Lime Rock's Big Announcement
Can The Plan Really Work?

by Bob Morin

During the ALMS event on July 6th and 7th, Skip Barber announced a plan that will supposedly ensure that Lime Rock Park remains viable for many years to come.  (The announcement appears in the August issue of the DZ.)  Will this plan really work though?

Many of us who have been around for a few years might recall the Pave the Park campaign that must have been at least 15 years ago.  They were going to take it right down to dirt and start from scratch.  Sheila and I attended an auction to raise money for the project.  It was a great auction as Sam Posey, David Hobbs and Brain Redman were all auctioneers, and you would have paid big bucks just to see the show they put on.  They were extremely entertaining and as I recall, one of the items that was auctioned off was the last E30 M3 to come off the production line.  So what happened?  Well, they put a skim coat of pavement down with Sam Posey even driving the steamroller as a publicity stunt and the track was slightly less bumpy and in no time needed to add all the concrete patches that remain to this day. 

There are several motorsports “country clubs” that have sprouted up in recent years.  One such club is a DZ advertiser, Alpine Motorsports Club.  While I’m sure they all have different programs, if we use Alpine for comparison, the differences are amazing.  If you join Alpine right now, there is a one-time membership deposit of $30,000 and a one-time membership fee of $3000, so you’re out $33,000 immediately.  The membership is considered Lifetime.  Annual dues are $4000, fixed for the first two years, with up to 240 days per year availability.  Let’s say you get to use the membership only 20 days, you’ll pay $233/track day, if you base “lifetime” on 50 years to match the Lime Rock Program.   Additionally, 75% of the deposit is refundable ($22,500) at the 10th anniversary of initiation, so that drops you down to $210.50/day for the first two years.  One unfortunate problem though is that Alpine is still being built, so your gratification will have to wait.

Lime Rock would like to find 300 people who will anti up $100,000 + 6% sales tax ($106,000, but somehow, they call it $110,000).  That's $2200 a year, in advance (and of course, you'll definitely be using that track time 50 years from now).  Then there are the monthly dues of $550 + 6% (again, somehow their math comes out to be $600, so that's another $7200 in 2008.  No guarantees are made about future dues increases in either program we’re comparing.  Your $9400 for 2008 (it'll go up every year, trust me) gets you 20 track dates they will take from us and the other clubs, that's a mere $470/day, assuming you can use all 20 of the dates.  Miss even one date and you're up to $500.  And don't forget, they plan to sell 300 of these, so all 300 of these lucky stiffs won't be able to attend all 20 dates unless they plan to let A LOT more cars on the track at the same time.  Assuming they cut it off at not more than 100/day, that means you could only see 1/3 of the dates (or 7), which now works out to be close to be $1350/day.  If you're that into it, aren’t you probably an instructor and currently driving all you want for free, so why would you would want to start paying $1350/day.  Sounds perfectly logical to me!

Oh, and then it says you'll be able to book track time at any of the 60 other club dates as well.  So, does that mean they'll be expecting us to let these members in to our events too?

Of course, if they even sell a few of these, they will have to provide those 20 days, so those dates will be gone forever, regardless of how underutilized the facility will be on those dates. 

It says, "More good news is that all the track's constituents - spectators, amateur racers, professional racers, club members, students and mechanics - will benefit from the improved facilities. Everyone will benefit from The Club at Lime Rock Park."  I guess that good news is that they'll be taking one (or more) of our dates from us.  I wonder if they will continue to ask for the paving surcharge on our rental fees too.

I saw Tony Nestora at LRP on Friday, July 6th and he told me that he walked up to the Lime Rock information booth and asked the girl if she worked for Lime Rock.  When she said she did, he asked her if she remembered when they sold the bumper stickers that said, "I HELPED PAVE LIME ROCK PARK," for $5.  When she said she remembered that, he said he wanted his money back.  She looked puzzled and he said that he bought the bumper sticker to help pave the track.  Since they hadn't done that, he should be entitled to a refund.  I would have loved to have been there.

When I did my first Driver’s School at Lime Rock Park, it was $25/day registration and the New Jersey Chapter was the BMW CCA connection.  We are now approaching $300/day and the track rental is going up every year.  But $100,000 ($110,000 actually) is a pretty big commitment for anyone.  Do you know anyone (and we do know some track junkies) that will do this?  Clearly Connecticut is loaded with wealthy people, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

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