<VV> Lime Rock

[Vairtec at optonline.net]

Got home last night from Lime Rock, and from what I saw it was a successful 
event with the possible exception of financially.  Don't know yet whether 
the NECC covered the expenses.

Fastest Corvair on the track Friday was Bruce Carlton's with a lap of 
1:05.147.  He also attained the top straightaway speed of any Corvair, 109.7.

But a non-Corvair ruled the day; of the NECC entries the top time was a lap 
of 1:03.774 and a straightaway speed of 117.0 attained by Dave Bassett in a 
1990 Porsche.  At least it was rear-engined and air-cooled.

The NECC shared the track with CART (not the former Indy-Car series, but a 
Connecticut-based performance driving club) and several of the CART 
water-pumpers were astonishing.  A pure-racing SCCA single-seater of some 
sort took CART's FTD with a 1:01-something, but Subaru WRXs -- street-legal 
four-door sedans, fer cryin' out loud -- also broke into the 101s.  Wow.

The Subies also generally outran the Mitsubishi Evos, too, but the Evos 
weren't slow!

At the companion all-Corvair show on Saturday took place for the first time 
at the Paraside Garage (www.paradisegarageusa.com) across the street from 
the track on Saturday.  Despite a positively lousy weather forecast a nice 
field of Corvairs turned out, and there was no rain until the last award 
was presented.  Then it rained as if to make up for lost time!  Before the 
rain, tons of door prizes from Clark's, Meguiar's, Corvair Motorsports and 
others.  Clark's also supported the event as a financial sponsor.  Support 
these vendors!

To a certain extent, the track event and the Corvair show are the 2nd and 
3rd reasons that I go to Lime Rock.  The 1st reason is the setting.  This 
is the only track that my wife actually wants to go to (and she takes time 
off from work to do it) and we stay in beautiful places like the Wake Robin 
Inn (the official hotel this year), we eat great meals like the Friday 
night dinner we had at The Boathouse, and we enjoy the beautiful Berkshire 
scenery.  Oh -- and all those great "Corvair roads," still largely 
unchanged from the way they were when John Fitch was wringing out Sprints 
on them 40 years ago.

But now the NECC season for 2005 is ended -- Pocono - Portland - BeaveRun - 
Lime Rock.  The NECC will be posting complete results on its web site in 
the near future, and Al Lacki will let us know when that material is up.

--Bob

Robert W. Marlow
Vairtec at optonline.net