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Lime Rock opened at 6:30 a.m. on
Friday for registration and tech in-
spection. The driver’s meeting began
at 8 a.m. sharp. That made it a tough
slog for those staying at the Sheraton
in Waterbury, forty-five minutes away.
At 8:30 a.m. we held a First
Timer’s Class for those participants
who, appropriately enough, were driv-
ing on the track for the first time.
Rather than turn these neophytes
loose to gain track experience on their
own, we felt it important that we at
least point them in the right direction
by giving them some basics. Until you
have driven at speed on a track, you
cannot imagine what it is like. And it’s
nothing like mashing the throttle
down on the interstate for a half-mile
or so and watching the speedometer
needle top 100. Novices need to gain
experience a lap at a time, get comfort-
able with their car, and gaining confi-
dence. Only when that happens will
they begin to discover the pure enjoy-
ment that comes from driving a high
performance car on a race track. It
doesn’t happen immediately; it takes
three or four sessions. But once the
light bulb goes off over someone’s head
it is transformed into a wide smile.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 98
Automotive artist and long time SAAC
member Tom Honegger created a special
poster for the Lime Rock convention com-
memorating the R-Model Reunion (there
were several there). It featured a nice il-
lustration of one of the factory R-Models as
well as a bunch of other R-Model facts and
figures. If they weren’t sold out at the con-
vention they were soon afterward.