What a difference!  But two short weeks ago I was writing from the midst of Miller Motorsports Park, a fairly new and downright phenomenal road racing facility that rises from the sand as if a mirage, appearing to a racing-parched traveler on a trek across the Great Salt Desert.

Today, it’s as if that trek has ended, and the destination is the Coliseum in ancient Rome.  Lime Rock Park in northwest Connecticut, storied as one of the most historic of all venues, is set amongst a glorious backdrop of colonial architecture and forested splendor, but cross the famed wooden bridge and you have stepped into the heart of a gladiator’s battleground.

If the Utah Grand Prix was akin to a marathon in the desert, the Northeast Grand Prix is the running of the bulls.  From the longest circuit on the schedule to the shortest (over 4 miles to 1.5 miles), compressed into the greenery of the surrounding hillsides, after the long straight and wide open corners of Miller Motorsports Park, an equally large entry of four different classes now have to race the same two hours, 45 minutes on road racing’s version of a bullring. 

Lime Rock is ALL about momentum.  Short laps and quick lap times, and a serious scrub of momentum can cost dearly.  The biggest cause of lost momentum on a bullring?  Traffic!   And Lime Rock Park might just define the term.  30 cars, 4 different classes, 1.5 miles, 165 minutes...well, YOU do the math!

If you get balked often enough - with such a short track - you can quickly find yourself going down a lap.  And if you lose even slight touch with the leader in your class, and a class leader splits you, and a caution comes out, you can go down a lap.  You have to avoid that at all costs, and that means managing traffic effectively, even within your own class. That comes down to execution, from the drivers on the track to the crews during pitstops to the prep by the teams in advance. 

For the drivers, there is nary a moments rest.  Whatever class you’re in, you’re either setting up to overtake or preparing to be overwhelmed, and if there’s a rare moment by yourself, you’re just dealing with the relentless pace at which the ‘Rock’s change of directions and elevation are thrown at you…or more accurately the pace at which you throw your mount through those changes.  Keep in mind the one piece of truly straight track is not that much over 1,000 feet!

Even still, with the aero grip of the prototypes squashing the car into the track and allowing full throttle down the infamous “Diving Turn” leading on to said straight, heading into turn one (the equally infamous “Big Bend”) there can be speed differentials of over 50MPH!  All the senses have to be in “hyper-mode” to just survive.

But you can’t just survive if you want to win. You have to combine raw pace with precision car placement in traffic, because if you just “tink” another car and knock one of your dive planes off, suddenly you’ve got a nasty push in all of Lime Rock’s never-ending right-handers, so you burn through your front tires too fast and start dropping bigger and bigger chunks of time to the point you simply have to pit early, and…remember earlier?  Yep, you’re down a lap, or more if there’s no caution to use to stem the flow a little.  Same applies, of course, to the rears if you tap someone (or vice-versa) and, say, knock a rear wing endplate off the car.

Like the gladiator, to succeed at Lime Rock you have to simply be an executioner in traffic here.  And like the legendary gladiator returning to the scene of many of his greatest triumphs, it was a real pleasure to run into James Weaver, and legendary warrior for Lime Rock’s own Dyson Racing.  I use the segue as, in my mind for sure, James was the absolute master in traffic.  He would stalk as long as necessary, planning passes not just corners but, here at Lime Rock in particular, LAPS in advance.  But, when the moment came, he simply pounced.  Decisive. Done. Executed. 

An absolute treat to watch from the stands, but also from the cockpit.  No less a great talent than Pat Long of the Flying Lizard team told me once that when he made the transition from the GT division to the factory Porsche RS Spyders prototypes a few years back, he happily adopted the Weaver approach for working traffic to which he’d so often been the “victim,” he admired it so much. 

Sure do miss James’ flair behind the wheel and his humor in the paddock!

I earlier mentioned the seemingly never-ending right turns here, and that goes straight to the team’s execution and prep.  With the help of the multiple tire manufacturers involved in the series (that just sounds good...and quite correct…to say, one of the great strengths of this series!), the set-up here is one of the most unique in racing.  Only one significant left, so it used to be you’d really just sort of toss the left out of the set-up equation and dial one up like a right handed oval but with ABRUPT changes in elevation!

It’s become a bit more complex these days now that there are a few more chicanes in the mix, so the “left” in the right-left-right equation has more emphasis, but it’s still an almost bizarre set-up. The word to describe it nowadays here is “asymmetrical.”  Not just different spring rates and damper settings and camber and castor on each corner, but different tire compounds as well.  The risk is if you go too far, then your tires may not last as long in a stint as you need to hit your pit windows and...uh huh...down a lap.

As to pit stop execution here, perhaps the classic example was last year when the Highcroft team, in the throws of a massive battle with the de Ferran team, chose a brilliant strategy of only changing the two left side tires, then executed it to perfection, to leapfrog past the de Ferran car.  Yes, while on their way to a superb win a puncture ended their shot, but it is surprisingly rarely mentioned that it was NOT one of the “old” tires they didn’t change that went down, but one of the fresh ones, so their strategy was spot-on and the execution by the crew was a race-winning effort, regardless of the results.

In short (and yes, pun fully intended), today’s bull run, will be an amazing race in every aspect, and each class win will be HARD earned and most deserved.  It will be carried in full on SPEED, of course, but I would STRONGLY suggest you DVR it, hope in the family hotrod, and rush to Lime Rock Park (obeying all applicable highway laws, of course!).

Admire the beauty of the setting as you approach, to be sure, but be prepared to be drop-jaw awed at the performance and courage of the gladiators as you enter...the arena.  See you here!!

Greg Creamer is one of road-racing foremost broadcasters and personalities. He has been the play-by-play host for the American Le Mans Series, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Formula 1 and many other motorsport championships. His “From the Booth” commentary will periodically appear on americanlemans.com.

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