Yesterday, Clint and I attended an SCCA race at Lime Rock Park. Qualification was in the morning, and then there were about a dozen different races throughout the afternoon.

Each race had several different classes running at the same time, so there was often an interesting and bizarre mix of cars on the track at any given time. In general, a given class and its subdivisions would all race at the same time. In the IT class for example, there is ITA (most vicious) down to ITC (least vicious). 2nd gen RX-7s were running in ITA, right alongside older Volkswagen Rabbits running in ITC.

Miatas were a very popular car, and cars were raced in several different classes. This Spec Miata, built by Flatout Motorsports, was at the head of the pack during the Spec Miata race:

The most exciting corner was Big Bend, which is corner 1, right after the front straight:

There was always an attempt at passing in this corner, often with spectacular results:

The RX-7 and BMW were within feet of each other when the RX-7 spun. Amazingly, there was no damage to either vehicle from this spin. While the driving in general was very impressive throughout the day, I was blown away by the ability of the drivers to recover and avoid damage after spinning out. There were a number of mishaps at this corner that I could have sworn would put the car into the wall or another racer, but ended up being very benign.

Most impressive of all, however, was the performance of Paul Newman:

He was racing in the GT1 class, which featured absurdly modified and high powered cars, much like this camaro:

Paul Newman is 82, and not only did he drive in one of the top classes at Lime Rock yesterday, he actually won his race! I will be pleased if I still have my license at 82, let alone be able win a competitive race!

All in all, it was fun and exciting day of racing. We will definitely be back for more.