Lime Rock Park 2000 Schedule

Lime Rock Has Exciting New Events for 2000 Season Memorial Day and Vintage Weekends Will Feature Fresh Look

LAKEVILLE, Conn. - Lime Rock Park is poised for its biggest season ever in 2000 with the addition of new events, new amenities and attractions for race fans and an entirely new look for the "Road Racing Center of the East." Two of Lime Rock's biggest events, the Dodge Dealers Grand Prix and the Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival, will usher in new sanctioning bodies that will alter the landscape of those time-honored race weekends.

Sports car racing's Memorial Day weekend tradition will be run under the auspices of the Grand American Road Racing Association, a motorsports body based in Daytona Beach, Fla., the world center of racing. Historic Sportscar Racing, which embraces the race cars that thrilled Lime Rock fans in the 1970s and '80s, and the Vintage Sports Car Club of America will co-sanction the 18th Annual Vintage Festival on Sept. 1-4.

Lime Rock also is in the midst of major revisions that will affect everything from the track's logo to what visitors experience on race weekends.

"We're really excited about what is happening on- and off-track this season," Lime Rock General Manager Garret Mudd said. "We want to continue to bring the best, most exciting road racing events in the country to Lime Rock Park and the new elements of the Dodge Dealers Grand Prix and Vintage Festival are a reflection of that goal.

"Grand-Am racing features the exotic prototypes and production-based cars that our sports car fans expect on Memorial Day weekend. And on Labor Day weekend it will be great to see the cars that made racing history, like the Can-Am and IMSA GT and GTP cars, race at Lime Rock again.

"Showcasing everything from Vintage cars to NASCAR, Lime Rock has always staged one of the most diverse schedules in the Northeast and this year's schedule features some exciting new events along with our traditional racing weekends."

Among the highlights for the 2000 season are:

* New England Region SCCA National (April 28-29) * Car & Driver Magazine Presents the Michelin One Lap of America (May 11) * The Dodge Dealers Grand Prix (May 26-29) * 25th Shelby American Automobile Club National Convention (June 30-July 3) * Ferrari Challenge & Historic Challenge (July 13-15) * The 18th Annual Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival (Sept. 1-4) * The Dodge Dealers NASCAR 200 Presented by Burnham Boilers (Oct. 13-14)

The backbone of Lime Rock's 2000 schedule is the three traditional major race weekends.

The Dodge Dealers Grand Prix is one of the best sports car racing weekends in North America. Under the Grand-Am format, the open-top prototypes such as the Ferrari 333SP and Ford R&S will race in the SportsRacer category. The GTO, GTU and American GT divisions for production-based automobiles such as the Dodge Viper, Chevrolet Corvette, Ford Mustang, BMW M-3, and Porsche 911 will run in a separate two-hour race.

Also racing on Memorial Day weekend is the Barber Dodge Pro Series, the Speedvision World Challenge Championships and the Neon Charity Challenge.

The Vintage Festival is a car lover's paradise and one of the largest vintage and historic car racing weekends in the Northeast. Along with classic sports cars, Historic Sportscar Racing also has classes for Formula One, Indy and Can-Am cars through 1980, IMSA GT cars from 1975-85 and IMSA GTP cars through 1992. The Vintage Sports Car Club of America will feature the timeless pre-war, vintage sports racing and vintage production cars from the pre-1960 eras.

"We feel that combining Historic Sportscar Racing and the VSCCA brings us the best of both worlds in vintage racing," explained Mudd. "The Vintage Festival will showcase the true vintage, period-accurate cars of the VSCCA and the more modern, historic race cars of HSR."

The fall brings the return of NASCAR's finest when the Busch North Series stages its season finale in the Dodge Dealers NASCAR 200 Presented by Burnham Boilers. The PRO Tour truck series also will be running its season finale at Lime Rock. And for the second consecutive year, the top young up-and-coming amateur open-wheel drivers in the country will be competing in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge National Championship Presented by RACER on Oct. 13-14.

There are always plenty of reasons to visit Lime Rock Park throughout the entire season, including the best amateur road racing in New England

New this season are the Car & Driver Magazine Presents the Michelin One Lap of America, which stops at Lime Rock on May 11, and the 25th Annual Shelby American Automobile Club National Convention.

The One Lap of America is a nearly 24 hours a day driving competition that covers more than 5,000 miles in a eight-day period. Scoring is based upon the driver's performance at race tracks across the country. Professional drivers such as Parnelli Jones, Price Cobb, Elliot Forbes Robinson and Hurley Haywood have battled fatigue, weather, traffic and the demands of high-speed competition along with amateurs in the One Lap of America.

The silver anniversary edition of the Shelby national convention June 30-July 3 promises to be one of the largest gatherings of Shelby-inspired cars ever assembled. SAAC is dedicated to the preservation, care, history and enjoyment of the world championship cars from Shelby American from 1961-1970. The four-day convention will include Shelby American factory and GT40 reunions, Shelby Cobra, GT350 and GT40 races, along with a scheduled appearance by Carroll Shelby himself.

Ten days after the SAAC convention, the Ferrari Challenge Series and Historic Ferrari Challenge will make its third consecutive annual visit to Lime Rock on July 13-15. The Ferrari Challenge features Ferrari F355 and the new 360 production sports cars with limited suspension modifications and racing tires, while the Ferrari Historic Challenge showcases legendary Ferraris of the past. Each class in the Ferrari Challenge will run two sprint races and a combination enduro event. Lime Rock also will host nine Karting events in 2000, utilizing a new 1/2-mile layout created by linking the track's two autocross courses. Many top drivers began their careers in karts and these races are a great experience for the entire family.

From mid-March to early November, Lime Rock is used over 200 days. Many of those dates are taken by private car clubs throughout the Northeast, giving enthusiastic car owners an opportunity to run their cars on Lime Rock's historic 1.53-mile road course.

Lime Rock Park also is the home of the Skip Barber Racing School and the Dodge/Skip Barber Driving School. Recognized as the world's largest and best racing and driving school, the Skip Barber Racing School conducts a variety of courses from one-day driving schools to five-day racing schools.

To obtain more information about Lime Rock events call 1-800-RACE-LRP or visit our Web site at www.limerock.com.