workers above are cleaning up what had been a 3 car tangle coming out of T5 (The Uphill) onto the Back Straight. After all the crunched cars and chagrined drivers have been moved to the pits, the course workers begin to return to their stations, when suddenly one of them yells out "Hey look, KITTENS!!!"
Does anyone else have memories or photos they'd like to share of Lime Rock Park before 1985 they'd like to share? Perhaps we could get a modder/track builder to put together an old version of the track for Assetto Corsa.
BTW, Premium Members are already commenting on this article HERE. Why not join them and be part of the conversation.
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