I don't understand Ron's observation about lack of cars. There were 14 distinct
groups run over the two days, each with about 25-30 cars. That amounts to
350-400 cars in the paddock on Sat. Sunday had fewer since the cars that ran
Saturday didn't run Sunday.
Craig Wright
Ron Yates wrote:
> I went to Lime Rock only once. It was 1990 for the Team Healey
> Challenge. I enjoyed the weekend immensly. I enjoyed the people, the
> concours, the swap meet/flea market, etc.. For a left coaster it had an
> ambiance that you won't find out here. It sounds like many things have
> changed for the spectator and the entrant with a pre 70's racer.
>
> I had a similar experience when I went to the Monterey Historics this
> past August for the first time in many years. A lot of what Rick and others
> have observed/shared about Lime Rock is happening on the left coast;
> although I'm sure there are those who will disagree.
>
> I've felt for a long time that the Monterey Historics has gotten better
> media coverage than it deserved. It doesn't have the ambiance of a Lime Rork
> or the Glen; it never will. Monterey (the town), a few miles away, is a
> different story.
>
> The race paddock looked prety slim this time. I didn't see any of the
> usual120/140 Jag crowd. The MG count was down, etc.. The atmosphere was
> totally different from times past, and a different cross-section of
> spectator was very evident from previous years.
>
> Mr. Earle seems to have embraced the F1 concept in toto and it is now
> the tail that wags the dog at the Montery biggie. One section, the full
> width of the main paddock, was F1 tent and second level drivers lounge (F1).
> You can no longer see the main straight from the paddock. It wasn't always
> that way.
> There weren't that many of the featured marque (Maserati) on site/or
> they didn't run. The vendors were on campus, but in an area where
> spectators used to park and have their car corrals. Consequently, potential
> traffic for them was nothing to count on. If you were a vendor you paid big
> bucks for your site and got little in return.
>
> The September 4th issue of Autoweek had some gorgeous photos of the
> cars, but if you count the number of photos in the article, multiply by
> four, you just about have the total number of cars in the paddock!. That's
> an exaggeration, of course, but not by much.
>
> For the money at the front door (four times what they used to be), I was
> underwhelmed.
>
> Just an observation.
>
> Ron Yates
> Dipstick Digest
> P.S. The Healeys at Monterey can be seen at our website:
> www.ctaz.com/~dipstickdigest/index.html
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <HealeyRic2@aol.com>
> To: <JAshburne@aol.com>; <geodav-lou@worldnet.att.net>;
> <vintage-race@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2000 4:29 AM
> Subject: Re: Lime Rock
>
> > As a spectator for more than 15 years at the festival I note the
> following:
> > 1. Crowd size has been diminishing steadily for the last 2-3 years. The
> > past 2 years
> > have had some really nasty weather that could be blamed for that, but
> > this
> > year's weather was good overall.
> > 2. Concours participation was down about 2/3 from previous years. No
> > Shelbys
> > and no Vipers. Participation could be upped considerably by
> removing
> > the $50
> > entry fee. On Sunday, the car show and flea market are pretty much
> > the whole show. It seems to me that spectating on Sunday
> is
> > going to be reduced
> > if the car show shrinks so dramatically.
> > 3. For me, the scale is starting to tip towards newer cars than I'm
> > interested in.
> > I like the production cars from 50s -70s. Maybe I'm getting older,
> > but it
> > bothers me to see IMSA cars racing as "vintage". Doesn't seem that
> > long
> > ago that I was watching these cars race at Sebring. And who thinks
> > anyone is interested in watching NASCAR vehicles during this event?
> > 4. Again, the "little guy" appears to be getting the short straw.
> Flea
> > market
> > spaces went up from $100 to $200. A lot of vendors were
> complaining
> > and
> > there was a notable absence of the guy who was cleaning out his
> > garage/basement of parts in favor of the
> commercial
> > vendors. Plenty of
> > spectators come primarily for the flea market and are going to
> be
> > turned off if the parts they find are already available by
> catalog.
> > 5. Same thing with the "little guy" racers. Seems to me
> participation in
> > the 50's -70's production car races were down. I noticed some of
> > the "regulars" absent and heard some talk that increasing entry
> fees
> > was one of the reasons.
> > 6. No featured marque this year accompanied by a "name" associated
> with
> > the marque.
> > 7. Addition of auction on Sunday was great idea. I don't know how it
> > compared
> > to other auctions, but it seemed that a bunch of cars didn't
> make
> > their
> > reserve. There did seem to be some genuine bargains for
> > bottom-feeders
> > though.
> > 8. Event T-shirt stunk. (Talk about nitpicking). Again, focus on
> the
> > newer cars made the shirt look like one I could pick up for the
> > Memorial Day event.
> > Sounds like I had a miserable weekend, but I didn't. As usual, I had a
> great
> > time. It's just that I love this event and hate to see it's essence
> > diminished by a change in focus.
> >
> > Rick
> >
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