{"id":8674,"date":"2025-09-01T15:16:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8674"},"modified":"2025-10-28T15:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:18:20","slug":"historic-festival-43-transforms-lime-rock-park-into-a-living-museum-of-motorsport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/01\/historic-festival-43-transforms-lime-rock-park-into-a-living-museum-of-motorsport\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Festival 43 Transforms Lime Rock Park into a Living Museum of Motorsport"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Grand Marshal Rob Dyson and Honored Guest David Hobbs lead celebration of motorsport history at Lime Rock Park<\/em><\/p>\n

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LAKEVILLE, CONN. (1 September 2025)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Over Labor Day Weekend, Lime Rock Park hosted the 43rd edition of the track-produced event known as Historic Festival, a five-day celebration of motorsport heritage that drew the largest collection of vintage cars in the circuit\u2019s modern history. With 38 races from nine race groups, three special exhibitions from the Ragtime Racers, more than 300 race entries, 125 parade participants, dozens of collector cars on display and nearly 1,000 rare classic vintage automobiles and motorcycles that participated in Sunday in the Park, the storied Connecticut circuit became a rolling museum of speed and history.<\/p>\n

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Grand Marshal Rob Dyson set the tone by bringing 15 distinguished cars from his personal collection while racing legend David Hobbs was honored as the Festival\u2019s special guest. Together they framed a weekend that blended motorsport personalities, iconic machines and stories that stretched across generations.<\/p>\n

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Legends on the Move<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For the first time, the Del Monte Trophy Race Group traveled east from Pebble Beach, bringing with it cars that once thundered through the pine-lined roads of the Monterey Peninsula to\u00a0face off with their East Coast counterparts. Between 1950 and 1956, the original Del Monte races helped launch the careers of Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby and set the stage for American road racing. At Lime Rock, their successors lined up once more.<\/p>\n

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Among the machines that made the cross-country trip were the 1950 Johnny von Neumann MG Special, 1952 Schaticoke Manning Special, 1953 Kurtis 500S Dodge and 1953 Sorrell Kurtis GMC Special. Each carried its own story, preserved and restored to race again.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese are the cars that helped build the foundation of American road racing,\u201d said Skip Barber, Historic Festival Event Chairman. \u201cTo have them at Lime Rock for the first time is something truly special. Our fans didn\u2019t just watch history, they heard\u00a0 it, smelled it and felt it as these cars raced around the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Modern Classics<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the Del Monte cars connected the Festival to Pebble Beach, the Toyo Tires Turn of the Century World Challenge Group showed how more recent history has earned its place on track. Returning to the Historic Festival for its second year, the group is the only vintage World Challenge class in the United States. With 25 cars on the grid, it marked growth over its inaugural running and confirmed the rising popularity of this unique category.<\/p>\n

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Icons Reimagined<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among the weekend\u2019s curiosities was Derek Drinkwater\u2019s faithful replica of Le Monstre, the bizarre Cadillac-powered machine created by Briggs Cunningham for the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans that became a symbol of American ingenuity.<\/p>\n

Unable to buy the priceless original, Drinkwater built his own in just five months without blueprints, using only measurements from the Rev Institute, photos and a life-size outline of the car he made using a projector and a sheet. Since then he has taken it across Europe, to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and to the Classic 24 at Daytona where it topped 130 mph. At Lime Rock Park, the car was as much a spectacle as it was in 1950.<\/p>\n

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Awards & Honors<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Monday, The Park recognized those who embody the spirit of vintage racing. Autodromo, the Official Watch of Historic Festival 43, presented nine drivers, one from each race group,\u00a0 with a Special Edition Lime Rock Park chronograph made special for the drivers.<\/p>\n

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Winners were selected by sanctioning partners Vintage Racing Group (VRG) and the Vintage Sports Car Club of America (VSCCA) for showcasing vintage spirit throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

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Autodromo also presented the \u201cSpirit of Lime Rock Award\u201d to Chris Towner, who competed in the War Era group with a 1938 Morgan F-Type Trike. The honor was voted on by fellow drivers, the Historic Festival Committee and representatives from VRG and VSCCA.<\/p>\n

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The Piston Foundation added its own recognition with the Piston Technician Award, presented for the fourth year at Lime Rock Park. This year\u2019s recipient was Bob Gett, General Manager at KTR Racing in Ayer, Massachusetts. Gett oversaw 12 cars during the weekend, earning the paddock respect of drivers, teams and owners who nominated him as the Festival\u2019s MVP technician.<\/p>\n

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With a record-setting season of events including the dramatic debut of NASCAR\u2019s Liuna 150 in the rearview mirror already for Lime Rock Park in 2025, the track looks forward to hosting two very special events yet in 2025.
\nThe next major event for Lime Rock Park is the new USAC Weekend, featuring the Mustang Cup Challenge and Radical Cup, October 17-18, followed by another Lime Rock Park-produced event MiataCon 2025, October 24-25.\u00a0 For more information about upcoming events, visit www.limerock.com.<\/p>\n

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Watch the Glimpse of Historic Festival 43 Live Stream replay:https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LimeRockPark<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo Gallery:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?vanity=limerockpark&set=a.1192474992920786
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Autodromo Award Winners<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Group 1: Paul Stinson, 1963 Lotus Super Seven<\/div>\n
Group 2: Kyle Collins, 1960 Lotus 18 FJr<\/div>\n
Group 3: Derek Drinkwater Cadillac 61 Le Monstre<\/div>\n
Group 4: Ben Sinnot, 1989 Dallara\u00a0Scuderia Italia F1<\/div>\n
Group 5: Alex Amys 1970 Triumph GT6<\/div>\n
Group 6: Jon Clar, 1965 Mini Cooper<\/div>\n
Group 7: David Hutchings, 1973 Porsche 911 RSR<\/div>\n
Group 8: Chip Herr, 2007 Audi A4<\/div>\n
Group 9: Hervey Parke, 1993 Mazda Miata<\/div>\n
Vintage Spirit Award: Chris Towner, 1938 Morgan F-Type Trike<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grand Marshal Rob Dyson and Honored Guest David Hobbs lead celebration of motorsport history at Lime Rock Park   LAKEVILLE, CONN. (1 September 2025)\u00a0\u2013 Over Labor [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-lime-rock-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8676,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8674\/revisions\/8676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}