http://www.palmermotorsportspark.com/TrackMaps.htm

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- Seth
Current:1972 240z 5.3L
Former 73 240z LT1 owner

Now THAT's exciting!
We will be there in great numbers, I'm sure.

Does anyone have a problem with the Start/Finish/Grandstand being at the very end of the longest straightaway? It's sort of like a reverse LeMans track. I can picture the leading 5 or 6 cars flying down the track on the final lap, foot to the floor in an all-out mad dash for the checkered flag at the end of the straightaway ~ and then running out of road at the 1st turn at the end of the race, when their brakes are all gone.
That wouldn't happen if they ran it clockwise, like Watkins Glen.
Should be an interesting course.

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1970 240Z

Wow - very cool....looks like this is actually happening...as I know there have been rumors around this for years. Nice to have another track option.

I'm sure they've thought this through - but does it alarm anyone that many of the runoff locations look like cliffs and embankments?

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Colin F. Gentle
1970 Datsun 240z #11137

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Justin
1986 Z31 NA 2+0

Those are precision-driving incentives.

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1970 240Z

Just want to give a heads up on another new road course that is under construction. Thompson Speedway Road Course. This is actually a very old road course built in the 1960's that has been closed for quite a while.

http://www.thompsonspeedway.com/new-track.php

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Adam Perry
Datsun 260Z

So, Thompson is reopening too?

Wow, what great opportunities lay ahead for our Events Director and Motorsports Directors!!! YeeeHAAAAA!

Heads-up, Liam Dwyer! In this, your first season as a professional race driver, they have provided you with a target-rich environment!

Frank

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1970 240Z

Thompson will be open for 2014 and has a full schedule in place,
Palmer is slated to open in 2015 with the rough cut and land clearing all done.
It's going to be interesting on how and what Skip Barber has up his sleeve to compete with all of this, I know there has been talks about expanding the pit lane at Lime Rock from holding 44 cars to around 55 to 60 with a Blue print and cost already in place, Time to start digging I guess.
Lime Rock has a full schedule in place for this year with a lot of exciting stuff, Autocross and drifting seams to be the new thing with a lot of Nasa and SCCA competition Races scheduled should be a exciting car season and can't wait to kick it off in the spring.

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Bob Sharp Racing History Memorabillia Chairman / VP of Marketing
RDZ MOTORSPORTS / CONSULTANT
RDZ MOTORSPORTS PROTOTYPE
Black 2007 350-Z
67 Camaro Custom
Orange Late 71 240-Z Sold and sitting in a Doctors Collection

Colin Foote Never Forgotten!!

Thompson raceway actually had their first race 8/16/1952. If you have a copy of Classic Motorsports Magazine from September 2011 there is a great article about Thompson.
Looks like it was a fun track, lot of big names raced there including Carroll Shelby. Hope it all happens.
Below some photos from the article if you can't get a copy.
Palmer was on the drawing boards for a long time, hope that one happens too.
Colin
the elder one

If this Club had such a position as an Historian, my vote would go to Colin The Elder Hisself.

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1970 240Z

Hey Frank, I can remember that stuff but can't remember where I put my shoes 5 minutes ago!
A couple of photos taken by me at Lime Rock, the one from May 1958 was taken in my Dad's Triumph TR3
The second photograph, October 2006 was taken from the passenger seat of Colin's 240Z in October 2006. Both photos you
will recognize as being in the short chute headed toward the esses, both times I was in the passenger seat!
The TR3 shot was taken at the British Auto Manufacturers Event, I was 13 years old and my first of many trips to Lime
Rock.
Colin
the older one

Anybody who reads Hemmings' SPORTS AND EXOTIC CAR magazine is familiar with a fellah named Jim Donnelly, who seems to have grown up photographing every car in every race on every track, back in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. His library is so extensive, Hemmings has used him as a monthly feature. He writes his own narrative, and sometimes he doesn't remember details about his own pictures. But usually he can cite the driver, where he was from, details about the car he was racing, and how he finished in the race. One of his photographs showed a tower of smoke rising above the grandstands several miles away ~ he had attended the 1955 French Grand Prix at LeMans and was photographing the Mulsanne straight when Pierre LeVegh flew his Team Mercedes 300SLR into the stands at the start/finish line, killing more than 90 spectators.
I recall in the 1960s, Dan Gurney wrote a book about Grand Prix racing called THE CRUEL SPORT, which focused on such tragedies. The photography in that book was heartbreaking.

Colin, you and I should share a campfire someday. There are stories to be shared.

You younger Z guyZ, this is a good example of why it's so important for you to start taking Z pictures today. When you're grey and retired (and we're all gone), your memories of these cars will be priceless to those around you. The digital age has made photography SO much cheaper and easier for you than it was for us, it must be taken advantage of.

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1970 240Z

This might be an updated layout:



which would help in your concerns I guess..

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- Seth
Current:1972 240z 5.3L
Former 73 240z LT1 owner

haha! They've got little cars on the front straight and in the pits. (But I still can't tell which way they're going).

So, would this new idea change the start/finish line position? I mean, it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, to have the end of the race at the very end of the long straight, with so little shut-down room left beyond it. Finishing cars would be in a flat-out wide-open mad dash for the finish line at 150mph (which would carry them beyond their normal shut-off point if they were planning to successfully negotiate Turn One). And at the end of the race, their brakes are nearly gone.

Think of any other race track ~ you always see the Start-Finish in the MIDDLE of the front straight, in front of the grandstands. That gives everyone a view and gives the cars room to slow down for the first turn. Makes sense.

In this case, the Start-Finish is so close to Turn One (if they ran it counter-clockwise) that cars would still be accelerating off the start instead of slowing for the turn. Seems like an invitation to high attrition to me.

If they ran it clockwise, they could leave it unmodified.

Am I clear about what I'm saying? This is the diorama I am studying:

http://www.palmermotorsportspark.com/im ... mp_sim.png

Also, if they name it Palmer Motor Sport, the initials would be PMS.

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1970 240Z