The Bullring at Lime Rock Park Provides a Challenging Setting for the GT ClassesJuly 14, 2022By David PhillipsIMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Lime Rock Park is often called a road racing bullring. Understandably. With seven turns and just one genuine straightaway shrink-wrapped into 1.474 miles of undulating New England countryside, Lime Rock is the closest most IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors will get to Saturday night short-tracking. This Saturday’s FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix starting field figures to feature 15 cars, and competitors and spectators alike won’t be wanting for action. Particularly in light of the fact that they will be 15 evenly matched cars, given the weekend’s feature race is reserved for IMSA’s two Grand Touring classes – GT Daytona (GTD) and GTD PRO. Evenly matched? The only difference between the classes is that GTD PRO features two full-time professional drivers per car while each GTD car’s lineup must include one Bronze- or Silver-rated racer – often an “amateur” more in name than reality. The cars themselves are identical aside from class identities. Indeed, it would come as no surprise should one or more of the 10 GTD entries compete for the overall win. And not for the first time this season (can you say Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen?). What Not to Watch for For one glorious weekend, GTD cars stand atop the IMSA food chain. In other words, the GTD and GTD PRO drivers will not have to watch for the faster Daytona Prototype international (DPi) and Le Mans Prototype (LMP) cars in their mirrors. Rather, they will be able to focus on their interclass rivals, never having to cede the racing line to a prototype competitor or risk being on the receiving end of a DPi’s “chrome horn” while battling a clutch of GT cars. Nor in the event of a full-course yellow will they have to trundle around, patiently waiting for the pits to open for GT classes as the prototypes are serviced first on pit lane. Tires, Tires, Tires … Of Lime Rock’s seven turns, only one is, in the words of the track’s website, a “true left-hander.” In fact, it’s called “The Left Hander.” What are the odds? For our friends at Michelin in particular, that means the other six turns are right-handers which, if you’re paying attention, means the left-side tires do about 85 percent of the work on any given lap on any given day. But the given days in question for the FCP Euro Grand Prix are Friday and Saturday when the forecast calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the high 80s. On the one hand, a strong qualifying effort and the track position that goes with it will be vital on the tight confines of Lime Rock. Then again, a one-lap flier won’t mean a heckuva lot if your car consumes rubber at a prodigious rate. Ultimately, tire management figures to be a key to the outcome of the two-hour, 40-minute race, one that may well see teams try to go the distance on two sets of tires and one pit stop; or perhaps two pit stops with fresh left-side rubber only on the last stop. And if you’re well down the order when a full-course yellow transpires in the closing laps, what have you got to lose by going for two – or four – new Michelins? On Your Marque. Get Set. Guess! Based on the WeatherTech Championship’s last three visits to New England, it’s anybody’s guess which marque holds the inside line at Lime Rock. After all, five of the eight manufacturers in action this weekend (Acura, Aston Martin, BMW, Lamborghini and Porsche) have finished on the GTD podium here since 2018 (there was no race in 2020 due to the pandemic). And another, Corvette, finished 1-2 last year in the GT Le Mans category’s swansong. What’s more, heading to Connecticut, the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Team Korthoff Motorsports leads the GTD standings while the No. 17 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (running as its full-season GTD PRO entry in the No. 14 this weekend) notched an impressive win last month on Detroit’s Belle Isle, a track whose demands are not unlike those of Lime Rock. The driver, team and manufacturer titles in the various GTD and GTD PRO championships are all still up for grabs with four races remaining, so this weekend figures to set the stage for the stretch run to the Motul Petit Le Mans season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on October 1. |
