This weekend, several of us at Classic Cars Today made a visit to Lime Rock Park race track in Connecticut to enjoy the 43rd edition of the track’s “Historic Festival”, a multi-day celebration every Labor Day weekend of motorsport heritage that’s renowned for drawing a large collection of classic cars – both for racing events on Saturday and Monday, and for a high-end Concours show on Sunday, the day in which racing is prohibited by township ordinances.
The track is a natural terrain road course, constructed over mountainous terrain in the Berkshire Mountains by the Appalachian trail area. The venue is somewhat unique in that it features no grandstands or bleacher seating, instead inviting fans to bring chairs and blankets and enjoy the racing from its grassy hillside areas under the shade of trees. While the track is relatively compact by other racetrack standards, it’s renowned for its spectator experience with seating and views that come from being close to the track.
Click on the picture above to see a collection of short video clips of various races. Further below, you’ll find pictures we took of some of the cars in the racing paddock areas.
During racing days this year, over 300 cars within nine categories participated in dozens of races. A bonus included three exhibition drives performed by the Ragtime Racers, a club devoted to the preservation and operation of early 1900’s vintage race cars.
On Saturday and Monday, the Vintage Sports Car Club of America provided a free one-hour walking tour of the paddock areas to share details and interesting facts about various cars there for racing. During the Sunday Lime Rock Concours and Gathering of the Marques, the entire track was filled with about 1,000 vehicles spanning every era of motoring from pre-war touring cars to modern classics.
A QUICK LOOK BACK
The late Jim Vaill opened the track in 1957 – built on the site of a sand and gravel quarry his father owned. Before it became a track, a friend of Vaill’s had an MG that they both raced around the cornfield at the top of the hill. Members of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) heard about Vaill’s “racing activities” in the mid-1950s and paid a visit to him to see if the property could be developed as a racing circuit. Vaill loved the idea, and brought in race driver and road safety pioneer John Fitch to develop the track layout using Cornell University’s Aeronautical Labs. It was the first time that scientific and highway safety principles had been used to determine the configuration of a race track in North America.
The first race was held on April 28, 1957. Since then, Lime Rock developed many interesting stories and hosted a lot of well-known racers including Paul Newman, Mario Andretti, Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, Sam Posey, Parnelli Jones, and Mark Donohue. The track was owned by Skip Barber from 1984 to 2021, a former race car driver who formed the Skip Barber Racing School in 1975.
OF NOTE THIS YEAR
Of note, two 1965 AC Cobras one serial number apart built side by side at the factory located on different sides of the country for sixty years wound up reunited at Sunday’s Concours show parked near each other. One was owned by the event’s Grand Marshal Rob Dyson (see the Best in Show Sport picture above), and the other was owned by Barn Find Hunter host Tom Cotter.
Making an appearance Saturday was a “Le Monstre” replica of the original 1950 Cadillac race car built by Briggs Cunningham (nicknamed by the French for its monstrous aerodynamic appearance) that was a heavily re-bodied Cadillac Series 61 coupe modified for the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. The Le Monstre replica shown above is one of 101 units produced in 2025 to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the Le Mans race, built on Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing sedan underpinnings.
For this year’s Sunday concours show, categories of cars included all years of the BMW 3-Series to commemorate its 50th Anniversary, one-owner cars, “body doubles” (essentially replicars), Porsche 356s, spirit of the roadster, designs of Giorgetto Giugiaro, hemi evolution, and classic Ferrari V12 coupes. For some great quality pictures of this year’s Sunday show as seen above, visit our friends at Richard’s Car Blog who were covering it.
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