LAKEVILLE, Conn. — After nearly 70 years, Lime Rock Park finally played host to a field of race cars running at full output on a Thursday.
For the first time since opening in 1957, Lime Rock Park hosted a major unmuffled Thursday race event. This watershed moment arrived during the opening day of the long-standing Trans Am Memorial Day Classic (May 21-24), featuring the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli, International GT and the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA).
To most fans arriving at The Park, it may have simply looked like the beginning of another holiday race weekend, but for those behind the scenes, it represented nearly five years of negotiations, collaboration and careful planning to reshape one of Connecticut’s most unique holiday traditions.
“This is the very first unmuffled Thursday race day in Lime Rock Park history,” said Lime Rock Park President and CEO Dicky Riegel. “We’ve been working on this with our neighbors for the past four and a half years to achieve this day.”
At a facility woven tightly into the fabric of the surrounding community, major schedule changes do not happen overnight.
Lime Rock Park has long operated under community agreements that helped shape how race weekends were structured. For decades, major events traditionally stretched from Friday into Saturday, and occasionally Monday, but never included Sunday racing or unmuffled race activity during the week.
This weekend marked a significant shift from that longstanding model.
Instead of spreading activity across four or five days, the Trans Am Memorial Day Classic condensed its active race schedule into Thursday, Friday and Saturday without reducing on-track time, while still preserving Sunday festivities with the Royals Garage Car Show benefiting the The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
“It’s taken partnership and collaboration with our neighbors, with the Town of Salisbury, with the Lime Rock Citizens Council and it’s taken the hard work of every member of this staff here,” Riegel said. “But I have to highlight the partnership with Racing America that helped make this opportunity happen.”
That partnership was equally important for Racing America and the Trans Am paddock, where time on the road often comes at the expense of time at home.
“It certainly makes a big difference,” said Racing America CEO Lee Giannone. “Our teams and families get to be home on the holiday. We haven’t done that for many, many years.”
For competitors who spend much of the year traveling from racetrack to racetrack, condensing the weekend creates logistical and financial advantages while still preserving the atmosphere that has made Lime Rock Park a Memorial Day destination for generations.
“Most of these people are on the road a couple hundred days a year and they like being home,” Giannone said. “It’s been great that Lime Rock Park has gone to this much effort to make this possible. We appreciate it. Our teams appreciate it. It just couldn’t be better.”
And yet, despite the revised structure, nothing about the spirit of the weekend feels reduced.
Fans still sold out the campgrounds. The new Coca-Cola Fan Zone buzzed with activity on the midway. Vintage race cars and modern Trans Am machinery shared the same paddock space that has defined the event for decades.
Riegel believes the new format may actually create a better balance for everyone involved.
“It’s still a four-day weekend because it ends up on Sunday with a car show,” Riegel said. “The ability to give the fans back half of their Memorial Day weekend while still giving them all the racing they want from this great series creates a better balance.”
The Trans Am and Lime Rock Park relationship has now stretched across seven decades. Thursday’s opening day marked the 35th appearance of the legendary American road racing series at The Park.
The Trans Am Memorial Day Classic continues through Sunday (May 24) with testing and qualifying on Friday and racing on Saturday. Sunday caps off the weekend with the Royals Garage Car Show (10 a.m.-3 p.m.).
