Lime Rock Historics

Is there anybody out in Interweb land that is going to the Lime Rock Historics at the end of Aug?

Leo

Been going every year for the past 20 years or so. (Spectator side of the fence). I plan to be there this year too, at least for Saturday qualifying races and the Sunday car show.

It will be my first time. Is there any thing to do/not to miss? My wife and 2.5 year old will be coming as well.

Gary, if you like come say "Hi" and have a beer when you walk through the paddock. Ill have a red Cooper Formula car, number 122.

Leo

Depending on my work schedule I am planing on going a couple days.

Leo, I assume you'll be racing the Cooper, so you're going to have the best view of the track! Otherwise the hillside overlooking the esses is a good spectator vantage point for your family, although I really prefer to be constantly on the move. The car show Sunday is always great. The cars are exhibited around the track. The Cooper would be great to exhibit. Another highlight of the event is the race car parade on the surrounding country roads on Thursday evening. Also, I heard that Sterling Moss will be back this year as special guest, as he was a couple years ago. He may be doing another Saturday evening Q&A session which would be interesting. I look forward to meeting you in the paddock, and thanks for inviting me for a beer. I'd love to! See you there.

Oh yes, one other thing ... I assume a few of the Classic Motorsports folks will be there so be sure to look them up. Publisher Tim raced his TR3 a couple years ago but I don't know if he'll be there this year. You may also see Randy Riggs and/or Mike Silverman from Vintage Motorsport magazine in their infield kiosk, and David Lachance from Hemmings is always there for the car show. And our CM forum friend Mike ("OF Racing") is usually there racing his red '63 Spitfire.

I'll be there

I do PLAN on racing the Cooper. It will be the first race for the car in North America and in 40 or so years. Not much time to shake it down properly...That's how good stories usually get started anyway!

Thanks for the pointers and local knowledge.

Ill keep an eye out for folks and the beer cold! I also have a special place in the bottom ofmy tool box for liquids that don't need to be kept cool.

Cheers, Leo

Going to try and get there. May be away.

I will definitely be out there for the entire weekend so say hi if you see me.

Leo,

As for shaking down the car; I have used local autocross and even test and tune night at the drag strip on many occasions. If you talk to the organizers before an event and you may be able to get a little more running time. I have entered an autocross twice with the same car by requesting to run untimed as well as helping set up and tear down.

We even did a basic shake down in a warehouse parking lot with a friend's Formula Ford, he new the warehouse owner and we promised to keep the car under 50 mph, that was enough to make sure the gearbox worked and check for any leaks. We also found one of the rear brake calipers was sticking slightly.

Have fun and enjoy yourself

  Tom

Tom,

Thats a great Idea! come to the paddock and claim your free beer!

Leo

Have the 4 day ticket, a camp spot, and plan on picking up some aftermarket sheet metal (on the way down)for my rollback....aforementioned sheet metal may be lashed to the roof of a new Beetle. Just a normal adventure.

I'll be there again, as usual. Its always a great time!

I'll be there with the Spitfire club in my recently purchased '79 Spit. Friday through Mon. We'll be stopping at F40 on the way up on Friday.

Hey Ian, will you be with the NASS club? (I just joined it). I won't be driving my 68 Spitfire to Lime Rock but I'd like to meet you there, maybe at Leo's beer party?

BTW Leo, have you invited Stirling Moss to the beer party?

Gary wrote: Hey Ian, will you be with the NASS club? (I just joined it). I won't be driving my 68 Spitfire to Lime Rock but I'd like to meet you there, maybe at Leo's beer party?

Yup. I'll be with the NASS crew driving the brown Spit I bought last month from fujioko off this site. Currently sporting the hardtop. It'll be a last minute weather decision whether I pull it off to have a topless option. I have to say the car seems much more weather proof with the hardtop than the ex's car ever has been.

I'm taking the wife and Dad out on saturday

Ok never been to this. No idea what to expect. I would like some input of what to expect. I guess something as simple as do I just drive up park and buy a ticket and find a spot to watch. I would probably go on Saturday. Stay over and catch Sunday's activities. Thanks in advance.

That's the last thing you want to do, the find a spot and sit part. You will want to walk around and see all the parts of the track, and visit the paddock, where you will find the vintage racers to be the friendliest group you can imagine. And visit the vendors area, where you just might find a couple familiar names, considering you're posting here. Bring camera, a big memory card and spare batteries. Prepare to not be bored for a minute!

Stu

I haven't been in a few years but that's pretty much our plan. You pretty much have access to everywhere. We usually wander around throughout the day.

Great weekend. Had to deal with a bit of rain Sunday night, but otherwise it was dry. Today was hot. Damn hot. Humid too. We were glad one of our crew brought an EZ-up in his Spit.

We were surprised at how you can walk around the entire infield in about 15 minutes. Compared to Watkins Glen, where getting from one side of the track to the other is best done in a car, it was quite eye-opening. It's definitely a different experience, though. There are no grandstands. Just some grass hills to sit on. The fences are much closer to the track than at WG as well. A couple of the hills offer a great few of the track. Helps it's a fairly small track.

The car show on Sunday was really nice. Tons of top-level cars. In a way, it was like Carlisle on steroids, just replace most of the Saabs and Volvos with Porsches and BMWs. And Ferraris - lots of Ferraries... There was a small swap meet, but fortunately for me had some Spitfire and GT6 bits I needed.

In all, we had a great time. It was good seeing Gary and Tim again as well as others. All of our Spits ran well and got us there and home without issue (over 600 miles total for me; about 900 for some of the MD crew).

The crash in the Pre-War race on Sat was a bit of a downer.

For a car that supposedly spent most of its 35 years never in the rain, the wipers on my newly purchased Spitfire worked surprisingly well last night.

For me the Lime Rock vintage weekend was probably the least enjoyable I've ever experienced, solely because of the Saturday afternoon tragedy. I was on the other side of the track and fortunately didn't witness Lee Duran's crash as so many spectators on the hillside did. I'm glad I don't have that in my head. The main image of the weekend that does remain with me though is his wife sitting in the paddock calmly reading a magazine next to the car during the lunch break. She looked up and smiled at me as I looked at her husband's race car. Of course, at that point she couldn't know how the events of the afternoon would completely change her life. None of us do.

Ugh... yes, that would add a bit more of a personal connection to it. I didn't see the car or his pit in the paddock area. We did see the car as they were towing it into impound. We also watched from the hill as workers appeared to be attempting CPR. That image will remain with me. I heard some other rumors about the incident, but I'm not sure it's proper to state them here.

Weather was beautiful, but the Saturday afternoon crash cast an unfortunate pall on the event. Fortunately I did not witness it or the aftermath, but on the lap it occurred I was sitting at the end of no-name facing the uphill, and when that group went through there I noticed they were running very tight for open wheel non-cage cars. Walked the track Sunday and saw some distressed tire marks on the inside cement rumble area where the wreck began (from what I was told), I suspect those immediately preceded the upset. A very sad day.

On a lighter note, I dont think Lady Suzy would let Sterling do his own thing. My wife did get to meet him at the CMS tent.

One this is for sure...I now understand why they call the Cosworth MAE a screamer...Something about a .997 liter push rod engine running at 10,0000 RPM.