(Words and photos by Tyler Garrett) – At Lime Rock Park in beautiful Lakeville, CT on a crisp, clear Memorial Day weekend Saturday it looked like 1970 all over again. The sounds of Trans Am racing once again returned to this fabled racetrack that played such a huge part in the history of the fabled Trans-Am. The paddock was full of all kinds of Pony Car goodness from the production based body in white TA3 cars, to the full nasty Trans Am tube frame jobs.
The most interesting group to watch was TA2. Make no mistake, these are full tube frame racecars, but bodied as current model Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers. They have strict parts cost limits and run production based pushrod engines of around 500hp from the correct manufacturer. So that means LS power, Hemi power, and Ford Racing’s finest, the only actual engine architecture around in 1970! This was also the class with the biggest grid and some of the closest racing as it should be. They had there own start as well.
The TA and TA3 cars ran together which I’m sure is hairy for both classes of drivers as the TA cars are mostly tube frame Vettes sporting Chevy RO7’s to the tune of around 800hp. Lots of suck the doors off passing of the slower cars. It was cool watching the almost stock TA3 cars duke it out in the corners. The TA3 class was that it was won by the 17-year old Ernie Francis Jr. who was last years TA3 champion Driving a Camaro for Breathless Racing. The kid showed all the skills and pose of a pro before, during and after the race, very cool!
It was a really cool event. The TA racing was supported by a Spec Miata race that was awesome and a VSCRA race that featured quite a few odd balls and I thought I had seen every kind of vintage racecar there was! It was a great first trip to LMR and I got to finish it off with 5 laps around the course in my BMW X5! Enjoy the gallery!
