Historic Festival 41 kicked off in a big way on Thursday as Lime Rock Park hosted the Historic Festival Parade presented by NBT Bank. Touring 17-miles on a new route through the villages and lush tree-lined Western Connecticut streets neighboring the raceway, the parade captivated the community with 125 rare and vintage cars.

Thursday set the tone for the rest of the five-day Festival,which is setting a new record with nearly 300 cars participating on track throughout the weekend.

Celebrating Chrysler Performance and 100 years of MG, Friday began on-track action with nine groups from War Era to Air Cooled Porsches taking to the 1.5-mile Classic Circuit for a full day of practice. The day also hosted the one of the largest gathering of Formula Juniors and Sports 2000s (featured race groups) on the East Coast.

MG also boasted record numbers with 52 cars entered.

Two of the MG-driving entrants are married, arriving at the event from Virginia. Historic Festival 41 marks Kevin and Heather Richards’ first time competing at Lime Rock Park together. Kevin, who grew up in Fairfield, Conn., drives a 1960 MG A, while Heather pilots a 1968 MG Midget, named Miriam, which set a time quicker than her husband’s in the opening practice.

“Practice was crowded today, but good,” said Heather. “I got around both my sessions and it was a lot of fun. The Historic Festival was appealing to us really because of our friends and the people here at Lime Rock. Everyone told me that I would love driving on this track because it’s made for cars like mine. They were absolutely right. It was a lot of fun.”

Kevin continued his wife’s thought. “Historic Festival is one of the last bastions of having a vintage race weekend without it being commercialized or turned into something competitive. People here respect the cars, they respect the hobby and everybody here is for the racing.”

Friday evening wrapped up with the annual Historic Festival Competitors’ Dinner where the Vintage Sports Car Club of America (VSCCA) presented Skip Barber with a Life Time Achievement Award, honoring his dedication to the club as a 65-year member.

Historic Festival 41 activities continue on Saturday with racing from all nine groups. The ‘Glimpse of Historic Festival’ live stream, equipped with live timing and announcing from Greg Rickes, starts at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. The live stream is available at: www.limerock.com/live