Lime Rock Park
Encyclopedia
Lime Rock Park is a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lime Rock, Connecticut, United States, a hamlet in the village of Lakeville, Connecticut
, in the state’s northwest corner. The track is owned by Skip Barber
, a former race car driver who started the Skip Barber Racing School
in 1975.
, who supported his own Newman-Haas team.
Two years after the park first opened in 1957, the Lime Rock Protective Association, with support from the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church, took the park to Litchfield Superior Court in an effort to ban Sunday racing. The court issued a permanent injunction against Sunday racing and its decision was upheld by the Connecticut Supreme Court. Although park officials have expressed a desire to return to limited Sunday racing, the injunction stands to this day.
Lakeville, Connecticut
Lakeville is a village and census-designated place in the town of Salisbury in Litchfield County, Connecticut, on Lake Wononskopomuc. The village includes Lakeville Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district represents about of the village center...
, in the state’s northwest corner. The track is owned by Skip Barber
Skip Barber
John "Skip" Barber III is a retired racecar driver who is most famous for his Skip Barber Racing Schools.- Driving career :...
, a former race car driver who started the Skip Barber Racing School
Skip Barber Racing School
The Skip Barber Racing School is one of the largest racing schools in the world. It conducts racing schools, defensive and high performance driving schools, amateur and professional racing championships and corporate entertainment schools. Skip Barber started the school in 1975 with two borrowed...
in 1975.
Track
For years, the track was listed as being 1.53 miles in length -- the story goes that right after it was built, somebody used the odometer in a Chevy to measure the track length -- and 1.53 was taken as gospel. Following the 2008 reconstruction (see below), Lime Rock's operations people measured all four possible configurations, and as it turns out, each was 1.5-miles long, plus or minus a few hundred feet. The "classic" configuration is 7 turns, while the three optional layouts are 8, 9 and 10 turns.History
The track was also the home track of Paul NewmanPaul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
, who supported his own Newman-Haas team.
Two years after the park first opened in 1957, the Lime Rock Protective Association, with support from the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church, took the park to Litchfield Superior Court in an effort to ban Sunday racing. The court issued a permanent injunction against Sunday racing and its decision was upheld by the Connecticut Supreme Court. Although park officials have expressed a desire to return to limited Sunday racing, the injunction stands to this day.