Lime Rock, 31st of August - 3rd of September, 2018

For the 36th time the Lime Rock Historic Festival was held at Labour Day at the track at Lakeville near the border triangle of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. With about 200 cars in 8 different race classes the track was hot for three days including practice sessions, the qualifying and the final races on Monday, the Labour Day being the traditional final of the race weekend on the first Monday in September. Including races for the Vintage Sports Car Club of America celebrating its 60th anniversary this year the classes were diversified to give something for every taste ranging from pre-war to small bore Formula Libre cars up to the 1990s.

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Our particular interest was the Concours on Sunday (named “Sunday in the Park”) featuring about 80 vintage Bugatti and the races of the same marque over the weekend. As there is no racing in Lime Rock Park on Sunday the organizers came up with the idea of an accompanying concours that spans the whole track ranging from real concours classes to club displays and a more “cars&coffee” style entries. As the Bugatti Club of America was selected to hold the International Bugatti Meeting this year in the area of Saratoga Springs (we will report on that one separately) the participants were invited early to meet in Lime Rock for the weekend before the tour started on Tuesday. Especially for the overseas members shipping their cars from Europe this was a welcome addition to make the trip worth even more. Few of the entered cars already took part in the races featuring 19 cars ranging from a very early 1913 Brescia to the later Type 57 with the majority from the T37 and T35 range.

Two tents were set up for the cars with the touring cars in the upper section of the infield and the race cars in the paddocks behind the pit building. On Friday the first cars arrived in the early morning to what should become a very hot weekend with temperatures well in the 30s degree Celsius or near 90 degree Fahrenheit. After being grouped the ones interested could take part in a small tour through the area direction Falls Village where the cars were welcomed at a street fair.

Saturday the race cars were out on the small circuit in the idyllic countryside of New England with a lot of green surrounding the track. Located in the hill the main feature is the back side with a steep grade towards the back straight and a drop under the entry bridge going back to the main straight. The fastest of the Bugattis, the T51 of Charles Knill-Jones did the track in about 1:12 min whereas the slowest Brescia was about 40 second behind spreading the field out quit fast.

After two days of racing the Concours was set up early on Sunday morning and with Bugatti featured marque it was a quit obvious choice to make the president of the American Bugatti Club and noted collector of French automobiles Peter Mullin the featured collector of the weekend. Mullin had several Bugatti on show spearheaded by his Bugatti Atlantic that was set up near start-finish. Over time more and more Bugatti were lined up giving an impressive image and a great taste of what to be seen during the next days during the tour. As every tour has its own character it was great to see more coach built examples of the touring cars rather than only the very popular grand prix cars quit as contrast to the Bugatti Tour in France a few years ago.

But not only the entrants of the tour were welcome at the concours, further highlights from some of the most prestigious collections in the US joined the party including the T55 from the Miles Collier Collection making its way up from Florida, the sensational Bugatti T57 Tank from the Simeone Collection in Philadelphia, a pair of Bugatti T57 SC Atalante and T59 GP from the same stable and finally one of the Ralph Lauren cars had one of its rare outings. The T57 SC Gangloff Cabriolet might be one of the most elegant bodies on the lower S-chassis and Laurens favourite colour black certainly underlined the elegance. For the many spectators the line-up itself was impressive and the choice of the Best of Show was certainly a tough one. As the cars of Peter Mullin obviously were on display only (most likely because of him being the featured collector) the judges fortunately did not have to make the choice between the Atlantic and the Cabriolet. So finally it was the black Gangloff that was called on stage for the final presentation of the most prestigious price of the weekend.

Monday was the final day of the race weekend and during the lunch break the rare opportunity was given to position all the Bugatti on the main straight giving both the organizers and the entrants of the Bugatti events a very memorable image to remember a great weekend in September.

Whereas the race entrants had another outing in the afternoon on track most of the touring cars disappeared after lunch direction Saratoga Springs for the following tour. After finishing their races the GP cars were loaded for the 2 hours’ drive north were they joined the others for the evening welcome dinner.

So the Historic Festival can look back on 36 years showing that the event is very well established in the American vintage race calendar. After Pebble Beach was a week late and with the Bugatti Tour around the corner this was certainly a great way to spend the weekend although the temperatures did not make it easy for all those staying at the track over the weekend.


Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de


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