For the very first time, out of all the years that the American Le Mans series has come to a track even remotely close to where I have lived, I have finally been able to attend a race. Usually Waterfest and this East Coast event fall on the same weekend...for the past several years it has been at Lime Rock Park, and once it was even right in our backyard, the short-lived Washington DC street race.
Since this was such a rare opportunity...who knows when the stars would align in such a manner ever again...I HAD to go. Only one problem. A big one. The day of the race, July 24th, is the birthday of one Mrs WRS.
To convince my wife, who although loves and appreciates my own love of mechanized racing vehicles is not exactly a 'car girl', would take some doing. It's not that she isn't supportive, or not even that she doesn't usually go with me to the track. She has gone with me to Lime Rock for vintage events, the CTSCC, and she's had a blast. It's just that when it's a girl's birthday, well...you know how it can be.
After some mild groveling and explaining that this was a once in a very long while opportunity, and knowing how much fun I had at Sebring she acquiesced, with one stipulation: We had to stay at a nice relaxing bed and breakfast. No problem, sounded like a good deal to me, so I booked a room at the ever so lovely and awesome Cornwall Inn, just 20 minutes down the road from Lime Rock.
First off, it is worth noting that the Cornwall Inn is absolutely fantastic. Innkeepers Mark and Stacey are so very open and everyone who works there quite literally makes you feel like family. Added to that a bunch of fellow ALMS-attendees and it was a sure-fire hit.
One of the more interesting guests with whom we had the pleasure of meeting was Ginger aka 'The Porsche Lady' whom was there in her very newest 911 GT3 RS. Ginger is the sort of person whom is living the dream as far as Porsche ownership is concerned. The RS is but one of many in her stable, but you know what's awesome about that?
She actually drives her cars...all of them. Florida, California and everywhere in between, she had stories about road trips with this car and that one....unafraid to rack up the miles and put these cars through their paces. Simply awesome, and proof positive that the people at these events really make them that much more special.
On race day the forecast was originally for gray skies and potential for scattered thunderstorms, and the heavy rains on Friday night were suggesting they may be right. As morning rolled around it became clear that this was not to be...it was bright, sunny, and hot. Hot as hell actually, and this was early.
After a leisurely breakfast of homemade granola and fruit salad we embarked in old faithful to beat the crowds to the venue. The roads at Lime Rock are small, and even though we arrived before 10am traffic was already beginning to pile up on the small access road. After some brief stop and go we parked, grabbed our tickets and headed over the West bend bridge to say hello to some friends at Falken Tire and Black Swan before the race. It was especially cool how close you could get here, even closer than Sebring in some ways since paddock space was so limited.
Except somehow, even at a track as small as Lime Rock we managed to avoid running into even one of them. It defies logic, but it kind of figures. The insanely hot weather seemed to be effect everyone's ability to think, or maybe just mine, but the first half of race proved to be a real challenge.
If there's one thing I appreciated here it was that the 'lower budget' efforts were pushed over into the B paddock and working in the grass. It reminded me of some of the old school images I've seen online from the late 70s and early 80s of Porsche 935s sitting in grass while decidedly under-dressed team members work on them...a different time to be sure.
One of the guys from Black Swan invited us into their 'garage' area to take some better pictures. It was much appreciated.
Since it was the Mrs's birthday I didn't want to go too crazy with taking pictures and dragging her from corner to corner as I did, so we made our way to the far side of the front stretch for the start of the race. Sight lines aren't all that great, but I'd never been over there before and it was a great perspective for the start of the race. Lunch was decidedly classy...
The crowd was impressive from my perspective. Plenty of people took advantage of the open front stretch before the start.
With the Porsches of Flying Lizard and Falken Tire up front in GT things couldn't have been better.
The Dyson Mazda Lola, which I was personally routing for since it sounds and looks better than the Porsche RS Spyder, and the Highcroft car is too dominant, was off to a hell of start thanks to Chris Dyson.
It was not to last however, as a massive fireball on the overrun into turn run pretty much showed that the engine (or turbo, or both) had expired.
This marked the first of our three unfortunate attempts to get near the track during green flag running. Each time we walked away and headed to another location the race went green.
As soon as we got back to a reasonable spot, the yellow flag flew. It was exceptionally frustrating, and along with the heat it more or less killed the first hour of the race for us.
Lime Rock always produces some insanely close racing, perhaps sometimes too close, as cars usually end up passing in less-than-safe fashion down the no-name straight.
Eventually though things settled into a rhythm and we found an excellent spot right at the West Bend / downhill area, allowing great sight lines and close racing.
As the rain came out in the last 30 minutes or so things began to get interesting.
A few cars spun, and the Falken Tire 911 RSR went off backwards at a fairly high rate of speed. I was about .2 seconds away from getting a great shot of it.
Bryan Sellers was able to drive the car out of the barrier under its own power and was soon back in the race.
The final laps saw a fierce battle in GT and LMP. LMP was close, with the Porsche and HPD running quite close, but GT was literally bumper to bumper. The #45 Flying Lizard Porsche was being hounded by both Rahal / Letterman BMW M3s.
Eventually the traffic which bunched them all together spread them back out, but the BMWs were going absolutely all-out, bumping even each other in an effort to score the team's first win. They didn't quite manage it, but they once again finished 2-3 on the podium. A win is literally right around the corner for these guys.
In the end it was the Porsche RS Spyder of Klaus Graf and Greg Pickett winning overall, and the 911 RSR of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long taking the win in GT.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and despite the insane heat we had a blast and perhaps best of all, didn't even hit traffic on the way back into NYC.
Since the final East Coast race, Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, happens to fall on the same weekend as H20 International this was probably the last ALMS race I'll be able to attend this year. I'm a little bummed since I'd gladly forgo H20 the Petit, but that's life...maybe next year.
The ALMS is at Mid Ohio next weekend, and will have LIVE free streaming thanks to Falken Tire and Mid Ohio...stay tuned for links.
As always check out the Flickr Page for a bunch of additional photos....
_WRS
