LRP pictures

[Michael Rand]

Those bathroom attendants have been a pet peeve of mine as well. I see their usefullness on a major weekend like Memorial Day, ALMS, Labor Day or Busch, but I will do everything I can to not have them there on amateur events.

I doubt the budget will run to any even remotely substantial upgrades to restrooms/showers.

On the downhill, the new posts are as close to the old ones as practical, maybe 2 ' at the most, and certainly nowhere close to 6'.

There is a sincere desire on managements part to return LRP to a place all customers, be they racers, crew, workers, officials, especially spectators, vendors, etc are treated well and look forward to coming back to. That doesn't mean the rental prices will be rolled back to pre-2005 levels, but the staff is going to need to be user friendly. And staffing levels will return to a more appropriate and common sense level.

Believe me I well understand the lack of communication issue. Feel free to contact me directly, [email protected], if you get noresponse from the track office on questions.

I think we are making progress, slowly, but progress none the less.

[JamesB]

Mike that makes sense, I was mainly talking about club events, I can see the benifit to management to have attendants at the big events.

[gran racing]

This is not a criticism of the attendants - it is a good idea to have someone verify that the restrooms are in good shape periodically esp. during the major spectator events. But to have a gentleman sit at the entrance/exit with a tip jar especially considering the target market, well, isn't exactly the classiest thing. Evertime I go to the bathroom, I feel guilty if I don't tip the guy. There goes your beer sales.

Upscale? Not the way it is done now. I'm surprised track management does not receive more complaints about this even from the pro organizations that run there themselves. Pay the guy $50 more a day and not put a folding chair at the entrace. Sorry Mike, but it it has bothered me for some time now. Now that I got that out...

[Michael Rand]

No need to apologize to me, I have hated seeing that ever since it started. The plan is now to pay for real porters, no tips, all but invisible, just take care of the facilities. And look like you haven't just dragged yourselves out of the subway tunnels, and take a shower for God's sake.........
Like I said, progress, might be slow, but there is progress.
Don't expect porters for amateur races though, just the majors.....

[gran racing]

Sounds great! As said before, you communicating here is appreciated.

[RSTPerformance]

Mike-

First thank you for replying... the respect of you and Lime Rock has gone up in unmeasurable amounts. Many people feel that with rising costs for rent (probably the highest costs in North America with the Highest restrictions on use) that you and your organization really didn't care about your "everyday" club racer or thier organizations. Your reply certainly makes me feel as though you care now

While I do respect you a lot more my originaly bitch I think is still justifiable...

I am glad to see you relooked at the pictures and saw that the armco has moved in closer to the track by at least 2 feet and probably more in some areas.


As for my other comments, I don't think I will like all the new fencing or new guardrails, but you have to do what you have to do, you are a business, and while I think it will hurt the overall "historic" look of the track, it will bring it to a more modern level of safety, wich is in retrospect more important.

I think that your track will remind me a lot of Watkins Glen... Please do everything in your power to make the least amount of full course yellows, and make the tire walls easily fixable so that when/if someone hits them it doesn't end the race!!!

As for the bathrooms, I use the porta potty, its free and not as far of a walk from "B" padock!!!

Thank you again for responding...

Raymond Blethen

[Michael Rand]

Ray, the photo you attached is ON THE STRAIGHTAWAY, not in the downhill. It is actually AFTER the tire walls, before the crossover bridge.
The reason it is out from the original ? Erosion. The stream has eaten away the bank and several existing posts are all but hanging in the air. Not much of a safety barrier.
I was there again today and can assure you the new 3 rail armco drivers left from under the bridge to the tire wall through the downhill is in fact as close as feasible to the existing 2 rail, at most 3' away.
See you in the spring.
Mike

[RSTPerformance]

Mike-

I only posted that picture as an example... I have used that area unfortunatly as runoff from errors in the downhill, so I would consider that part before the "road or bridge" as part of the downhill.

However it sounds to me like you are doing this to make it safer, not cause you want to but more cause you need to with the growing erosion problems... And this is a perfectly good reason that I could not see in the pictures, thus your clarification was needed (Thank you).

Thank you very much for the clarification, communication, and efforts to make Lime Rock safer, more efficint, and in the long run more fun for everyone involved.

Raymond

[StephF]

Hey.....who let the FENDER-LESS guy in here??

:P

Hi Mikey!!

[lateapex911]

hey...lets thank our lucky stars to have one of "us" in there!

[dpc]

Hey guys, let Mike do his job. He is very good at it. He knows what the drivers need. back off.....dave

[dpc]

Interesting comment on the SM site, the fences are there to keep Ken from fishing. dave

[16v]

Mike, when are you taking command?

[p99ro]

Hi Mike
I`m glad you are responding to this thread. I agree it looks out of place. Maybe paint trees and bushes with birds on the fences. One thing that everbody coments on is. Take in to fact the pro guys IMSA speed vision. The BUMPS. Can you roll or grind the track. I know people like to ride the grove on the down hill but it`s out of control anyway and the bumping is danger and problems. Or will you pave those. You must be spending a couple hundred thousand dollars. The guy before said back off let him do his job. Yes but anyone who does improvements knows feed back from people who drive it is your best feed back. BUt please don`t pull a I-95 lots of work and no real improvement. Kuto`s on the uphill that was a bad location. I had a freind have his steering wheel break in that corner. Lucky for him he made the turn then hit the gaurd rail.
Good luck I`m sure it will be fine.
Scott CRXsi NER ITA 07

[Michael Rand]

Hello again,
Regarding me taking charge again, don't hold your breath. I had that big bullseye on my back from late 1991 until spring of 1999. They haven't asked and I ain't interested. I am happy to do sub-contract specific scope of work jobs for the track, I will always love the place, but I don't want to be, nor do I need to be, in charge. But thanks for the sentiment.
Regarding grinding the track, I have an appointment with our asphalter/paving company next week and intend to fully investigate the grinding option. No guarantees, but it will be looked at carefully.
We will all miss the old Lime Rock racing through a country road feel, but as ever progress eventually catches up. I just hope all this work results in a safer track with fewer crashed cars and in time I thik we will all kind of put blinders on and the fences will blend in.
Remember before we paved the paddock roads in, what, mid 1990's ? New folks since then never knew it any other way. I suspect this will be the same in time.
Mike Rand

[gran racing]

Mike, since you were brave and came back for more...

What is the purpose behind much of that fencing? I speculated a few reasons; environmental, to keep the deer out, ???

From a spectators perspective, I really wish LRP had a better PA system! For the ALMS race this year, they did a fantastic job - I loved the "tvs" they had too! Any hope of bettering the announcer's broadcast / speaker system?

The score board. In most of the high profile races including the ALMS, there are multiple classes out on the track at the same time. While it is nice to know who the leaders are in the fastest class, it is almost impossible to know who the leaders are in other classes. I think it would be much more interesting for spectators to know how the other top 3 or 4 cars are.

Will LRP ever do a more comprehensive job with marketing their events? Unless you specifically follow LRP's site or go to the track for events, people tend to forget about it.

[Magical Trevor]

Don't wanna speak for Mike here but... well, I will :P
What I've been told (which is what somebody was told by Mike) is that most of the fencing is being put in to move towards IMSA standards.
Having the PA system upgraded would be welcome however (at least at ALMS' events) the iCard/TV/Radio Web system has worked pretty well-the tvs and iCards gave class positions while any radio could be tuned to the globecast broadcast. Not sure if 103.1 (IIRC, might have been 103.3) FM still broadcasts races as well, but they did so once.

[lateapex911]

Mike, since you were brave and came back for more...

From a spectators perspective, I really wish LRP had a better PA system! For the ALMS race this year, they did a fantastic job - I loved the "tvs" they had too! Any hope of bettering the announcer's broadcast / speaker system?[/b]

I thought I heard that the entire electronics package had been replaced at significant expense a year or two ago.....

[16v]

I don't know about Grand Am or Busch but ALMS brings portable score boards that cycle through the race positions. Their coverage is always top notch (10 events under my belt)

[Magical Trevor]

WATCH THIS SPACE!!

It seems Clark has gone to the track once again and taken more pictures; keep an eye on the original link for the new 'uns in the next few days...