Lime Rock

May 11

Story and Photo by David Sugg

Thursday, May something

Lap of Luxury

Well, here I am. It is about 1:30 AM and I am in a nice little hotel in Warren Ohio. I am tired, but cannot get to sleep. I guess I have gotten used to this no sleep thing and it may take a while to get back to the old schedule. So, rather than waste the time, I will try to update things.

Yesterday, after we finished VIR Doug and I drove to Lime Rock, which is in the NY corner of CT. We got to Poughkeepsie NY at around 2:30 and actually had more than 2 hours sleep and in a hotel not owned by the extended Patel family. This one actually was a Sheraton. The night clerk looked at us kind of funny when she realized two guys wanted a room for just a few hours, but after some explanation she became a "One Lap Aficionado", too. We didn’t know how to act in these luxurious settings.

It rained much of the way from VIR to Lime Rock. I will not go into details about VIR because we did not do very well and they are probably posted on the website, anyway. We didn’t get into any trouble on the way up to Lime Rock from VIR, although Dennis and Mark lost a wiper motor, which made for an interesting ride. They got to the track late as they tried to find a new one, but to no avail. This worked in our favor, but we did not know this yet.

Lime Rock has a noise ordinance resulting from a court order. As a result, they are very strict about this. We were already told that our cars would not pass, but we had no alternative but to go there and see what happened. As luck had it, Dennis was late so I went out for my event before him. All the previous cars on the track had been quiet, so the guy running the sound meter must have gone for coffee. As a result, I got my run in without being black flagged (that means pulled off the track). Dennis and Clay were not so lucky, because he had realized his error and was now being more diligent than ever. As a result, their first runs did not count. Barry Kline did not have to worry as he had some problems and had left for home the night before. We were now down to three.

So, to try and get a second run in, we resorted to packing our exhaust pipes with steel wool and chicken wire. Doug did a masterful job of getting the materials and fixing the problem before our second run and Dennis did likewise. Clay just said "screw it" and decided to take his chances. So, now, the track was dried off and it was time for the next runs. Dennis went out first and blew his "can silencers" off before the end of the warm up lap. Off he went, and to our surprise he was over the noise limit, but they let him continue and counted the run. The same happened with our car and Clay’s car, so we all got good clean runs in. As of now, we don’t know the times we ran because we left before they were posted.

After the events were completed, we visited Brock Yates’ "Cannonball Pub" in the town of Wyoming NY (about 300 miles from Lime Rock). It was quite a party with a lot of local people coming out to look at the cars despite the rain. It was a very nice reception, and then we got back into the cars and headed for Warren Ohio, the site of our next adventure.

So, I am in my room on the third floor of the Park Hotel in Warren, Ohio. We were told there is a ghost on this floor, but that she really won’t bother us. I’ll let you know….

The Reed/Sugg teams continues to make consistent, strong finishes and is now in 9th overall.

The Olthoff/Ray team has dropped back from 45th to 48th overall after being black flagged in the first Lime Rock event for excessive noise.  Lime Rock has a noise ordinance during the week.  They stuffed cut up beer cans in the tail pipes (all four of them) to serve as makeshift baffles.  This worked, but of course hindered performance and forced Dennis to tread lightly on the throttle.  On the final lap, he nailed it.  The beer cans were forcibly ejected from the tail pipes and off he went.   He was black flagged for excessive noise again, but it was the final lap and he got a time.

	#68 1962 Jaguar E-Type (XK-E) Driven by Gary Hagopian and John Loring Still a remarkably beautiful car In 63rd overall after Lime Rock
	#10 1999 Michelin Viper Driven by Brian Smith and Spencer Geswein In 2nd place after Lime Rock (Palm trees look like Sebring.  Notice the body in the lower left corner of the photo.  I guess some people will sleep anywhere.)
	#32 1983 Ferrari 512BBI-Boxer Driven by George Verrilli and Mark Vandecarr In 88th overall after Lime Rock

Results by Mike Stenhouse

Lime Rock #1

Lime Rock #2

Classic American Class After Lime Rock

The #21 Camaro that was 2nd in class DNS/DNF'ed both Lime Rock events and may be out.

Reed/Sugg are still in 1st, Olthoff/Ray have moved to 2nd, and Gould/Naquin are in 3rd.  

The Kline/Roxbury team DNS/DNF'ed both events.  They also missed both events at VIR and may be out.  They have slipped to 7th in the class standings.  As an odd quirk of the points system, they remain a strong 5th in overall points in the class, but 7th in class points.

Overall After Lime Rock

On to Nelson Ledges...