Page 9 - Porsche Lime Rock 2021

THE LIME ROCK HISTORIC FESTIVAL – THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT
The Lime Rock Historic Festival, which will celebrate its 40th year in 2022, was created at time when historic racing was far less popular than it is
today. The first historic racing event in the US took place at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, starting in 1974. At the same time, European racing venues were also starting to create events that recalled their illustrious past. Lime Rock’s first historic event, the Vintage Fall Festival, began in 1982 as a way of honoring the history of American motorsports at one of its birthplaces.
In 2000, the event was renamed the Lime Rock Historic Festival, the shift
in naming, wrote event chairman Murray Smith, “the result of the fact that ‘vintage’ around the world referred to cars built before 1930, while the term ‘historic’ could cover the pre-war era as well as the second half of the 20th Century.” The racing events at the Historic Festival took place on Saturday and Monday, while Sunday, when racing wasn’t permitted, was named “Sunday in the Park,” and comprised both a competitive Concours d’Elegance along the track’s main straight, as well as a companion event called the Gathering of the Marques, at which both car clubs and individual marque groupings were arranged around the 1.5-mile-long Lime Rock track. As many as 600 cars have participated in the Marques event.
THE LIME ROCK HISTORIC FESTIVAL – THE PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT
Preceding the weekend is the popular Thursday Tour, where both competition and street cars parade through picturesque Northwest Corner countryside and villages en route to a festive evening in Falls Village.
Throughout its history, the festival has played host to some of the top names in motorsports, such as Sir Stirling Moss, Brian Redman, Vic Elford and Bob Tullius. Sunday in the Park has also honored prominent collectors and their collections, including Ralph Lauren, Bruce Meyer and Fred Simeone. Those important names have been joined by significant motorcars, including the Mercedes 300SLR driven by Stirling Moss in the Mille Miglia, the 1960 Chevrolet Corvette campaigned by Briggs Cunningham at Le Mans, as well as Ralph Lauren’s stunning “Count Trossi” Mercedes SSK. This year Porsche was the honored marque for the Festival while the honored collector was Steven Harris, whose unmatched collection of fifteen 911-based RS Porsches was displayed together for the first time ever in the main paddock during the event.
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LIME ROCK 2021