Yesterday was the fourth and final day of the Memorial Weekend Mazda Corral at Lime Rock Park, hosted by Grand-Am.  Like Saturday, it was another beautiful day, perfect for racing.  The day started out with some practices and qualifying, and the weekend's second F2000 race.  At lunchtime dozens of Mazda Miatas from the Nutmeg Miata club lined up and took a couple pace laps around the track, followed by us at the Mazda Corral.  There was a bit of confusion with the pace laps, but considering we weren't originally having any on Monday, we were still very grateful.  After lunch, the Historic Grand Prix raced again, showing off the very fast and powerful F1 cars from the '70's and '80's.  And then, the big race of the weekend was on.  Two and a half hours of Grand-Am GS series racing.  Mustangs, Porsche's and BMW's took to the track.  The Mazda Corral's favorite was Charles Espenlaub in the 91 Automatic Racing BMW, who previously raced for the Mazda team, and on Sunday had stopped by to play guitar and sing some racing songs.

Memorial Day itself was the third of three beautiful race days at Lime Rock Park for the Road Racing Classic. The morning saw qualifying for the second of the two F2000 Championship races, plus a warm-up session for the Historic Grand Prix F1 cars and a final practice session for the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Grand Sport division.

The race action went green with the F2000 Championship series race, an exciting 30-minute mad dash won by Remy Audette, with Chris Miller second and Matthew Inge third. The Masters Division winner was John Dole, who finished fifth overall, behind Fabio Orsolon.

Find Saturday race one’s results sheet here...
http://f2000championshipseries.com/results/2009/LRP/lrp5.pdf

Find Monday race two’s results sheet here...
http://www.f2000championshipseries.com/results/2009/LRP/lrp7.pdf

Next up was the second race of the weekend for the popular – and first time appearance of – the HGP Formula 1 cars. This was another barn-burner between Hamish Somerville and Duncan Dayton, but unlike Saturday’s race, Somerville and his ex-Alan Jones Williams FW07 had the better of Dayton’s Lotus 79 (ex-Andretti). The race was interrupted by one full course yellow as Michael Fitzgerald had a throttle stick on Derek Daly’s March 811 going into the Uphill and nosed it into the tire wall. Dayton pushed Somerville to the checker but fell a couple tenths short at the stripe.

Results, race two, Historic Grand Prix F1 cars at Lime Rock Park:
20 laps of 1.53-mile, 7-turn layout
Margin of Victory: .234 seconds
Fastest lap: :47.642 / 115.612 mph, Duncan Dayton

Finishing position, car, driver, town and best lap:

1. Alan Jones’s Williams FW07, Hamish Somerville, Canada, :47.790
2. Mario Andretti’s Lotus 79, Duncan Dayton, North Salem, N.Y., :47.642
3. Vittorio Brambila’s March 761-08, James King, Belleville, Ill., :50.099
4. John Watson’s Penske PC-3, Doug Mockett, St. Croix, U.S.V.I., :51.881
5. Derek Daly’s Ensign, Bud Moeller, McLean, Va., :51.102
6. Jody Scheckter’s Wolf WR2/4, John Anderson, Sebastopol, Calif., :51.597
7. Carlos Reuteman’s Brabham BT-37, Divina Galica, Lakeville, Conn., :52.474
8. James Hunt’s Hesketh, Rick Carlino, Harrisburg, Pa., :55.304
9. Derek Daly’s March 811, Mike Fitzgerald, Newtown Square, Pa., :49.599

The feature race of the day was the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge race, Grand Sport division.

Joey Hand got around Andy Lally coming out of Big Bend with 22 minutes remaining and held on to win Monday’s Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge Grand Sport portion of the Lime Rock Classic.

Driving the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 started by Chris Gleason, Hand went on to post a 4.735-second margin of victory in the two hour, 30 minute event over Lally in the No. 41 TRG/Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 started by John Potter.

“Andy Lally is a professional, and you have to pull every trick in the book to get by him,” Hand said after his third KONI Challenge victory, and first since ending 2007 with back-to-back triumphs. “Turner Motorsport put together a good race car, and I was able to make moves high and low. 

Hand and Gleason completed 135 laps on the 1.53-mile circuit, averaging 82.464 mph.

It was Turner Motorsport’s leading 14th KONI Challenge victory. It was also Gleason’s sixth career victory in the series, and his first since winning at Virginia International Raceway in 2007. Gleason remained perfect at Lime Rock, winning his third race in as many tries at the circuit. It also broke Gleason’s own record of being the oldest winner in the series, at 65 years old.

The finish tied the best of the year for Lally and Potter, who were second at Homestead-Miami Speedway in March.

Bill Auberlen finished third in the No. 96 BMW M3 started by Matt Bell to put two Turner Motorsport cars on the podium. 

Charles Espenlaub and Charles Putman took fourth in the No. 19 Automatic Racing BMW M3, while Ken Wilden passed Hugh Plumb in the final turn on the last lap to take fifth in the No. 59 Rehagen Racing Ford Mustang GT started by Dean Martin. Plumb finished sixth in the No. 61 Horsepower Racing Ford Mustang GT started by Jack Roush, Jr. 

Wilden extended his Grand Sport point lead to 16 over James Gue and Bret Seafuse, who placed ninth in the No. 37 JBS Motorsports Ford Mustang GT (144-128). Roush and Plumb are third with 116.

Pole sitter Duncan Ende led the opening 27 laps in the No. 39 TRG Porsche GT3, but co-driver Spencer Pumpelly went off course and into the tires 18 laps later to put that car out of action. Lally pitted under that caution to top off his fuel, allowing him to take the lead when Hand pitted under caution on lap 73. While Lally made it to the finish, his car ran out of fuel on the cool-down lap.

Dean Martin led 20 laps after Ende’s pit stop. Bell took over for 12 laps until his second stop, with Hand (37 laps) and Lally (39 laps) leading the rest of the way.

You can find complete KONI Challenge GS-class results here...
http://www.grand-am.com/schedule/results.cfm?series=k&eid=881&sid=604

You can find complete KONI Challenge ST-class results here...
http://www.grand-am.com/schedule/results.cfm?series=k&eid=881&sid=602