The 1.530 mi (2.462 km) circuit was conceived in 1956 by Jim Vaill, who built it together with John Fitch and Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory using state-of-the-art road and highway safety principles of the time. The inaugural race took place on April 28, 1957, featuring a G-Production class and an MG class. Ted Sprigg won the G-Production race in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta; Charles Callanan won the MG class in an MG TC.
In 1959, Lime Rock hosted a notable Formula Libre race in which Rodger Ward drove an Offenhauser-engined midget car — normally used on oval tracks — to victory over a field of sports cars, using an advantageous power-to-weight ratio and dirt-track cornering skills. That same year the track hosted the Little Le Mans race, won by Charles Callanan and Roger Penske in a Fiat Abarth.
Shortly after opening, the venue faced legal challenges. In 1959, the Lime Rock Protective Association, backed by the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church, brought proceedings in Litchfield Superior Court to ban Sunday racing. The court issued a permanent injunction against Sunday racing; the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld the decision. The injunction also preserved the track's right to conduct unmuffled sports car racing on Fridays and Saturdays, plus testing on Tuesdays and other operating benefits, and remains in force today.
The track is a natural-terrain road course built over hilly ground in the Litchfield Hills, part of the Appalachian mountain range. The Appalachian Trail passes by the circuit on ridge lines visible from the track, roughly half a mile to the east. The venue features no grandstands or bleacher seating; fans bring chairs and blankets and watch from grassy hillside areas.
The circuit was long cited as 1.530 mi (2.462 km) based on a Chevrolet odometer measurement made shortly after construction. Following the 2008 reconstruction, all four possible configurations were properly surveyed and each measured approximately 1.500 mi (2.414 km). The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship gives the distance as 1.474 mi (2.372 km). The classic configuration has seven turns; optional layouts add one, two, or three additional turns.
Two sections of the track are named for notable figures associated with the venue: Sam Posey and Paul Newman.
In 2008 the track was re-paved and two new corner complexes were added, enabling the multiple layout configurations described above. The Rolex Sports Car Series, American Le Mans Series, and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship have used a configuration incorporating the chicane at Turn Five and West Bend.
The track has attracted many well-known racers, including Paul Newman — who also supported his own Newman-Haas team with Bob Sharp — Mario Andretti, Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, Sam Posey, and Mark Donohue. Others who have raced at Lime Rock include Parnelli Jones, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi, and Tom Cruise.
The fastest unofficial all-time track record is 0:43.112 seconds, set by P. J. Jones in a Toyota Eagle MkIII during qualifying for the 1993 Toyota Trucks Lime Rock Grand Prix.
Current events include the Trans-Am Series Memorial Day Classic, the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association Lime Rock SpeedTour, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series LiUNA! 150, the ARCA Menards Series Lime Rock Park 100, and the annual Lime Rock Historic Festival. Past series at the venue include the Can-Am (1983–1985), the Atlantic Championship, the Barber Pro Series (1986–2002), Formula BMW Americas, the Pirelli World Challenge, and the IMSA GT Championship, among others. Future commitments include the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge and the Northeast Grand Prix through 2027.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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