One of the issues with Lime Rock is it's location. Sure, it's got history, it's a challenging little bullring, it's pretty and all that, but unlike every other track on Daves list, it's just over an hour from the edge of the NYC metro area, one of the biggest populations in America.

NHMP is nearly 4 hours towing, the Glen is about 5, NJMP is 3, (or a LOT more if you come from east of the Hudson or north of the city), Pocono is 3 (but very undesirable from nearly every standpoint), and Summit is 5.

So, LRP means less towing and gas for the NCY metro area racer. And less time. On top of that, many families prefer Dad to be home during the weekend, and as there is no racing on Sunday, Dad can head up Friday night and be home for Sunday with the kids. Of course, it costs more, because Skip either has handled the finances badly, or he knows what he has, or both.

(IIRC, he bought the place in the late 80s/90s. He no longer owns the school, but had made the school a "sweet" rental contract with the track, perhaps to entice buyers with a juicy balance sheet. Rumour had it that the lack of cash from the school coming in as rental forced other prices up. Only Skip probably knows for sure.)

Until Palmer is online (assuming our agreement is financially better than LRP), we'll be looking at high rentals and events that struggle to break even. I'd assume the regions are trying to weather the storm until the Palmer option is really there before getting too agessive with schedule changes.

One thing I do know, is that the entire situation is more complex than we probably are aware of. I've attended NER Competition Board meetings, and I was impressed with the decisions being made and the "between a rock and a hard place" nature of the situation.