Lime Rock Park May 25-26 2012

[Purple Frog]

Less than a week away, teams will start converging on NW Connecticut very soon. Load-in is Thursday, followed by a very busy schedule on Friday and Saturday.

As a public service the F2kCS and F1600CS has recently sent out an email to the competitors recommending an available social event for Friday evening.

For those looking for a good meal and some great live music, The Black Goose in the Sharon Shopping Center will be the place to be. The restaurant has been redone with new management and fairly new chef and menu. Specifically for Thursday-Friday-Saturday nights they have our favorite local band Swamp Yankee playing from 8-11PM on the Friday of our Lime Rock event.
The band does great covers of all your favorites, the place draws a local and close by younger set when compared to most of the F2kCS staff . Dancing, beer and wine [I don’t think they have a full bar]. If your eat dinner at the restuarant there is no added cover charge. If you go there just for the music, it’s a $5 dollar cover.

Great food, great music, a great way to spend your Friday evening in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut after qualifying and before Saturdays races. Rand has even promised to come out of his normal race weekend shell and be in attendence, probably because Tracy will be also in attendence.

For the Series staff and any racers staying at the Sharon Country Inn, the restuarant is walking/stumbling distance from the motel. OBTW, the Sharon Country Inn is the former Sharon Motor Lodge, but has been completely renovated. http://www.sharoncountryinn.com/

[enjoythetrack]

Thanks for the heads up Purple Frog and sounds like a great time. Look fwd to seeing everyone @ LRP.

[Beartrax]

I'll see you Friday morning, Mr. Frog!

[GAR]

We will be at Lime Rock and have our HD Race Optics and Replay XD1080 in-car cameras available for sale and pick up all week/weekend. Come by the rig to get more info, see the units, demo footage and to buy.

[Dennis Valet]

Randomly browsing a photography forum today when I saw this.... am I crazy?

[starkejt]

Red X...

[Dennis Valet]

grumble grumble, fixed fixed

[greg pizzo]

[FONT=Verdana]Folks be on the lookout for a really exciting announcement for all F2000 and F1600 competitors today ! Monty will be posting here and the series website SOON!! [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]It been in the works for a while and today is the DAY to announce ![/FONT]

[Monty M]

We're at Lime Rock - big field - qualifying coming up at 4:55 east coast time - listen live at www.f2000series.com !

[R. Pare]

[FONT=Verdana]Folks be on the lookout for a really exciting announcement for all F2000 and F1600 competitors today ! Monty will be posting here and the series website SOON!! [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]It been in the works for a while and today is the DAY to announce ![/FONT]

And this big announcement is????

[KevinFirlein]

Richard

http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52181

[Dennis Valet]

Hey all, exciting weekend at Lime Rock. Huge crowds despite a less than stellar feature race. Figured I'd post up a few photos that TJ and I took now that I'm home and relaxing.




A sweet Trans-Am Car





Tim Minor through big bend





Super secret radial tire temp readings





The impact in the uphill, luckily the driver was ok. Scary accident to say the least.





Kyle Connery in Big Bend





Finelli through the downhill. I like the way the inside tires look after the run through the uphill, west bend, and the downhill.





The Start of Race 1








Fred Boss getting wide through west bend





Wyatt Gooden after his first win





Impact between Connery and McCusker, wish I had a better angle. Connery was able to drive away, but there was some suspension damage that failed him later down the course, causing his big wreck. McCusker spun and retired from the race.





Robert LaRocca lost some front wing during lap traffic

[starkejt]

WOW @ the TA hood! I bet whoever drives that has the missing half of my golden amulet.

[Dennis Valet]

Jonathan Scarallo losing a little weight in the rear





Up Close







Check out these race 2 start pictures and then try to figure out how there wasn't a massive wreck. Kevin Kopp someone found a gap in the field on his way back from the dirt, crazy.







Big Crowd on the Hill







Jose Montiel lost his nose after he spun and Big Bend and was clipped





No shortage of fast cars

[Purple Frog]

After 55 years of existance, it is certainly possible to run into just about anybody in the paddock.

Sam Posey checking out the Radon.

Fred Stevenson (Lotus distributor in 60s - 70s) taking with Ralph.

[Purple Frog]

There is a reason the F2kCS and F1600CS has really great coverage at the track and on the web. This is one hard working crew.

Greg's race announcing is excellent. He really gets it.
Most Apexspeeders are already well aware of the Valet photo teams quality.
And... Monty, every race series needs a Monty.

[Purple Frog]

James Lee and Norm kept turning the screws on Kyle Connery's VD until they were back into last year's form. It appeared Kyle had race 1 in hand. Then he went from 114mph to 0mph in four feet. Thank goodness for HANS devices.

OBTW, Lime Rock Park is a scenic venue, being positioned in the Litchfield Hills.

[KenT]

There is a reason the F2kCS and F1600CS has really great coverage at the track and on the web. This is one hard working crew.

And its appreciated by those fans that are not at the track!!!

Ken

[Purple Frog]

Friday evening a great time was had by all who attended the get together at the Black Goose in downtown Sharon. The band Loose Caboose provided great entertainment. The food was very good.

The hundreds of photos we took we will file away for future black mails. ...a clue to the after-effect Saturday afternoon.

[Purple Frog]

Some of the fans just didn't get excited about the Trans-Am race.

[iamuwere]

So what happened to Connery?

[Tom Valet]

Happened as in how did he crash? Or is he injured?

He was leading and came together with a lapper in Big Bend, you can see it here in this photo:




He continued on, went slow for two corners, thought the car was ok, got back on the gas and when he got to the backside of the track his front upright broke sending him into the wall at full speed. He was very sore and had a concussion but otherwise was OK and was walking the paddock not long after in good spirits.

[KevinFirlein]

talked to Kyle afterwards, said he just had a banged up leg and no concussion.

[Purple Frog]

Two pintos played with us at LRP.

[Purple Frog]

Two Masters winners on Saturday. Tom Fatur in race 5. Tim Minor in race 6.

Tom showing Charles Finelli that you don't have to weigh 135 lb. to be competitive.
Tim bringing a Citation to the podium.

[Purple Frog]

The paddock has dozens of stories that don't make the headlines...
Kevin Kopp (say "cop") had an interesting weekend. Unloading from the trailer there was brake fluid on the trailer floor. His car had fancy high end "floating" master cylinders. But, they had eaten up their guts. No spare parts for such exotia in the Berkshires. So team Wisko had to go to Primus (Thanks Brad for being on hand! ) and buy a set of conventional master cylinders, and then attempt to convert the car. Short story, it took all day Friday to get it correct.
Saturday warmup was the first time Kevin completed a complete lap. He moved up from the rear in race 5 to finish 13th. Then in race 6 finished a respectable 5th. A hard weekend, but they loaded up with smiles on their faces.

more stories later, as they come to me.

[Beartrax]

The hundreds of photos we took we will file away for future black mails.

"What happens at the Black Goose stays at the Black Goose."

Loose Caboose was great! Thanks Mike Rand for suggesting the Black Goose.

[Monte]

Two pintos played with us at LRP.

Nice Pic of my car!!

Hopefully, my Pinto will be around for quite some time at a few F2000 races every year. I had some thoughts on the situation of my racing:

1. Bring my Pinto to the F2000 series, chase fast guys, get faster myself and learn more.....
2. Take a few years off to save for the conversion.........

3. Go back to club racing and race against 2 or 3 FC's.

The winner is........Bring my Pinto and my club racers budget to the F2000 series, have a great time, learn and get faster.....And I have. I have to thank my Brother Mike for all he does. I can't race without him and wouldn't want to.

The series is amazing. See you all in NJ.

[enjoythetrack]

Great event, excellent grouping of drivers/cars... and perhaps one day....

Thanks everyone, especially the crew at GTP (pic below). Have fun in NJ!

[nulrich]

I'd like to publicly give credit to the series technical staff on how they handled the crash of the 77 car on Friday. After the car came back to the paddock we quickly determined the cause to be a failed weld on the steering shaft. Mike Eakin and I inspected the other Radon cars (Mike using his Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass, anyone catch a photo of him holding that?).

We didn't find any issues on the other cars, but after talking it over, and getting the input of some experienced folks under the GTP tent, agreed that adding some rosette welds was a good idea. Within a couple of hours all the steering shafts were removed and upgraded and back in the cars (thanks to John Walko Racing for use of their TIG welder).

During the whole process I felt like we were collaborating on dealing with a potential problem and everyone shared the same objective. That's a refreshing change from how some series and clubs would have dealt with the situation.

We had the 77 car mostly back together later that day. The damage was confined to the nose and tail crush structures and the left side suspension, with no intrusion into the driver compartment or damage to the chassis. It seems like everything behaved as designed and expected. It was a hard hit, though: Steven impacted the tire wall at 100 mph and you could see evidence of some extremely high forces in the broken parts.

Although Stevan didn't have a scratch or bruise on him and was eager to get back in the car, we decided it made more sense to completely disassemble the chassis back at the shop and inspect everything carefully before putting it back on track.

Again, kudos to the F2000 series. Also, Stevan did a great job for the few laps he was able to complete, look forward to working with him in the future.

Nathan

[RPAUL6]

I agree completely. When Tim got t-boned last year at the Glen there was a lot of concern by the series and fellow competitors. Mike was especially concerned about the integrity of the car. Gives all of us a lot of confidence knowing the safety aspect is up front and center. Thank God Stevan and Kyle were well protected in really violent circumstances. Both ready to get after it again in short order.

[AlanVDW]

I saw Connery's hit at the bottom of the uphill. He lifted and the two left wheels went on the dirt. No skid marks. The car just didn't turn. He hit the guardrail, then into the leading end of the tire barrier.