LuigiVampa

...or one of each!

Steve113

Having bad luck hitting Lotto - I do pray everyday that I will come back as Todd

LuigiVampa

As I tell my wife constantly, she already hit the lottery with me. I don't think she agrees but that's what I tell her.

analogmike

I just hope I never need to activate the "fire" bottle... the nitrous will just make my car (burn) faster.

9114609048

If 20 years ain't right..how about 50? I was 24 yrs old when I raced at Lime Rock Park for the first time in 1973, finishing 10th overall and 5th in GTO behind Peter Revson. I remember Lime Rock Park as a favorite on the IMSA circuit, its beautiful setting, great amenities and the Interlaken Hotel.
In '74 we finished 4th, in '75 got 7th and won it overall in '76. Passed Keyser's Monza on the last lap in turn 1 and barely held him off at the line. Good times and memories. Hope I can make it to the Lime Rock Park Historic 42.

ProCoach

Thanks for posting, George! Reminded me to send you what I was looking for for so long.

Here's a pic from Historic Festival 9, the third year of BMW sponsorship for the event, which was actually called the BMW Vintage Festival starting in 1989 until Dodge took over sponsorship of the school and of the track.

I got pole for the group by going out, coming in after a few laps, doing a slow roll through the pits, then timed the out lap to get ONE GOOD flyer in the 35-car field. Charlie Gibson, the former National Champion and event chairman at the time, called out me and Bobby Brown (who won some big races back in the day and raced Can-Am cars, very fast guy) at the banquet for being smart about qualifying and sticking it on the pole at Lime Rock in some crowded groups!

This was Group A, the race for the BMW Cup for under 1300cc pre-1967 cars, on the pace lap. In front of thirteen Alfa Romeo 1300/1400 (marine kit pistons and liners) Spider and Sprint Veloces and over twenty British cars in a 903 cc Fiat 850 Spider. Took more than a lap to get up to speed! I think pole time was a 1:10.8, far cry from the 1:01.8 I did in the 1608 cc 124 Spider I won a few races at this event with almost ten years later.

Sharing the front row was Jay Winsor, a shop owner from the Main Line in Philly. He co-owned that white/green #159 Turner 950S with Erik Wensberg, who at that time was the BMW M-Brand Manager in North America, both great guys and fierce competitors. I finished second but won a jeroboam of Moet White Star and the BMW Cup (a silver champagne cooler) for the best drive! Fun stuff... Carried the bottle around in the trailer for a year and drank it at this event in 1992 after getting the pole again, incidentally my first date with Lynne. Must have been the good stuff that got her...


Pole, pace lap, BMW Vintage Festival 1991

ProCoach

Four minutes of unadulterated pleasure. Our race group from a few years ago, from start to finish capturing the essence...

Series 900

Nice job Analogmike! Knocking out a 59 in q2 in front of Jim H and the Donovan Jags. Could not ask for better weather this weekend and very disappointed I’m not there. Looks like a great group, and prefer the army of p cars in with big bore. I’ll be back, sidelined this year due to 10 lbs short on fuel pressure and just not comfortable with cis and boost at 85lbs. Cheers mate! Gratuitous cover shot w mike on my tail!

Jas0nn

Good luck to CUP racers Mike Piera, Todd Pajonas and Del Auray these next few days !

T&T Racing

Hi George,
My goal is to make Lime Rock Park Historic 42 with my Porsche 944. It would be a memorable occasion since Warren crashed the '74 Camaro with a throttle open failure on the up hill crashing into the left side embankment. We were there in '75 with the Monza, qualifying 4th.
Hope all this can happen,
Tom

ProCoach

My Sports 2000 friend and client won the second race today with a :51.9. Second place went off track at West Bend lapping traffic (leaders lapped much of the field twice).

Second place Colin Thompson won the US Yokohama Carrera Cup series in 2014 so no slouch. He did a 51.6 in Practice 1 on a sloppy track. The times for most seem off this year but then Analog Mike and Jim Hamblin (who is like a metronome) are on point.

Great live coverage and commentary from Greg Rickes!

So sad I’m not there. Would be in the top five, maybe fourth, but have nothing for the top three in the :51’s and :52’s.

With 6” front tires, four speeds, no aero and 150 bhp.

stownsen914

Headed up yesterday to watch. Was great to see the Pcar representation on track, more than in other recent years. Lots of 911s and 914s, a couple 356s, a couple 912s.

Also on display were a 906 and. 910. Then a 917 showed up in the afternoon, it was on display in the paddock. Too bad not on track. Hardly get to see that anymore.

9114609048

Tom,
Were you at Lime Rock in '73 when Warren finished second overall to Gregg and 1st in TO?
I recently found (FB) these photos of my '73 2.8 on track. That was my third race in a Porsche and first time out in the 2.8.
See you at Lime Rock next year...if they accept my RSR.

ProCoach

They will, George. And they’ll be glad to have you.

LuigiVampa

I finished my first Lime Rock Park Historic weekend and had a blast.

First off, the weather could not have been much nicer through the weekend with only Sunday (concours car show) and the last day of racing on Monday getting a little warm.

It was interesting to be out on track, not only with other air-cooled Porsches, but also various other vintage Corvette, Jags, Camaros, Mustangs and Datsuns. The Porsches were classed together, and we were not competing with the big American cars, but they did play into the strategy of the race as the American cars absolutely park it in the corners and then blast down the front straight. It took me a few laps to readjust how to deal with these cars and get ahead where I could.

The positives of the weekend is that the atmosphere could not be better. The other cars in the paddock are AMAZING, and since this is a public event, you have a million people coming by to talk to a "real race car driver". At least that is how they make you feel and it is a reminder how fortunate I am to be involved in this sport.

The collections for the concours show on Sunday in the Park were amazing. One guy (I forget his name) brought part of his collection, and the part that made it to LRP, was valued at over $200M! I would say it is not out of line to estimate the whole paddock to have been worth around a half billion dollars.

The other race car drivers were a phenomenal group to hang out with. Many I knew and I also met a lot of great people for the first time. Hanging out, walking around and seeing all the cars, and having a beer at the end of the day, make this event all worthwhile. Consider it a car show where a race breaks out. The main draw is the "event".

There were really only two negatives to this event. One was the small amount of track time (about 40 minutes a day) and the other was the wide range of skill among the drivers. I wasn't bothered so much by the lack of track time as there was so much to do during the down time. It was kind of relaxing on nice. The lack of skill among some drivers, who I suspect only do this one event a year, means you just have to drive a little more heads up.

I am told that if we get about ten more Porsches we should be able to get our own run groups next year. If you have never attended try to think about it for 2024.

The end of the weekend the car was shiny side up!


Took me a little bit to figure out how to attack these big American cars.



I think the cars at this event are some of the coolest and makes for some great pictures.


I was also fortunate to take part in the Sunday in the Park concours with my 1963 Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint. It was my first concours event ever and my wife and I had a blast. Although I didn't win anything it was an honor to be in the show after seeing all the "rejected" cars which were part of the show in the gathering of the marques.



I might have to get one of these!