(Photos by Tyler Garrett) – First off, I’d like to offer a huge personal thanks to Tyler Garrett who sent a note prior to his attendance at the Lime Rock Trans Am race asking if we’d want any photos or impressions of his weekend at the races. I responded in the affirmative and between yesterday’s images and today’s Tyler has done us all a great service in opening a window into the modern Trans Am series. The good news is that these cars are very much the kind of thing that BS’ers would be into. Factory style bodies in all classes (some closer to production than others) screaming small block V8 engines, and lots of passing, bumping, grinding, and hard racing.
Making these photos even cooler is the fact that they were shot at Lime Rock, a little knot of a race track that has served as the stage for some great moments in Trans-Am racing history. From Bob Tullius’s famed run in the Gray Ghost Tempest to the exploits of such greats as Mark Donohue and Parnelli Jones, history has been made in spades at Lime Rock. It is a fun place to watch a race as well because you can move around and see many different parts of the track with relative ease. There’s “the esses”, “big bend”, “Sam Posey straight” and more to love about the beautiful green surroundings in Connecticut. Originally designed by John Fitch it has some fun elements that challenge drivers even today.
In these photos you will see TA2, TA3, and TA cars both on the starting grid and on the race track. The only thing we are missing is some of the noise the production (in TA2 and TA3) engines make when they are wound up down the straight and geared nice and short for the squirty Lime Rock course. Thanks again to Tyler Garrett for this great look at an under appreciated series!
There is Video floating around of the HP tuners TA2 Camaro during this race with full telemetry. It’s pretty awesome it pops up on my Facebook feed.
With NASCAR having become a joke, I’ve been saying for several years now that this right here, a new generation of REAL STOCK BODIED cars on road courses is what we need.
So glad to see this racing, I will watch every bit of this that I can find.