Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival

[Brett Dikeman]

>Brett,
>
>What state is Lime Rock in.  If I have any chance at all to get my wife to
>do this I need as many details and accomodations as far in advance as
>possible.


Lime Rock Park is in Northwest CT.  One of the ways to get there is
to take 684 from the Westchester, NY area to 22, then 343->41(I
think, check a map :-)  Probably an hour and half from White Plains,
I'd guess.  A fantastic drive once you get up 22 a bit and into the
country.

I'd suggest looking over the information at www.limerockpark.com;
there's a section there on lodging which is a place to start.  Lots
of places to stay in the area, especially if you don't mind a 15 mile
drive on roads which are mostly 50-55mph*...its beautiful country;
the area around Lime Rock is sort of the bottom of the Berkshire
mountains.  Great Barrington MA and Lee MA are about maybe 30 minutes
away, and there's everything from a glass sculpture place there to
tons of antique shops along the way; the very famous
Tanglewood(http://www.bso.org/) is within reasonable distance as
well(looks to be 6 concerts between the 31st and the 1st.)

FYI, on lodging- the Wake Robin Inn is under new management and very
nice by all accounts- but has been bought up for the weekend by BMW,
who is sponsoring the Festival.  Torrington has a variety of basic
chain motels from $70-100/night and is 20-30 minutes away, which is
most likely where I will end up since I'm on a budget.  Iron Masters
Inn is reputed to be..."rustic"(and hence overpriced), but the club
always ends up doing registration for tech events and such there, so
I guess it can't be that bad(and I've never set foot on the place, so
I shouldn't say too much.)  You'd better check your heart medication
before you call Interlaken for their prices, at least from what I'm
told, but everyone has a different idea of what "expensive" is.
Sharon Motor Inn is a basic motel w/pool, rooms are very basic but
upkeep it excellent- everything works, its clean, etc.  I've stayed
there once with my father for a PCA event, and he stays there every
time he goes to LRP.  Its maybe 15 minutes from LRP.

One tip- just put into Google "lime rock park"(in quotes so it looks
for the phrase) and something like lodging or hotel, etc...I came
across a lot of various webforums for different racing groups with
people talking about the different places to stay, VERY helpful.
Basically, within 30 minutes of the track is a pretty big radius and
encompasses a lot of places, practically out to Poughkeepsie.
Travelocity and Orbitz might be useful just to find bigger-name
places(they won't have most of the inns, b&bs, motels etc right near
the track though- none are big-name chains.)  Great Barrington and
that area is absolutely swamped with B&Bs, there's also a chain or
two in GB, as well as the Red Lion Inn.  I've only stayed at Sharon
Motor Inn so far.

I think that finding lodging -should- be a lot easier than it was for
the Memorial Day races, which attracted something like 200,000
people...but I'd hurry up and find a place NOW.  Decide how much you
want to stay for- there's stuff every day from Friday morning until
Monday afternoon going on at the track regardless of what the club
does.

Brett
*LRP area is heavily patrolled by CT state troopers, particularly
during event days(duh :-).  They have a barracks right near by, use
instant-on radar, and hide practically in the bushes.  Drive the
speed limit and enjoy the scenery, folks.  Besides- the club has
plenty of track events for the other stuff...
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