Dodge
Dealers Grand Prix at
Lime Rock Park, 2001
When we first arrived at Lime Rock on Friday morning, one had to wonder why a
professional race was held at this Connecticut racetrack. The facilities
were nice, and the event was well organized, but the tiny one and a half mile
track had a difficult time finding room for all of the Grand Am and Speedvision
cars. The paddock area is dirt (which turns to mud in the rain) and there
was not a grandstand to be found.
Compared to all of the previous Grand Am races this weekend was surprisingly
short. This was a 2 day event with only 2 practice sessions before
qualifying on Friday afternoon, and a warm-up before the race on Saturday.
Joining us for this race to be Cory's co-driver was Mayo Smith, a PCA racer with
great experience at Lime Rock. Cory had never driven this track before, so
this experience was a tremendous asset to the team. Further, Mayo
participates in the Rolex 24 driving an American GT car, so he is familiar with
Grand Am endurance racing.
After encouraging practice sessions on Friday, qualifying was a big disappointment.
Our problems did not come from a bad set-up or Cory's learning the track.
He had the car running impressive lap times after only a few laps. The extreme
bumpiness of Lime Rock makes chassis set-up difficult at best, but we were able
to make significant improvements as the weekend progressed. Our problems
came from the tires. Being the only RSR in the field, our tire sizes are
not at all common. Consequently, our compound selection was quite easy;
either the one compound they had, or nothing at all. Unfortunately, this
compound was the same that we used in the hot Miami sun in March. That was
a huge difference from the rainy New England weather we had all weekend.
During qualifying, it was not raining, but the track was still wet from
afternoon rain, and it proved impossible to get adequate temperature in the
tires to produce the lap times we knew the car was capable of. It didn't
help that it began raining after only 7 qualifying laps either.
After the racing was done for the day, we took a trip through the hill, which
was an endless sea of RV's and tents. The number of fans at this race,
even without any grandstands or anything, was astounding. Apparently, this
is the biggest race that people in the NY and Connecticut area have to watch,
and attendance is always very high. That answers the question as to why a
track like this holds a professional race.
The race was not unlike the other races this season. We had rain, and we
had heavy rain. There was a long yellow after about a dozen or so laps due
to a large muddy river flowing across the track just before the front
straight. It was during this caution that we made our stop and switched
drivers. Cory's stint was quite uneventful. Heavy spray and puddles
on the track made gaining positions difficult. Our driver change was quick
enough so that we did not lose a lap to the field, which was crawling behind the
pace car, but we were now behind a lot of cars. Mayo had his work cut out
for him. He did an outstanding job of making up positions in the rain,
which had slacked off significantly. After barely avoiding a pair of
spinning AGT cars near the end of the race, we finished 11th in class and 12th
overall. |
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