FYI
Matt Murray
The New York Times
April 26, 2004
Jim Vaill, Lime Rock Park Track Builder, Dies at 83
By JOSEPH SIANO
Jim Vaill, who built the bucolic Lime Rock Park track, a mecca
for
sports-car racing in an otherwise quiet valley in northwestern
Connecticut, died Tuesday in Sharon, Conn. He was 83.
The cause was emphysema, according to his daughter, Carol Yilmaz.
Always too short and rudimentary to be considered a major
speedway, and
with few of the corporate hospitality suites featured by big
raceways,
Lime Rock Park has nevertheless lured great drivers like Dan
Gurney,
Parnelli Jones and Mark Donohue, along with a speedy Connecticut
actor
named Paul Newman.
James Edward Vaill was born in Torrington, Conn., on Feb. 18,
1921, and
grew up in Lakeville, a town adjacent to Lime Rock, in the
Berkshire
foothills. He was trained as a singer and performed in light
opera but
primarily worked for his father, Frank, in the family farming and
construction business.
According to Rich Taylor, an author who chronicled the history of
the
track, and Roy Hasty, the track's public relations manager, in
the
spring of 1955 Mr. Vaill would often race an MG-TC that was owned
by his
friend Jack Fisher in a gravel pit on Vaill family property in
Lime
Rock. Soon, he was approached by a group from the Sports Car Club
of
America that included the yachtsman and sports-car racer Briggs
Cunningham. The group proposed that Mr. Vaill build a permanent
road-racing course.
Using an aerial survey of the 325-acre park in a valley owned by
his
family (and with his father's blessing), Mr. Vaill laid out a
plan for a
1.53-mile road-racing course that remains in its original form
except
for a minor alteration that made the track safer. Although Mr.
Vaill had
to redirect a small river, the track's shape was otherwise
dictated by
nature, including the thick woods that surround it and its
rolling
hills, which provide an automotive amphitheater ideal for
picnickers.
Mr. Vaill did most of the earth-moving, but the project was
nearly
stopped by hurricane-related flooding in 1955.
After the track opened in April 1957, another challenge lay
before Mr.
Vaill. Although the community of Lime Rock had approved the
track, a
group of local residents filed suit against it. In May 1959, a
judge
ruled that racing could continue at Lime Rock Park, but with two
key
restrictions that are still in effect: not on Sundays, and if the
cars'
engines were unmuffled (as any respectable racecar engine is), on
only
10 weekends a year.
In 1963, Mr. Vaill sold the track and focused on real estate. The
circuit is now owned by Skip Barber, who started a chain of
high-performance driving schools, including one based at Lime
Rock Park.
Besides Mrs. Yilmaz, of Huntington, N.Y., Mr. Vaill is survived
by his
wife, the former Gail Meiners; a brother, Richard, of Edmond,
Okla.; a
sister, Janet Maus, of Lakeville; a son, Ronald, of Irwin, Pa.;
and
seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/26/sports/othersports/26VAIL.html?ex=1084443827&ei=1&en=5f9d03af1e2cb100
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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