Dear Historic Festival Competitors, Collectors, and Friends of Lime Rock Park,
As we look ahead to Historic Festival 44, we are proud to extend a special invitation—one Skip Barber has been eager to make—to owners and caretakers of Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) cars.
Our featured marque for HF44 is Alfa Romeo, and it is fitting that this story begins there. The final ARCA race, run in 1940, was won by Frank Griswold driving an Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car. Eight years later, as American road racing re-emerged after World War II, it was Griswold once again—this time winning the inaugural SCCA-sanctioned Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948 in a different pre-war Alfa Romeo, an 8C 2900. Few moments illustrate the continuity of American sports car racing more clearly.
That continuity exists because ARCA came first.
The original Automobile Racing Club of America (1933–1941) was pure patrician mischief. Wealthy young enthusiasts—the Collier brothers, Briggs Cunningham, George Rand, Dick Wharton, and Hastings Foote, and their circle—turned public roads into temporary race circuits and built wildly inventive American “specials,” combining engines, chassis, and bodywork with zero regard for factory purity. The cars’ whimsical names—Ardent Alligator, Bu-Merc, Leonidis, Old Grey Mare, Scrambling Egg—perfectly captured the playful, almost absurd spirit of the era: racing for the sheer joy of it, long before the sport became corporate or polished.
Between 1933 and 1941, ARCA organized “round-the-houses” races throughout the Northeast and beyond—from Sleepy Hollow and Briarcliff Manor to Cape Cod, Montauk, Alexandria Bay, Memphis, the Flushing Meadows World’s Fair, and even the Mount Washington Auto Road. Many drivers who would later shape American road racing in the 1950s first learned their craft at ARCA events.
As World War II drew to a close, that same ARCA circle—including the Collier brothers, Briggs Cunningham, George Rand, Dick Wharton, and Hastings Foote — incorporated a successor organization in 1944: the Sports Car Club of America. Their goal was deliberate and familiar—to continue European-style road racing on public roads, built directly on the ARCA model. When the SCCA staged its first major event at Watkins Glen in 1948, modern American road racing officially began, firmly rooted in ARCA.
Remarkably, many ARCA cars survive today, exquisitely preserved largely thanks to the Collier family’s lifelong commitment to safeguarding this history. Several now reside at The REVS Institute in Naples, Florida—the modern evolution of the original Collier Collection—and we are honored that REVS will be bringing three ARCA cars to Historic Festival 44.
Our vision for the weekend includes:
- Exhibition track time for ARCA cars on Friday, Saturday, and Monday
- A dedicated tented ARCA display in the paddock
- A featured ARCA display within the Sunday in the Park Concours d’Elegance
- Eligibility for properly prepared cars to compete in the War Era racing class
We are also pleased to share that Miles Collier will join us for a Saturday evening dinner and discussion celebrating our featured marque, Alfa Romeo. The evening will include brief reflections on ARCA cars and their place within the broader context of the era.
You are receiving this note because we strongly suspect that you may have an ARCA car that has been resting quietly in a garage for years. This is our invitation to dust it off, bring it back to Lime Rock Park, and let it be seen, heard, and appreciated once again. Even if your ARCA car is a roller, this is where it belongs—its story shared alongside others that helped define American road racing.
We also ask for your help in spreading the word. If you know of other ARCA cars tucked away—owned by friends, former competitors, or collectors—please encourage them to reach out. The more complete the gathering, the more meaningful this celebration will be for our fans.
If you’re interested in participating or simply want to start a conversation, please contact us at historics@limerock.com. We would be honored to welcome these cars—and the people who have preserved them—back to Lime Rock Park.
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