chapter 505
9/3/2018
2018 Lime Rock Historic Festival
gentlemen racers
Who can do this stuff? Race you sports car around a 1.5 mile road course. You gotta have a big chunk of change. Just the car can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars up to a million. Forty million for the one just beyond this tent. Then add the trailer transport, the mechanics and team etc to win essentially nothing. It's just for pride. Gentlemens racing. Yet, I saw a 1965 Corvette with smashed front end stopping the race as well as a mid 60's 250GT Ferrari. Yikes. There are retired world stage drivers in the mix as well. They come from around the world to be here.
Anyway, I enjoy the sights & sounds. It's in my blood. Going back to when I was maybe 12 years old driving my 1931 Ford Model A around the property out back on our dirt "race track". This is a Grand Prix 1927 Bugatti T37A that raced in the British Grand Prix. A similar one sold for nearly a million dollars. It's owned by Alan Rosenblum who I've previously met and covered in a few prior chapters (linked below) since he is one of the Trustees of the Saratoga Auto Museum.
I got one feedback already on my video. Kurt Uzbay sent me a notice that he enjoyed the vid. He was driving the #42 red beautiful looking 1969 Chevron B16 closed wheel prototype racer toward the 3/4 point in the video. I googled the car and it goes for around $300,000 as there were only 23 built back then. New models are still custom made in England so you may order direct. Kurt is a guitarist in the NYC band "Rolling Stoned" & Dead Rock Stars, a Rolling Stones tribute band. I doubt that his band receipts could offset the cost of racing so there is probably much more to the story.
It is quite a culture. And the beauty of the race format is that you are allowed to roam around the paddock area where the cars are entering, exiting the track and being worked on by crew. They are happy to talk with you briefly as they are on a tight schedule. There were 10 different race classifications scheduled each day. Yes, a wonderful event. The weekend is a 36 year tradition and this year was dedicated to the Bugattis, the largest collection of them ever, and they come to Saratoga this weekend.
I liked this shot of New Haven attorney Jon Einhorn in his 1964 Austin Healey 3000 Mark III. I asked him if he was smiling for the camera but he said he's just always happy to be racing. I've always liked this model and my neighbor has one I'd love to get my hands on...
Watched the family crew struggle helping Ernest Steubsand of Rhinebeck get dressed into race gear and squeezed into his growling 1962 Lotus Super 7. It was a tight fit to stuff his flowing gray hair into the helmet. He struggled to put on the racing gloves, like OJ. But he was determined. Had to laugh when a family member told me he is 83 years old and I'm thinking I know 60 something year olds who seem to have one foot in the grave. These gentlemen racers are living life with a purpose, with a passion. And he's been doing it for at least 50 years. It's admirable and contageous.
I've known a few gentlemen racers in my life and have enjoyed many trips to this lovely track. I barely watched any of the cars going around on the track this time. The real story was in the pits.
So, the Lime Rock Festival was free to military vets. A great bargain to save $130 or so. Went on three days. It was fun driving my Mustang like a race car over the country roads to beautiful Lime Rock in Connecticut. This view is coming through Copake on a shortcut that I'd not taken before. The sky presented a beautiful misty moment over the Berkshire Taconic Hills that I had to stop for, thus not becoming an actual shortcut but worth the effort.
Always one for killing two birds with one stone, I had noticed the Appalachian Trail crosses right near the Lime Rock Park race center. Did a few miles and captured this couple from Texas. He just quit the Coast Guard and she quit her job to attempt the 2100 mile AT. They started from Maine and so had completed about 800 miles. Emailed this pic to them.
Contrastingly, or should I say similarly, it was just a couple weeks back that a friend and I took a little motorcycle trip to the Catskills for the annual Rat Nest Run In for rat-rods. This owner of this '40 Dodge truck in green hat was my age and served as a crew chief for one of the awesome AC130 gunshipsguns that flew all over Vietnam bringing down devastating firepower. He's been doing rat rods all his life. The big thrill of the weekend is doing burnouts where, if they are successful, they smoke burn and pop the rear tires. He went thru 7 pairs. It's a cultural thing. Some can relate.
Rosenblum chapter links: 265, 183, 120C, 147
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