Introduction
Took my first long road trip in the 8 to Lime Rock Park for the Grand-Am GT Classic. 440 miles total of 90% highway and the rest being back roads of the Berkshire Mountains. What a fantastic trip. The car felt great, perfect weather, and good tunes kept me rolling along.Filled up on gas in Bourne, MA. Then again with just a little less than half a tank in Sheffield, MA right before entering CT. My car stayed at LRP, but I did drive 2 days of parade laps and at about 3/4 of tank full I was able to drive home and still have gas left over. I was quite surprised by that. Really thought I would need to gas up again. Hmmmmm.....I averaged 23.58 mpg for the whole trip there and back.
Day 1
Approx 4:30AM on a bright sunny Friday morning I left my house. I met up with my fellow NEPOC friends Mark and Bruce. We caravaned down the Mass Pike and then took the lovely Berkshire roads to LRP. We arrived at LRP before noon and was the first of many Mazda members to come. The big tent was setup, but we needed to put up banners. This day was only a practice one for the racers.
As we arrived I could hear the cars roaring around the track. It was a mix of naturally aspirated V8, forced induction, and the high pitch of the 20b rotary engine from the SpeedSource RX-8s. All I can say is WOW! The rotary is easily distinguishable from all other engines. It has a tone that is similar to Formula 1 cars. This is due to the highmodifiction of the 3 rotor 20b engine, but also the fact they have a 8,500K RPM redline.
Other Mazda members arrived and we gathered around chatting about our cars, people from the C6C and RX-8 club. We later walked down to the racers paddock areas where we got a complete tour of Tri-Point Motorsports and checked out the GT and Touring cars.
It was parade lap time! Mazda sponsored our event and we we able to drive the course in our own cars for a few parade laps. We had an approx. total of nine cars and the BMW M5 pace car in front. Behind the pace car was Bruce in his new MX-5 and then I in my RX-8. (Check out the in-car videos below) The first 2 laps were fairly steady but nothing high paced. Then on the third lap the BMW took it up a notch and we started to really feel the course. I believe our highest speed was clocked in at 95-100 mph at one point on the straightaway.
Day 2
Saturday, another bright and sunny day. Mark, Bruce and I spent the night at Luke's apartment. Luke was kind enough to offer a stay at his place for the 3 nights of the event. I left my car at the park next to our tent. Many people camp or bring RVs to the event so I felt it was safe.
This is the qualifying day for the racers. This time they all ran the cars harder and much faster than the day before. More members arrived and we had scheduled another day of paddock tours and a parade lap. This though we had approx. 38 cars on the track and I was positioned somewhere in the back end. We had 2 lines of cars on the track and no passing was allowed at any time. Although we did not get up to the same speeds as before, it was still a blast to cruise the track once again and to see so many Mazdas representing.
Day 3
Time to relax, Sunday is a day off for the racers so no cars were on the track which was kind of odd due to the amount of silence. No cars on track = no loud racing engines. It was a pleasant day. Many members arrived for an afternoon BBQ at our tent and we even had the crew from Racers Edge stop by for some food and talk. My RX-8 was parked right in front and there was much discussion about my new WORK wheels. They all loved them.
Day 4
Race day! We arrived again early in the morning. The sun was shinning down upon us. Perfect day at the track. Many of us split into groups and walked around the track to view the races. Since it's a park, there's not just one grandstand that you have to sit in, but rather you are able to walk to almost any point of the track to view the event. I took the opportunity and snapped photos from many angles. We did have one area that most of us spent time sitting at which was at turn one on the hill. This is a prime location as the first turn out of the straightaway is a S-turn and things can get hairy in there.
It was getting late and many of us had to work the next day so we left a little early before the races ended. Mark, Bruce, Dan and I drove up to my old stoming grounds of Lee, MA. We stopped and had some dinner, chatted about the glorious days and made our journey home in the night. It was an AWESOME 4 days!
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Full Photo Gallery: http://altspace.com/lrp08/index.html
Parade Lap 1 - Friday In car video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/lrp_parade1.html
Parade Lap 1 - Friday In car video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/lrp_parade1.html
Parade Lap 2 - Saturday In car video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/lrp_parade2.html
SpeedSource RX-8 Paddock Area Video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/speedsource_rx8.html
Playboy RX-8 Paddock Area Tire changing practice video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/playboy_rx8.html
RX-8 racing Video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/track1.html
Mazda 6 racing Video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/track2.html
Riley RX-8 Paddock Area Video: http://www.altspace.com/lrp08/riley_rx8.html
