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Waving as historic cars parade through town

Waving as historic cars parade through town
This year’s Historic Festival at Lime Rock Park was closed to spectators because of COVID-19 but the annual vintage car parade through Salisbury and Falls Village gave car fans a sampling of antique motor sports.
Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

SALISBURY — About 60 vintage cars rolled through Salisbury on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 3, as part of Lime Rock Park’s Historic Festival.

The annual festival, a highlight for area residents of the race track’s season, will go on as usual this weekend, but spectators are not allowed in this year.

The parade started at 4 p.m. at the track, and proceeded through Lime Rock, Lakeville and Salisbury before doubling back and finishing up in Falls Village.

So the crowd along Main Street in Salisbury got to see the cars coming and going.

Usually the cars stop in Falls Village and there is an outdoor fair. Car fans can move through town and chat with the owners of the vintage vehicles, but in light of the COVID-19 pandemic the Falls Village event was canceled.

Many of the participants in the parade are area residents, some of whom will participate in the racing this weekend and some of whom are simply enjoying a day out in their car with other vintage fans. Cars must be from 1975 or earlier to take part. There is a $25 fee to participate; funds are donated to a local nonprofit (this year’s recipients are the Salisbury Winter Sports Association, the Lakeville Hose Company and the Falls Village Volunteer Fire Department).

People started gathering in Salisbury at about 3:45 p.m. Volunteers for traffic control appeared with flags and reflective vests. 

About 4:15 p.m. the first cars appeared.

There was tooting of horns, revving of engines and a lot of waving. The parade traveled to Noble Horizons and then turned around, headed to Salmon Kill Road,then to Falls Village and then back to Dugway Road. From there they headed back to the race track.

A rough guess of the Salisbury crowd is 100 spectators, from Town Hall down to The White Hart inn.

 

For more coverage of the Historic Festival at Lime Rock Park, see Historic Festival at Lime Rock Park lives on despite pandemic.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Senior Reporter
Patrick Sullivan has been a reporter for The Lakeville Journal since 2004, covering everything from town meetings to local characters and the outdoors. He grew up in Northern Virginia but spent summers on Mount Riga in Salisbury, giving him a lifelong connection to the Northwest Corner. A graduate of Denison University, Patrick is also the author of Tangled Lines, the newspapers’ popular fly-fishing column—making The Lakeville Journal, as far as anyone knows, the only newspaper in Connecticut with a regular fly-fishing columnist. He once received a fan letter from England, which he considers sufficient evidence that his work has achieved international acclaim.

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