By Tim Beeble

For the 17th year in a row, the Northeast Coast Chapter of Fiat Lancia Unlimited will sponsor the Italian Car Corral at the 28th annual Vintage Festival at the Lime Rock Race Track in northwestern Connecticut on Monday, September 6th. The Corral attracts 70-100 Italian cars of all marques.

To participate in the Corral, we Italian car owners must buy our discounted tickets to the Vintage Festival online from the Lime Rock Affiliate Ticket Sales web page. Click on "Buy Tickets" opposite the line for "Italian Car Corral Weekend Ticket" or "Italian Car Corral Monday Ticket" and enter the Italian Car Corral Coupon Code of "IT2009". (The password is case-sensitive, so capitalize "IT".) Please buy your tickets on this web site as soon as possible.

There is no extra charge for registering for the Corral. Italian car drivers who have Italian Car Corral tickets will receive a goody bag which usually includes such items as an event program, poster, a Lime Rock pin and a Vintage Festival cap. Best of all, the Italian cars are admitted on the track for a couple parade laps to wow the crowd at Lime Rock. In order to qualify for parade laps, we must sell at least 25 Weekend or Labor Day (Monday).

While the Italian Car Corral is held only on Monday, September 6th, the Historic Festival is a four day celebration of antique and vintage sports cars held over Labor Day weekend each year. The festival includes trial laps on Friday, qualifying races on Saturday, a world-class concours to match Pebble Beach on Sunday, and the vintage races of ten classes of cars on Monday. If you wish to buy tickets to the other days of the Vintage Festival, you must go to Lime Rock’s regular on-line ticket window. However, buy your Monday ticket from the Affilitate Ticket Sales as indicated above.

New for this year: For the Sunday concours, the track is waiving the entry fee for Italian cars that are in "show" condition and are entered by our group. The track will set aside up to 20 spaces for our Italian cars to be displayed together. The top three Italian cars in the concours will be awarded prizes by the judges. Our cars will also be eligible for consideration for the Best In Show award and the Road and Track prize for the "car that we would like to drive home." Email a picture of your car and its make/model/year to Tim Beeble (see below) if you would like to participate in the concours. He will submit your information to the track management.

If you do not want to get a weekend ticket but would like to buy tickets to the other individual days of the Vintage Festival, you must go to Lime Rock’s regular online ticket window. However, buy your Monday ticket from the special web site above if you want to participate in the Italian Car Corral on Labor Day.

For more information, contact Tim Beeble at 203-743-4954 or tbeeble@aol.com (if emailing, please include "Lime Rock" in the subject line).

This is always a great celebration and a terrific way to spend part (or all) of Labor Day weekend. Come out and enjoy!
 

Lime Rock Historic Festival
Sunday in the Park
September 5th, 2010

The car show at Sunday in the Park has two principal sections – first is the basic car show, which is open to all comers who sign up to show their cars. This includes sports car clubs, who are invited on a club basis meaning there is no requirement – and no charge - for members to register individually. You simply order your admission tickets online at limerock.com or by phone to the track – 860-435-5000. (Be sure to identify yourself with Fiat Lancia Unlimited when placing your order). Cost is $20/person advance or $25/person at the gate. We urge members to order advance tickets for two reasons – to avoid delays at the gate on Sunday morning and, most important, to give us an accurate count of cars so that we can provide each club sufficient space on the track. Plan to be at Lime Rock no later than 9am on Sunday. The show opens at 10am and runs until 3:30 pm. All cars will be judged and prizes awarded for outstanding cars at the end of the show. These include special awards from Motorsport Magazine and Rolex Watch, plus other sponsors to be confirmed. Rolex will present a watch to the car judged Best in Show.

The second section of Sunday in the Park is the concours. This part of our show is reserved for so-called high point cars which, by their quality and presentation, are eligible for a position on the main straight. They are featured along with cars from our Honored Collector together with a number of historic race cars which the Chairman has selected for their provenance and distinction. We recognize there are a number of concours level cars among the many clubs with whom we work. For any club member with a car up to this standard, we encourage you to apply for inclusion in the concours. On the Lime Rock website is a link to the Historics, scroll down to Sunday in the Park, there you will find directions to apply for the concours. All concours applications are subject to review by the Chairman. On acceptance of your car, the registration fee is $50.

Last year was the first time we offered sports car clubs the opportunity to join Sunday in the Park with their own dedicated space on the track. The response by the clubs was enthusiastic, to say the least. We almost lined the entire 1.5 mile circuit with cars from clubs ranging from Rolls Royce to Morgan to Shelby to Citroen. This year we look for an even greater response from all our friends in the clubs.

The Historic Festival is in its 28th year. 2009 saw an extraordinary collection of cars of all makes on display. Our show has become recognized as the largest and most distinctive of its kind in the Northeast. The crowds of fans who attended last year were rewarded with a first class motorsports weekend of racing and, most particularly on Sunday, an amazing collection of cars from all over the world. The sports car clubs made a great contribution to our most successful event. Park your car in the Italian Car section. For 2010 the track is honoring all marques in the Fiat family of automobiles.

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