Lime Rock Historic Festival 2021
Another wonderful event….with spectators this year!
The Lime Rock Historic Festival 2021 was another terrific event. The 39th such event saw the welcome return of spectators to the scenic Connecticut track after last year’s Covid-affected spectator-absent event. Porsches were the featured marque this year and they turned out in big numbers.
Of course there was far more than Porsches at this year’s Festival. There was the usual mix of quite vintage and recent vintage. Bugattis from the early 1900s were on track as well more recent cars such as Corvette and Ralt. The mix is intoxicating to lovers of the smell of spent racing gas and hot racing tires.
This is also one event where the cars in the spectator parking lots ware just as appealing as the cars on track. Porsches were arrayed around the skid pad; Corvette, Lotus, Ferrari, Jaguar and so much more were eye candy for the adoring car fans.
You can see complete race results for all races here.
You can see more photos from the event here.
Here are the racing highlights
Group One featured cars built before 1939. We were treated to Alfas and Bugattis mixing it up with Stutz Specials, Morgan and a Plymouth single seater. Coming out on top on Saturday race 1 was the 1933 Ford Indy of Rex Barrett while Peter Greenfield took the afternoon race in his 1935 Alfa. Paddins Dowling and his 1934 ERA took Monday race 1 and 2 for good measure.
Group Two was all about vintage Formula Fords. Van Dieman, Crossle, Eagle, PRS and a few Macons raced furiously and safely. Chris Fahan and his Van Dieman took victories in both of the Saturday races and completed the sweep as he took both Monday races as well.
Group 3 was a mixed bag of tin tops. Joe Courtney’s Alfa took Saturday race 1 while Dave Nicholas won race 2 and race 3 in his venerable BMW 2002. Simon Kirkby was the victor in race 4 with his 1972 Alfa GTV.
Group 4 featured some very fast single seaters. Peter Greenfield’s quick Ralt RT4 was victorious in race 1, race 2 and race 3. Greenfield raced this same car in period in the pro Formula Atlantic series of the era and continues to be fast years later. Tony Carpanzano took race 4 in his Reynard to keep Greenfield from sweeping the weekend in the class.
Group 5 was dominated by Lotus race cars but a Bobsy driven by Salomon took race 1 but race 2 saw one on those Lotuses (a 1963 Lotus 7) win piloted by Michael Taradash. Variety is the spice of this race as a Lola MK1 took the win in race 3 driven by Thomas Grudovich. Cosme Fumex took the race 4 checker with his Lotus 7.
There’s more!
Group 6 was a Porsche air-cooled 911 feature. James Hamblin and his 1968 car took race 1 and repeated in race 2! Hamblin continued his winning ways in race 3 on Monday as well.
Group 7 is a GT and sports racing class. Graham Adelman took race 1 with his Lotus 23 and repeated in race 2 but Thomas Grudovich took race 3 with his 1966 Ginetta G4. Graham Adelman came back in race 4 in fine style for the win.
Group 8 was for big-bore production cars. Charlie Mayer’s Porsche 911 took race 1 and 2 on Saturday and race 3 on Monday. Damon Josz was the poiler taking a fine win in race 4 with his 1980 Porsche 930.
Group 9 is for Mazda Miatas (which are also vintage race cars now!). Of course they put on a great show banging fenders and taking names. Roy Shanholtz came out on top in race 1, repeated in race 2 and took race 3 and 4 on Monday for the clean sweep.
Don’t forget the Sunday in the Park!
The Sunday in the Park show and concours saw some wetness early on but the skies cleared giving the spectators a great live history lesson on classic cars. You can read about all of the trophy winners right here.
#39 is in the books
The Lime Rock Historic Festival 2021 was a great event as usual. I’m already looking forward to the 40th iteration of this classic event next year!
