Man, the track configuration is more tighter than the old configuration. Next year's SCCA Speed World Challenge will be interesting racing in the new configuration.

At least the sanctioning bodies can revert back to the old(now called "Classic") lay out if they want-aside from widening/repaving the circuit, the old sections where untouched.

This is the race thread and no one posted any comments on the actual race! Come on. The only reason I didn't is because I just watched it off my Tivo just now. What a race!!! Brabs is awesome! He is hands down better than Scott Sharp. It was absolutely maddening to watch Bernard get the breaks with traffic and see Brabs get stucks behind. Everytime Brabs would reel him him, he'd get caught by the GTs that had alrwady let Timo through. But in the end, Brabs had the balls to pass around the outside of T1 like a MAN!!!! It reminded me alot of how Kimi reeled in Fisi at Japan in 05 and went around the front of him. Congrats Highcroft and Acura on the well deserved first overall win!!!!!!!!

Good point AM. I am surprised no one was talking about the actual race.

Brabham was absolutely amazing. That drive in the last hour was the stuff of legends. Brabham is a much better driver than Sharp. Agreed. But I think Sharp did okay for himself.

Anyway. I really believe that Highcroft is going to take the fight to Penske during the second half of the year. I also believe that De Ferran, Fernandez and AGR are going to continue to improve. Lime Rock also showed the Dyson is becoming more and more competitive.

I can't wait for Mid-Ohio next weekend and especially Mosport in August. I sincerely believe that there are about 8-10 cars that could win Mid-Ohio outright.

I am also hoping that Bell Motorsports can get the Aston Martin repaired in time for Mid-Ohio. I love the sound of the Aston Martin, and even though they don't have enough to fight the Vette's, it is great to see one of them racing out there.

I wish I had gotten to see that race. I was just watching speed report and it looked like an awesome race. It being tape delayed at noon today made me miss it since I had to go into work today :(

congrats to DB, he's a great driver one of my alltime favorites it was great to see him get a win.

The Happy Track Fan - 13 July 2008 05:34 PM

Brabham was absolutely amazing. That drive in the last hour was the stuff of legends. Brabham is a much better driver than Sharp. Agreed. But I think Sharp did okay for himself.

Anyway. I really believe that Highcroft is going to take the fight to Penske during the second half of the year.

I agree great job by Highcroft and congrats on their second win of the year. The pass by Barbham on Timo was great and with Bernhard going off like that made it even more remarkable. This really gives Acura a boost in confidence I'd think and shows that their win at Long Beach wasn't a fluke. I hope Highcroft can give the fight to Penske on a daily race basis and knock off the giant from the LMP2 class.

Lime Rock also showed the Dyson is becoming more and more competitive.

I personally think Dyson has been competitive for most of the season and that means both car teams. Dyson for me is the image of what road racing, American racing, and small team racing is all about.

I am also hoping that Bell Motorsports can get the Aston Martin repaired in time for Mid-Ohio. I love the sound of the Aston Martin, and even though they don't have enough to fight the Vette's, it is great to see one of them racing out there.

I agree but as you said it would be great to see someone actually battling the Vettes instead of just following all the time. I was hopeing that Aston's GT2 car would fair better as well.

I agree too, I hope Bell Motorsports gets their Aston back for Mid-Ohio. It has been nice seeing somebody put forth a real effort to beat the Vettes's. I wish there was more competition against the Vettes, I thought the Viper was going to be GT1 at first, but turned out to be Gt2.

As I watched the race from Lime Rock today I wondered what the owner was thinking of when he redid it. As the race progressed I wondered what the owner was on when he redesigned it. I love the ALMS Series, but the new track seems, to me, to be much, much worse than the old one. In fact, the string of crashes were, unfortunately, predictable given the layout of the track.

As things progressed, it became apparent how little actual thought went into the new track. There are no "safe areas" to push disabled cars to so every time a car is disabled a full course caution needs to be called. The all new armco barriers are much too close to the racing surface in many areas causing massive crashes with debris all over the place. The course workers were not even given brooms to get the debris off the track. The chicanes (which, according to the owner, were intended to reduce the places to pass) could not have been better designed to cause overly aggressive driving and crashes had they spent $10m (instead of $5m).

This new track is just an unbelievable mess. I hope the ALMS organizers have the good sense to tell the track owner that major changes to the track need to be made before any other events are to be scheduled at it.

I can not imagine IRL cars racing on this track.

RallyFan2 - 13 July 2008 10:11 PM

As I watched the race from Lime Rock today I wondered what the owner was thinking of when he redid it. As the race progressed I wondered what the owner was on when he redesigned it. I love the ALMS Series, but the new track seems, to me, to be much, much worse than the old one. In fact, the string of crashes were, unfortunately, predictable given the layout of the track.

As things progressed, it became apparent how little actual thought went into the new track. There are no "safe areas" to push disabled cars to so every time a car is disabled a full course caution needs to be called. The all new armco barriers are much too close to the racing surface in many areas causing massive crashes with debris all over the place. The course workers were not even given brooms to get the debris off the track. The chicanes (which, according to the owner, were intended to reduce the places to pass) could not have been better designed to cause overly aggressive driving and crashes had they spent $10m (instead of $5m).

This new track is just an unbelievable mess. I hope the ALMS organizers have the good sense to tell the track owner that major changes to the track need to be made before any other events are to be scheduled at it.

I can not imagine IRL cars racing on this track.

The chicanes were not put in to reduce the places to pass but to make new ones. Why is it that people will always blame a race track when drivers make stupid mistakes that cause accidents? The track is, what it is. It's up to the drivers to make the best of it.

RallyFan2 - 13 July 2008 10:11 PM

As I watched the race from Lime Rock today I wondered what the owner was thinking of when he redid it. As the race progressed I wondered what the owner was on when he redesigned it. I love the ALMS Series, but the new track seems, to me, to be much, much worse than the old one. In fact, the string of crashes were, unfortunately, predictable given the layout of the track.

As things progressed, it became apparent how little actual thought went into the new track. This new track is just an unbelievable mess. I hope the ALMS organizers have the good sense to tell the track owner that major changes to the track need to be made before any other events are to be scheduled at it.

I'm tempted to call this reply clueless, but I won't.

The changes to the track configuration were requested, and approved, by the American LeMans series. They were designed by well-known track architect Alan Wilson.

If you doubt the veracity of this I'd suggest you contact Tim Mayer at ALMS --- at the media day preceeding the ALMS race at Lime Rock he was on-record as endorsing the changes as being positive and necessary for ALMS to race at Lime Rock. In fact ALMS is looking for still more revisions, including re-configuring pit road to begin on the plateau before the downhill final turn.

Whether the alternate configurations are actually an improvement is a matter of personal opinion, though the repaving seems to have resolved previous complaints about bumps and surface transitions. The pavement may have lacked some grip, especially off-line, but it did not appear to break up at all, in spite of some concerns before the weekend began.