Lime Rock Extension.... - Team Juicy Racing's Racing School and Race Series Forums

Mopar92 · #1 08-02-2006

I am sure most of you know , but in years past, there were plans to extend the place. I think they got even so far as to put bed rock down after clearing trees. Just a neat pic a buddy sent to me.

dalyduo · #2 08-02-2006

Very cool. I believe someone else owns the land now so even if you wanted to there would be "issues". But very cool to see.

It also answers a question I always had about the "escape road" and why it seemed to go somewhere other than "nowhere".

Mopar92 · #3 08-02-2006

Is any of this "proposed extension" still there?
I am including this in my coffee table book of historic and ghost tracks.

JuicyGirl · #4 08-02-2006

Great shot. Do you know when it was taken?

Duncan · #5 08-02-2006

I was told that the planned extension is now a trail open for riding and walking

J Goring · #6 08-02-2006

I think that the reason they did not complete make the rest of the track is because there were environmental issues and they wanted to preserve the land. Personally, a race track is the best use of land I think!!

Mopar92 · #7 08-02-2006

I am almost certain it was when it was being built. Look at the landscape and the infield. It looks very new and under construction. As for a racetrack destroying the land.... BS. Racetracks fall within the land and don's seem to erode anything or have any effects on the wildlife in any real amount.

arig · #8 08-02-2006

actually i believe the land was, or became at that time, federally protected land b/c of certain wildlife. a skip barber instructor told me that however it was during my 3 day which was 2 years ago, so maybe my mind is confusing me.

WatertownNewbie · #9 08-02-2006

The photo can be found on page 12 of Lime Rock Park, 35 Years of Racing, which is a great book authored by Rich Taylor. The photo was taken by Jim Vaill himself.

Anyone attending the Vintage event over Labor Day Weekend at LRP can purchase the book from Green Mountain Motorbooks (which is where I had Rich Taylor personally autograph my copy, prompting my wife to ask, "What does he mean by 'Never Lift!'"). The book contains a lot of information about proposed configurations and how the final version came to be.

dalyduo · #10 08-03-2006

I've not seen Rich Taylor's book but in Chris Czwedo's film "Lime Rock Park... The Secret Valley of Racing" Czwedo interviews Jim Vail (who has since passed away) about the building of the track. There is no mention of the "extension" but the notion of the track started with a couple of guys, including Vail, abusing an MG around the property for fun and evolved into a private obsession life's work for him at the expense of marriage and family life. There was a devastating flood in the region that put all his heavy machinery and most of the track under water at the time. Only Vail's dedication to the project kept it going to completion.

cdh · #11 08-03-2006

Fascinating pic, wouldn't that be a great circuit?? Kinda looks like we'd have an east coast corkscrew where track drops off the hillside to rejoin current circuit...

.

999 · #12 08-03-2006

We know enough guys with planes that we should be able to get a current aerial pic, no?!

Bruce? JP? Bueller? Anyone?!!

dalyduo · #13 08-03-2006

It would be a great circuit and it seems to rejoin around the start of no name. Hard to tell what the grade is from the picture. So much overgrowth now... It would be interesting to venture back there and explore. From the airplane shot I'd have the extension rejoin just past the crest of the uphill.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdh

Fascinating pic, wouldn't that be a great circuit?? Kinda looks like we'd have an east coast corkscrew where track drops off hillside to rejoin current circuit...

.

cdh · #14 08-03-2006

here are 2 aerial shots from Terraserver, 2nd pic I added a highlight - above it looks like a possible remnant of a track layout. I know the Appalachian Trail crosses the ridge above the track but this is well below the ridge, could be the real deal, must go explore sometime.

Mopar92 · #15 08-03-2006

I think that you are very close to it... I do think that turn 1 is right, and that the "entry" back to the track we know enters at the uphill.

Mopar92 · #16 08-03-2006

Right from SpeedTv website... I love this kind of stuff!

http://insider.speedtv.com/viewtopic...220f01fc721c0a

Skip Barber "But there has always been talk of following through on an idea that Jim Vaill had to extend the original track into what is commonly referred to as the "Mountain Course". We asked the man who would control the destiny of such plans about this popular topic.

"There is absolutely no way you will ever see a 'mountain course' here at Lime Rock. We didn't realize how things were when we bought the track. This place is in a 100-year flood plain and it is surrounded by wetlands. When you have been to Lime Rock you see all the hills around the track and that is where the mountain course is laid out. But you have to cross wetlands twice to get there. An Army Corps of engineers would need to build incredible bridges and... well, there is just no way!

"Jim Vaill did the most incredible thing when he first cut this course out of the grounds. Today there is a river that runs along the straight on driver's left. Apparently, that river used to make a 90-degree turn down through what is now the paddock, and then go back out. He literally moved the river! In this day and age if you attempted that you would be thrown in jail!
"

rcote · #17 08-03-2006

I think today, especially during the summer months the foilage is too thick to get a good ariel shot, maybe during the fall.. I could be mistaken, but I do THINK that some guys like MHP and Rob have moutainbiked that trail. I remember taking a walk way deep in Big Bend runoff and it looked like the path was pretty clear as far as trees go, but the grass and brush was pretty thick, but again thats in the summer months.
And of course like the rest of the land that surrounds LR, especially No NAme striaght side, the biggest issue is how marshy it is. If it was a hard sell ( $$$ and gov. / wetalands roadblocks ) back then I can imagine it would be IMPOSSIBLE today. I love the history behind though.

Speaking of history, how bout this, the now defunt road course at Thompson Speedway Ct. ( my hometown almost, Killingly CT ) where Skip did his very first schools.

cdh · #18 08-03-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mopar92

I think that you are very close to it... I do think that turn 1 is right, and that the "entry" back to the track we know enters at the uphill.

how do we know the reentry is at the Uphill? I see it entering near 4, this map shows it going all the way back to 2! Would have been quite a track. Thanks for the link Mopar

update.....I added a trace based on the small 'Haybale" track map, the track would go about here....

5&counting · #19 08-03-2006

The Secret Valley of Racing"

How about the "Hidden Valley of Death"

cdh · #20 03-20-2008

Seems some GP Legends gamers built the Mountain course for sim racing.
Here is a lap on youtube, quality of vid and sim not great -

video

Here are screen shots from another GP Legends sim that looks much better but

video

quality worse than first vid..
It would have been an amazing circuit...

dalyduo · #21 03-21-2008

All you can do is torture yourself with this possibility. It will never happen but the heartbreaker is seeing how far Jim Vail took the notion and how close it was to being done. Perhaps if that 100 year flood hadn't set him way back when he started the project it might have been done. We'll never know but it's fun to speculate.

oldredracer · #22 03-21-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mopar92

"Jim Vaill did the most incredible thing when he first cut this course out of the grounds. .... He literally moved the river! In this day and age if you attempted that you would be thrown in jail!
"

And there's another interesting question regarding the 21st century.

Why?