The Alfa Romeo that gave the marque its final Mille Miglia victory and the Giulia TZ that won its class at Sebring in 1964 are among the cars heading to the US’s Lime Rock Historic Festival 2026, which takes place in Connecticut from September 4-7. Historic Trans-Am is also a featured race group, including two 1970 Chevrolet Camaros with period competition histories that will be raced by Mike Joy and his son Scott.
The main Lime Rock Historic Festival 2026 programme begins with practice and qualifying on Friday September 4, followed by racing on Saturday and Monday. Sunday September 6 is reserved for the Lime Rock Concours and Gathering of the Marques. The traditional road parade takes place separately on Thursday September 3.
Miles Collier will attend as the festival’s Honored Guest, while the Revs Institute will bring cars from the Miles Collier Collection for both static display and track use. One of the two Alfas already confirmed is 1938 8C 2900B Berlinetta chassis 412036. It was displayed by Alfa Romeo at the Paris Automobile Salon in 1938 before passing to Angelo Biemmi, who hid it on his estate at Iseo during World War Two.
In 1947 the car was acquired by Alfa dealer Emilio Romano specifically to contest the Mille Miglia. The regulations that year prohibited supercharging, so its two superchargers were removed and the engine converted to normally aspirated form using four Weber carburettors, reducing its quoted output from 180bhp to 137bhp.
Romano recruited Clemente Biondetti as co-driver, and chassis 412036 started 149th from a field of 153 but faced particularly poor weather during the event. Its principal opposition eventually came from Tazio Nuvolari’s Cisitalia, but the Alfa Romeo reached Brescia first. The victory was Alfa’s 11th and final Mille Miglia win. It was also Biondetti’s second victory in the event; he would add two further wins in 1948 and 1949.
Chassis 412036, which retains its Touring Berlinetta coachwork, carries that 1947 race history to Lime Rock.
The other confirmed Revs Alfa is Giulia TZ chassis 750052, which has an equally specific American competition history. It was one of four TZs entered by the factory-supported Scuderia Sant Ambroeus at the 1964 Sebring 12 Hours, and ran as number 53 with Americans Chuck Stoddard and Jim Kaser. The pair won the 1600cc GT class and finished 13th overall despite completing the closing stages with a badly adjusted clutch that required clutchless gearchanges.
After Sebring it was acquired by Dr Paul Tenney, with continued Alfa Romeo support, and raced successfully in SCCA competition. It then survived decades of further use without undergoing a conventional comprehensive restoration. That history is still visible on the car. When Revs undertook conservation work on 750052, research into photographs from Sebring showed that the three red TZs entered there had arrived at the race with their noses repainted in a noticeably different shade of red from the rest of their bodies. Rather than simply refinishing the Revs car, the conservation team reproduced the mismatched 1964 nose colour while retaining the decades of stone chips, scratches and wear already present. Individual chips were masked before the fresh paint was applied and the masking was subsequently removed using carbon-dioxide blasting. Other reinstated Sebring details included white headlamp buckets, brown bonnet straps and the appropriate competition markings.
Historic Trans-Am provides another group of tempting delights at Lime Rock Historic Festival 2026. Mike Joy will drive 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 number 4, originally prepared for Tony DeLorenzo and Jerry Thompson by the Owens Corning Fiberglass Corvette racing operation. The car has a particularly appropriate Lime Rock connection: its first Trans-Am appearance was at the venue on May 9, 1970. It qualified 21st but retired after three laps. It subsequently finished seventh at both Bryar and Mont-Tremblant that season, and also competed at Mid-Ohio, Road America, Watkins Glen, Pacific Raceways and Riverside.
Its construction retains details from the 1970 programme. The new Camaro body-in-white arrived with the team in January of that year before going to Logghe Stamping for its rollcage. Unlike later modifications in which similar cage structures were welded directly to the subframe, number 4 retains the original bolted arrangement demanded by the regulations at the time. The car was built using parts sourced through Chevrolet, including Corvette J56 brake hardware, while its rear suspension, differential and bodywork were modified for Trans-Am use. Its distinctive Owens Corning colour scheme was devised by GM designer Randy Wittine.
Mike Joy’s son Scott will drive another original 1970 Camaro, number 77, built and raced by Walter Parkins. Parkins bought the car new in Foley, Minnesota in April 1970. It had covered just 94 miles when he and a group of friends began turning it into a competition car. They fabricated their own rollcage and engines, while Chevrolet Performance supplied components and factory engineering drawings covering suspension modifications. The floor was also altered to accommodate its four-inch exhaust system.
After using regional SCCA events to qualify for his national competition licence, Parkins took the Camaro into Trans-Am during 1971. His best result that season was eighth at Road America, while four further Trans-Am outings followed in 1972, including a ninth-place finish at Bryar.
The two Joy Camaros will run within a Historic Trans-Am field in which Lime Rock expects cars associated in period with drivers including Dan Gurney, George Follmer, Parnelli Jones, Jim Hall, Mark Donohue and Sam Posey. One of Dorsey Schroeder’s former Trans-Am cars is also expected to return.
Schroeder will attend alongside Tommy Kendall and David Hobbs. Kendall’s own Lime Rock history includes the 1997 Trans-Am race, when his Roush Ford Mustang started from pole and led all 66 laps during the season in which he recorded 11 consecutive victories and secured his fourth series title. Hobbs, meanwhile, first raced in Trans-Am in 1969 and won the championship with DeAtley Motorsports in 1983.
Formula Junior is the other featured race group for Lime Rock Historic Festival 2026, running as the Jim Haynes Memorial. Seven additional groups cover machinery including under-2.5-litre Trans-Am and IMSA RS cars, Historic World Challenge, mid-century GT and sports-racing cars, and later wings-and-slicks machinery.
Sunday in the Park takes over the circuit on September 6. Four Alfa Romeo categories are included in the concours, together with classes for homologation specials, preservation cars, turbocharged Porsche 911s, road-going Trans-Am cars and machinery introduced or associated with 1966. Selected competition cars will also cross directly from the race paddock into the concours through the Pick of the Paddock category.
Lime Rock Historic Festival 2026 runs from Friday September 4 to Monday September 7 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut. The Vintage Race Car and Sports Car Parade takes place on Thursday September 3, with practice on Friday, racing on Saturday and Monday, and Sunday in the Park on September 6.
More details on Lime Rock Historic Festival 2026 are available here.
