Lime Rock Park Looks To Welcome Bikes

SALISBURY, CT – The sound of motorcycles zipping around the 1.5-mile road course at Lime Rock Park may become commonplace next year. After 13 months of study, the track appears poised to welcome motorcycle testing by manufacturers, track days staged by racing schools and club rides.

For nearly 60 years, Lime Rock Park has catered to professional racers and avid amateur sports car drivers, but has only included motorcycles in the mix sporadically. From the 1960s through the mid-1990s, motorcycle testing was conducted. In recent years, though, motorcycle access has been limited to occasionally taking motorcycle clubs on parade laps around the track.

While Lime Rock Park has not formally announced its plans, the track this week sent out an email to a few track schools in the region announcing that track days for motorcycles could be booked Oct. 19-22. Walter Irvine, director of sales and business development, said Wednesday that Lime Rock Park hopes that motorcycle events become “a substantive part of the retail business each season.”

Irvine views track schools as potentially offering a consistent revenue stream, but said the overriding reason is to serve a growing market of motorcycle enthusiasts, who enroll in track days to improve their riding skills in a safe, controlled environment.

“These motorcycle enthusiasts parallel our racing and sport car enthusiasts and therefore it’s crucial that we also have them be a part of Lime Rock Park,” he said.

Lime Rock Park began studying opening the racetrack to motorcycles more than a year ago. In mid-April, it hosted professional motorcycle racers from Yamaha and track school instructors to obtain feedback on the track’s suitability for motorcycles. Over three days, they rode the road course.

“The beta tests allowed us as non-motorcyclists to pinpoint the areas of concern on the race track. The feedback was unanimous,” Irvine said, explaining that two areas were singled out as needing safety fencing. The riders determined that while motorcycles can reach higher top speeds than race cars, upwards of 155 miles per hour, lap times were higher because of the sharp curves on the course.

Lime Rock Park doesn’t expect the additional use of the track to impact neighbors noise-wise as the decibel levels of motorcycle exhausts are lower than those of the exotic sports cars and race cars that currently run at Lime Rock Park. “We did a lot of research. They’re not only quieter, but the sound they produce doesn’t carry like the cars do,” Irvine said.

While the investigation into accommodating motorcycles began before the start of an ongoing $3 million renovation project at Lime Rock Park, riders will benefit from some of the changes. The recontouring of some hillsides has made for improved sight lines for riders and allowed for bikes to slide off the track without getting near anyone who might be watching.