Thanks Scott for the kind words on the event. It is a unique experience
in so many ways, and it should be a very cool race weekend to run the
Kastner Cup.
Sure, we have tons of information to get out, but Labor Day 2025 is 17
months out. We are going to get everybody up to speed in due course,
here are some highlights.
As John Hasty mentioned, the track does not allow race motors to be run
on Sundays. So no racing on Sunday, and while I originally thought that
was a detriment to having a Kastner Cup, the more I thought about it,
the more I realized this is a fantastic opportunity to really get some
quality time to spend with our FOT friends. The track holds a huge car
show during the day on Sunday, and yes, we are invited to have our race
cars towed down to the front straight and have them front and center for
the car show festivities. Not required, but some may enjoy that. We are
working on our plan for Sunday, stay tuned! Racing resumes on Monday,
Labor Day.
We have no doubt we will have enough cars to have our own run group, all
Triumphs will run together all weekend. Triumphs will be the Featured
Race Group, not to be confused with the Featured Marque. More on that
later as well.
As Scott said, Lime Rock is a pretty unique road racing course. I am
borrowing some words from Lime Rock's website about the track:
"Connecticutâ??s Lime Rock Park holds a place in the trinity of legendary
road racing circuits in North America. Wisconsinâ??s Road America â?? opened
in 1955 â?? along with Californiaâ??s Laguna Seca and Lime Rock, both opened
in 1957, are among the oldest continuously operated road racing circuits
in the U.S. However, only Lime Rockâ??s circuit remains exactly the same
as when it opened in spring of that year.
At once historic and modern without a hint of a grandstand, Lime Rock
Park is fan friendly in the extreme. A beautiful park in the truest
sense, even those who are not motorsports fans appreciate what Lime Rock
Park has to offer.
Itâ??s place in motor racing history began with the race which forever
changed the face of the sport in America; The 1959 Formula Libre event.
The best pros and the best amateurs in the best cars went head-to-head
in a three-heat format. Thanks in equal part to its major media coverage
and the startling result â?? Indy 500 winner Roger Ward won the contest in
a midget, besting F1 cars and world championship sports cars â?? the
Formula Libre weekend knocked down the walls that had separated
professional road racing drivers from their amateur brethren.
Almost all of the sportâ??s greats have raced here, from that industry
changing Formula Libre race through the SCCA hay days of the 1960s, 70s
and 80s in Can-Am, F5000, Trans-Am and Atlantic as well as the Camel GTP
and ALMS championships. From the mid-1990s onward, Lime Rock has seen
everything from ground-pounding NASCAR stockers and modifieds to the
technological tour de force IMSA prototypes.
Lime Rock is 1.50 miles of up hill and down dale, a track that looks
deceivingly simple, but is immensely challenging to drive quickly. Its
setting is a village in Connecticutâ??s Litchfield County, renowned for
its vast historical, cultural and recreational resources.
Under Skip Barberâ??s stewardship, Lime Rock has been serviced by two
major, multimillion-dollar renovations.
The first was in 2008, when the track surface was repaved in its
entirety, and a number of safety elements were brought to the latest
standards. Crucially, the project was engineered specifically so as to
not change any aspect of its original track design and layout; by Skipâ??s
demand, the same tricky cambers, the same widely variable track widths
and the same sinuous radii were precisely preserved. If a driver from
1957 were somehow time-machined into the future and plunked down onto
Lime Rock today, they would find no difference in the racing line. The
braking, turn-in, apex and track-out points a driver experiences today
are the exact same as those Mario Andretti or Dan Gurney and dozens of
other legends navigated back in the day. The 2008 project was a
remarkable accomplishment and today it makes Lime Rock unique among its
North American peers.
The second major renovation got underway in late 2014 â?? the Road to 60
Project. With this phase, Lime Rock Park now benefits from all-new,
fully paved paddocks, gardens, ponds and landscaping, spectator areas,
walkways and amenities.
In other words, thanks to the 2008 work (for the competitors) and
todayâ??s Road to 60 Project (for the fans), Lime Rock is totally the
same. And totally different.
Welcome to the â??newâ?? old Lime Rock Park."
~~~
If you have never run Lime Rock, and are planning on coming next year to
make a strong showing for the Cup, the track does offer a test day on
Tuesday before the Festival. Or, better yet, run this year's Festival as
practice. Or, the Empire Cup in early June. My experience has shown me a
fast lap at Lime Rock does not come quickly or easily! My last tidbit
for the day, here is a good track talk...
https://limerock.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/LapofLRP_TurnByTurn.pdf
Cheers
Henry Frye
2025 Kastner Cup Co-Chair
On 2024-04-21 12:58, Scott Janzen via Fot wrote:
> Wow, thatâ??s exciting news! For those of you who have never driven
> it, Lime Rock is a hoot. Itâ??s short - 1.53 miles - but requires
> near constant attention. Great altitude changes - the crest of the
> back hill is good for a little wheelspin, and a wild sideways ride if
> you are still trying to turn at the crest - and some good turns.
> Itâ??s not easy to master. Thereâ??s always a better lap (at least
> for me). For those who will say - â??festival event, not a lot of
> track timeâ?? I will say that a 20 minute session is routinely 15 and
> can be up to 18 laps - a really good time for me is 1:06, though I
> know Henry and Bob are faster. Track record, I think, is an IMSA GTP
> car at 43.1 seconds. Anyway, you get lot of laps, usually, so it
> doesnâ??t feel short.
>
> Lime Rock is full of automotive eye candy, unlike any other east coast
> event, for sure. Iâ??ve been on track with a Maserati birdcage, raced
> wheel to wheel/traded places lap after lap with a 260 Cobra, sometimes
> thereâ??s a preservation class - itâ??s amazing to see a driver in a
> prewar car going down the front straight at real speed, with one hand
> outside the car working the fuel pump. Great place to spectate and
> lots of beautiful cars to look at that are just on display.
>
> Looking forward to it! Even my wife, who generally only comes to one
> event a year, says she will come for this one.
>
> Side note - lodging is limited. Make your lodging plans before you
> even register to race, if you can.
>
> Scott Janzen
> GT6
>
> On Apr 21, 2024, at 7:46 AM, yellow04 via Fot <fot@autox.team.net>
> wrote:
>
> I am pleased to announce the 2025 Kastner Cup will be run at the Lime
> Rock Historic Festival, at Lime Rock Park, in the scenic northwest
> hills of Connecticut. The Historic Festival is one of the premier East
> Coast vintage racing events, and takes place over the Labor Day
> weekend. Skip Barber asked us "When are you guys going to bring your
> Kastner Cup to the Historics?", the cards just fell into place.
>
> The event is put on by the track, and is co-sanctioned by Vintage
> Racer Group (VRG) and VSCCA. Track owner Skip Barber calls the shots,
> and his right-hand man through the whole process is the VRG event
> chair Paul King. Paul is also a FOT member, those of you from the east
> should remember his yellow GT6 running events over the past 20 years
> or so. I have been working closely with Paul on VRG's Driver
> Development program for several years now, and we realized this
> aligning of the stars was too perfect to pass up. Paul and I will
> co-chair the event with Paul managing the track side of the house, and
> I will manage the FOT side, with help from Curt Johnston and the
> Alexanders, of course.
>
> We hope everyone will mark their calendars now and plan on being with
> us at Lime Rock Park in 2025!
>
> Henry Frye
> 2025 Kastner Cup Co-chair
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