ROCK ON! After 50 years, Lime Rock Park is still making history.(Revs)

Byline: DON KLEIN

The first single-seater to thunder down the main straight at Lime Rock wasn't a Cooper T-53 or a Brabham BT-4. It was a Caterpillar D8 bulldozer.

The year was 1955, and the man at the controls was Jim Vaill, whose father, Frank, owned the place. The Vaills were potato farmers, but Jim had turned a chunk of the property into a gravel pit to earn extra cash. His buddy Jack Fisher would often drop by in his MG TC, which they thrashed around the perimeter of the pit. The resulting dirt path sparked the rumor of "a racetrack up in Lakeville.'' With encouragement from local SCCA drivers, Vaill got the town to okay the project, and soon he was atop his trusty D8, carving the track's basic layout. The rest, as they say, is history.

And history is what Labor Day weekend at LRP is all about. This year's event celebrated both the 50th anniversary of the track and the 25th anniversary of the Vintage Festival, with a special salute to historic IMSA GT cars. Sunday's traditional car show surpassed most historic competition concours, with iconic racing iron such as the 1935 Alfa Tipo C that had been driven by a guy named Nuvolari.

Having achieved semisacred status with drivers and fans alike, the festival underwent a major change four years ago, when vintage racing impresario Steve Earle took over as race organizer. And while some of the faithful argued that Earle's entry standards are too restrictive, everyone agreed that the caliber of the cars and the competition was excellent. Watching Joel Finn in his ...