Two of the longest established and most successful vintage racing organizations in the United States have announced a new series for historic single-seat racing cars. Murray Smith, chairman of the Lime Rock Historic Festival, and Peter McLaughlin, manager of SVRA, have announced a new category called Formula Historic for owners of the Formula Atlantic and Formula Two cars that raced all over the world 30 and 40 years ago.
“We launched the notion last year at the Lime Rock Historic Festival,” said Smith, “and within a week or so we had 25 entries who put on two great races. Bobby Brown won, which was poetic justice since he raced these cars in period.”
McLaughlin added, “Since our Watkins Glen Vintage Grand Prix is only one week after the Lime Rock Festival and just a few hours away, we decided that both events would benefit from friendly cooperation, so this is the first fruit of that conversation.”
Formula Atlantic, a very successful North American class for more than 30 years, launched the careers of a number of great drivers, Gilles Villeneuve among them. Similar in design but with a larger engine, Formula 2 was a highly competitive class in Europe, and the organizers envision four races for Formula Historic, three at classic SVRA venues like Watkins Glen and Mid Ohio, and one at the Lime Rock Historic Festival on Labor Day Weekend.
Detailed eligibility rules and specifications for Formula Historic are available at www.svra.com.
