Fast Days
at
Lime Rock

by Kevin Murphy

You never really know what to expect when attending an event you really have not done before. You can hang out and observe many times (yours truly), but until you are actually doing it, you just can’t imagine the actual experience. Such was my day at the Bill Prout (BIPRO Productions) event at Lime Rock this past November 10th.

Hats off to Bill — it’s hard here in the Northeast to even find a decent car event (let alone a driving school/lapping event) at this time of year. But this year lady luck was on Bill’s side with temperatures on the appointed day reaching 70 degrees. As it turned out, around 35 cars and drivers turned out to run in any of 5 running classes, from Novice to Instructor, starting at 9AM and running to 5PM. Track time was preceded by 30 minutes of "chalk talk" for us novices, conducted by a senior instructor. Very importantly, all novice drivers were required to have an instructor in the car when they went out in their "run group". For me, this proved to be a lifesaver, as once I was on the track, there was no leisure time in which to carefully size up each curve and pick out the "line" — you really have to know what line you are looking for before you get to it or you are "off" the line and a hazard to yourself as well as to the other traffic on the course. The latter, consisting of your fellow run group members feverishly trying to pass you if you show the slightest evidence of hesitation, can be your biggest challenge to staying on course. Fortunately, my instructor — a racer from Long Island, NY named Sid, used to drive an Alfa Spider for many years (Sid now runs a Viper). Sid was extremely patient and helpful to this neophyte despite my frustrating inability to wait long enough before turning into the "esses". He is also an extremely brave (or foolhardy) man, as he went out with me again after I had put the spider Sideways at Big Bend (ouch!).

I always used to feel sorry for the drivers of the really fast cars in the endurance races, having to put up with the slower cars in the lesser classes getting in the way. Now, I was beginning to feel total empathy with the "lowly" GT4 or GT5 drivers. Faster traffic coming up on you can really wreck your concentration — if only for a moment — and concentration is the key to driving fast and well. Of course, the only cure is to learn to go faster, and that is the main lesson. Nobody said that this was going to be a piece of cake. Fun, Yes!

At the event were two Alfisti and Alfa Digesters by the name of Bill Shields and Bob Brady from the Philly area. Bob and Bill owned two equally pretty GTVs, a ’74 and ’73 respectively, that ran well in the advanced groups. Bob was towed in once with a broken control lever on his Spica pump, but he removed it, had it brazed at the Skip Barber facility located in paddock B, and was back in business for the afternoon runs. Also on hand were Skip Persson and Caryl Stratton with their Giuliettas — Sprint and Spider — to add their color to the events as they ran them in different groups. Another Spider driver — this time a silver ’76 — by the name of Peter Bush was on hand to offer tips and encouragement as well as some hot laps.

As the afternoon wore on, rain clouds moved in and so I was off — the hardtop I had borrowed to run the event did not allow my windows to go more than halfway up, and I wanted to avoid a drenching all the way back on the Mass Pike. Besides, my dash lights had been developing a nasty habit of going off when I hit the bright light switch. Later I was to find out that the sudden power outage extended to my taillights. Not good! But I digress. Lessons were learned at this event for "next time", which Bill says is March of 2000. Ice racing anyone?