Nearly 300 Entries Have Arrived at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
BRASELTON, Ga – A packed paddock of cars and competitors comprising nearly 300 entries representing an endless variety of road racing and sports cars from the last 70 years have arrived at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for this weekend’s 46th Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) Mitty, further solidifying HSR as the premium historic and vintage racing platform in North America.
A high-speed rite of spring and HSR’s oldest event, the 46th HSR Mitty at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta truly offers something for everyone with an incredible variety of vintage and historic sports cars, stock cars and open-wheel racing machines. More than 40 of these entries have turned out in support of this year’s featured marque – the Cars of Japan – that will be in the spotlight throughout HSR’s first blockbuster event of the year. The on-track highlight is Saturday’s Cars of Japan Feature Race that is just one of this weekend’s showcase races on the full and fast-paced 46th Mitty race schedule.
The Cars of Japan celebration marks the third straight year HSR has showcased at the Mitty a geographical genre of cars rather than a specific make or model as the Featured Marque. Last year’s HSR Mitty featured 75 Years of NASCAR as part of the sanctioning body’s year-long Diamond Jubilee celebration and attracted a huge entry of all-American historic stock cars. In 2022, the globally popular Sports 2000 category, which was introduced in the U.K. in 1976, took center stage as the Featured Marque.
The NASCAR and S2000 Mittys were both very popular, and this weekend’s 46th edition is on track to exceed the stout competitor turnout and large spectator attendance of both events. It will mark the second straight event of HSR’s young season that is strongly trending upward following March’s season-opening HSR Spring Fling at Sebring International Raceway that attracted a record number of competitor entries since its introduction in 2019.
The HSR Mitty weekend also features the second race of the inaugural HSR Prototype Challenge presented by IMSA that debuted with a thriller at the Sebring Spring Fling. Saturday’s two-hour race at 6 p.m. ET will be highlighted by a rematch between the Sebring-winning No. 37 One Motorsports Ligier JS P3 and co-drivers Jon Field and Kenton Koch, and Alex Koreiba and James French in the No. 25 Wolf Motorsports Ligier JS P3. Koch pulled off the winning pass heading into the white flag lap to take a narrow 1.682-second victory over French at Sebring, but several new and returning contenders are expected to be in the fight for the win at the HSR Mitty.
Another can’t-miss Feature Race event is the Third Annual “Gene Felton Memorial Challenge” for HSR Group 8 Historic Stock Cars. Honoring the late driving star Gene Felton – the 2019 HSR Mitty Grand Marshal – the Memorial Challenge features a pair of races for HSR Historic Stock Cars with the winner determined by total points from both events. In addition to receiving a special race winner’s trophy, a plaque bearing the winning driver’s name is placed on The Lanier Technical College Gene Felton Trophy. Former NASCAR star “Front Row” Joe Nemechek and NEMCO Motorsports are the two-time reigning Gene Felton Memorial Challenge winners and look to keep their undefeated streak going this weekend.
Based on victory lane hardware from Felton’s vast collection, the permanent trophy commemorates the driver’s long association with Lanier Technical College, where he helped interns in the motorsports vehicle training program get hands-on racing experience. Donations in Felton’s honor can be made at https://www.
The 46th HSR Mitty on-track schedule offers non-stop action with eight feature races and back-to-back WeatherTech sprint races while an ample lineup of off-track activity and attractions are also part of this one-of-a-kind automotive extravaganza. Club corrals fill the Michelin Raceway infield, camping is available at every level and vendors offer amazing finds. A limited number of parade and touring lap sessions are also scheduled, offering a rare chance to drive your own car on the legendary Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit.
Other weekend Feature Races include a pair of B.R.M. Endurance Challenge one-hour races Saturday and Sunday, twin Sasco Sports International/American Challenge sprints Friday and Saturday, and Sunday’s Global GT race for modern GT cars retired from active competition.
Sports cars of all types and from all generations anchor the 46th HSR Mitty’s growing entry list, but few will bring as much thunder and excitement to the race as sone of the truly legendary prototypes in the Cars of Japan Feature Race.
Carrying on a family tradition of racing started by his late father Toby Bean, Patrick Bean returns to the HSR Mitty in one of the mighty 1988 No. 83 Nissan GTP ZX-Turbos, which dominated the top class in the IMSA Camel GT series in the late 1980s and 1990. A highlight of the Nissan GTP program was 1988’s eight-race win streak that began right here at Michelin Raceway when Geoff Brabham drove a brand new ZX-T to victory. The team would go on to win one more race for an impressive run of nine victories in the year’s 14 rounds and Brabham clinching the 1988 GTP driver championship.
Another rolling piece of international motorsports history at the 46th HSR Mitty is the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning 1989 Mazda 767B-002 that will be driven this weekend by former Mazda Motorsports factory driver Jonathan Bomarito. The Le Mans winner is just one of the jaw-dropping thoroughbreds that is now part of the Mazda Motorsports Heritage Collection, a rolling and racing showcase of some of the most impressive cars in Mazda’s accomplished motorsports history.
In addition to the 767B, the Heritage Collection also brought to the HSR Mitty its IMSA GTO four-rotor 1991 Mazda RX-7-001 that will be driven by Mazda’s Tom Long.
For 46th HSR Mitty spectator tickets, RV and tent camping and golf cart passes, visit https://roadatlanta.com/hsr-
(Photo: HSR)