Memorial Day Weekend Brings F1 Glory to Lime Rock Park

[86Sebring]

Anybody going to see the races? I'll try to make it on Monday.
here is what the website says:




27 Apr 2009
One of Lime Rock Park’s longest-established race weekends, and a true harbinger of Summer, is the Road Racing Classic weekend which always kicks off Lime Rock Park’s racing season.

The big newcomer to the Memorial Day party is the Historic Grand Prix. There was a time when every race car was a brand new creation, completely unlike anything that had come before it. Every year was a new benchmark. Every lap, an experiment, as ideas were converted into speed.

Those years of innovation are celebrated by Historic Grand Prix. With huge tires, high speeds and screaming engines, these Grand Prix racing machines are fully evocative of those times. It’s racing history, right in front of your eyes as some of the most glorious cars will send pure mechanical music bouncing off the surrounding foothills.

Packing absurd horsepower, with drivers who have courage and personalities to match, the Historic Grand Prix show is one that’s as spectacular on the track as off. Lime Rock Park’s open paddock will be well-visited again this Memorial Day weekend as fans can get an up-close-and-personal look at some priceless machinery, and some of the unforgettable people behind them. Covering 1966 to 1983, the Grand Prix Legends is one of racing’s fastest time capsules.

“These cars are historically correct in their on-track performance,” states Skip Barber. “Think Mario Andretti, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Graham Hill, Niki Lauda and James Hunt all vying for the podium. That was a great time in this sport. It will be fun to have these cars at Lime Rock.”

But it won’t just be pumped up open-wheelers at the Road Racing Classic.

While modern Formula One teams go bust, and major manufacturers go looking for bail-outs, one series has thrived in part by keeping costs down. Grand-Am’s KONI Sports Car Challenge will be back in action at Lime Rock Park with two separate races, each jam-packed with production-car based racers. The ST class will see screaming Mini Coopers racing against Acuras, 3-Series BMW’s, and GTI’s, while the GS class sets the stage with Mustang bruisers taking on Porsche 911’s and BMW M3’s. There are plenty of cars packing it in with some close racing around this 1.53-mile ‘bullring,’ so don’t miss either one!

A new addition for the Memorial Day weekend is the open-wheel sprinters of the F2000 Championship. What exactly is a F2000 machine?

With wings and slicks, the F2000 is a lot like a Formula Ford on steroids, and has long been a proving ground for talent on the way up the ladder. The F2000 Championship series is where guys like Indianapolis 500 and Rolex 24 Champ Buddy Rice first started to make a name for himself, with fellow Indy 500 champs Sam Hornish and Dan Wheldon also proving themselves. This series has grown immensely in the past few years, with an engine formula that allows for a wider group of cars to race with some tremendously close competition.