befast

I am! Unfortunately as just a spectator though. This is my first event of this kind, and I don't know what the park is like. Any hints/suggestions on how to make the day as enjoyable as possible?

Van

Bring a few beers and a picnic lunch. If they charge extra for a paddock ticket, pay for it.

spend plenty of time walking around so you can watch from different vantage points (watch the exit of big bend and the esses from the hill, stand trackside at the uphill, watch the downhill.)

If rain is in the forecast, bring an umbrella!

Meister Fahrer

Your first ALMS race? You'll have some fun!
Would love to go to Lime Rock some day.

Definitely go early and walk the paddocks and see the team garage areas.
It's also kinda cool to go to the autograph sessions if they have one. They'll autograph the small team posters for free and then they're suitable for framing or hang in the kids room. (I've got a nice one of all the Penske Spyder team.)

Have fun and I bet you'll go back next year too!

AUPorsche

second all the above and would add to bring a camp chair or blanket to set up your spot. from there you can wonder infield or outfield. i definitely enjoy Lime Rock for the ability to walk the paddock before and during the race and get close to the cars/drivers. concessions charge $5 for a small beer so definitely bring your own food/beverages. there is a porscheplatz ticket for this race that allows special infield parking reserved for porsches and a porsche hospitality tent with talks by P-car drivers and Porsche AG representatives between races. $65 for the porscheplatz ticket which includes your race admission; dont know what it would be at the gate. the Porscheplatz is organized by imsa.com so information there and call lime rock direct. hope to see you there. the drive to lime rock is quite beautiful with lots of scenery and twisting fun roads if coming from the south or even north for that matter. i have just over a two hour drive there which is part of the fun of the day.

bill

befast

Camping chairs with footrests... check
Cooler full of liquid goodies.... check

Since this is my first event, I actually got one of those fancy tickets that comes with food/beer and access to some special area. I didn't notice the Porsche corale option, so I guess I am outta luck at this point.

befast

Awesome event! Watching the replay on Speed right now. I couldnt even imagine getting this close to every aspect of the race, the pits, the cars, the track. The "fan tent" was pretty much a waste of cash, since the best views are really around the track. Acura ended up stealing the show from Porsche in the last couple of minutes. It's a bit hard to keep track of the action, so next time I would definitely bring a portable radio. And holy crud, the GT cars sound like beasts (esp the vettes)!

Some questions: what do the three side lights mean? Why do the cars sound like they are constantly backfiring (in my gf's words, like firecrackers), esp when coming into the corners? Any way to catch live video?

Van

Glad you had fun - I'm jealous! (It was a beautiful day, too.)

I'm not sure of what side lights you mean... were they on the cars or the track?

Were the cars that backfired turbos? Frequently those (plus some others) make a pop or spit flames out the exhaust on a quick lift of the throttle (like a gear change) - it's a factor of unburnt fuel going through the engine and getting ignited by the hot exhaust.

As for racing video, post that question in the racing/DE forum.

Meister Fahrer

Sounds like a great time -- plus Flying Lizards won the GT2 class for Porsche!

The lights on the side of the car indicate the top 3 postions in each class.
So the top 3 cars would have 1, 2, or 3 lights on depending on position.
And each class has different color lights, how tricky is that.

Did you also notice how utterly quiet the Audi R10 Diesel is?

befast

Actually I did notice that it was ridic quiet! Compared to the rest of the cars, it sounded like it was an electric go kart!

As for lights, that's what I suspected they were. The leaderboard only had the overall leaders, so it would've been helpful to pay attention to the lights on the GT cars.