The primary race winners within the inaugural operating of the HSR Highway Atlanta Traditional 10 Hour introduced by Mission Meals have been topped Sunday afternoon after 4 days of excellent HSR competitors at Michelin Raceway Highway Atlanta (MRRA) this previous weekend. The spotlight of the complete occasion – which additionally included the HSR Fall Historics – was the debut HSR Highway Atlanta Traditional 10 Hour that took its place alongside the HSR Traditional races at Daytona Worldwide Speedway, Sebring Worldwide Raceway and Watkins Glen Worldwide as a part of the first-year HSR Traditional Endurance Cup introduced by Mission Meals collection.
The HSR Highway Atlanta Traditional 10 Hour introduced by Mission Meals was the third spherical of the inaugural HSR Traditional Endurance Championship season that options the 4 ‘tribute occasions’ celebrating the most important and longest-running sports activities automotive endurance races in the US. The Traditional Highway Atlanta 10 Hour honors the legendary ALMS and now IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 10-hour race that ends annually’s modern sports activities automotive racing season at MRRA. The HSR Traditional 10 Hour featured 4 completely different Run Teams every taking to the two.54-mile Georgia highway course for 3 completely different segments over the course of Saturday and Sunday.
To not be outdone, the debut HSR Highway Atlanta Traditional 10 Hour delivered the identical stout competitors and thrilling finishes of its extra established sister occasions with a quick mixture of shut battles to the top and convincing and managed profitable performances.
The closest race emerged within the all the time aggressive GT Fashionable (GTM) battleground of Group C that turned an all-Porsche 911 GT3 contest from the drop of the inexperienced flag. The driving duo of Ed Wheatley and profitable Porsche GT3 and Carrera Cup professional driver Jimmy Llibre led in a single day after a pair of robust opening races on Saturday, however holding on for the victory Sunday took a centered battle to the end.
Driving a 22.398s lead into Sunday’s last, Wheatley and Llibre within the ACI Motorsports 2019 No. 2 Fortress Stabilization Porsche 991.2 GT3 R tucked in behind their closest challenger and tracked them to the end. The Hudson Historics 2018 No. 78 Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup of Zach Ehrlich and John Reisman saved Wheatley and Llibre sincere all the race, however a number one cost to the checkered flag Sunday got here up simply brief.
Ehrlich, the nephew of veteran HSR race winner Reisman, drove nearly all of the weekend’s races, turning a few of his quickest laps making an attempt to construct a margin on the ACI No. 2 Fortress entry in Sunday’s last. Ehrlich gained the spherical however Wheatley and Llibre secured their second HSR Traditional Run Group win in lower than a 12 months with a 16.348s margin of victory that was the closest of the Traditional 10 Hour. Wheatley and Llibre have been additionally victorious of their Run Group in final December’s HSR Sebring Traditional 12 Hour introduced by Mission Meals at Sebring Worldwide Raceway.
Neapole took the ultimate of Group D’s three checkered flags on the weekend in first place however settled for runner-up honors with Cosmo and his teammates within the total battle, ending simply over 28 seconds behind the profitable Cadillac.
The victory within the first HSR Highway Atlanta Traditional 10 Hour gave Marshall, Foss and Matador Motorsports the excellence of rapidly changing into the primary workforce and drivers to win all 4 HSR Traditional races no less than as soon as with the identical workforce, driver and automotive mixture.
The No. 02 Cadillac workforce’s most up-to-date HSR Traditional victory got here in March’s HSR Sebring Traditional 12 Hour, and an equally completed and hard-to-beat competitor duplicated that report within the mixed Group A and Group B race at MRRA.
Todd Treffert has been one in every of if not essentially the most victorious driver in HSR for almost a decade, however a race win in an HSR Traditional had been elusive till his breakthrough victory within the HSR Sebring Traditional 12 Hour in March. He took the Group B victory in his nice wanting 901 Store-prepared 1975 No. 41 Porsche 911 Carrera Cup RSR “Child” Turbo at Sebring and replicated the feat this weekend at MRRA together with his second Group B win within the first three rounds of this 12 months’s HSR Traditional Endurance Cup introduced by Mission Meals.
An identical ‘maintain them shut’ technique was a profitable gained in Group D the place the powerhouse workforce of Pierce Marshall and Eric Foss, within the Matador Motorsports 2017 No. 02 Cadillac DPi, gained their fourth HSR Traditional of their final six begins. The Traditional 10 Hour triumph as soon as once more got here all the way down to a race-long battle with pleasant rivals Bob Neapole and Man Cosmo within the RBN Motorsports with Cosmo-Sport 2020 No. 60 Acura ARX-05 ready by Hudson Historics.
Marshall, Foss and the No. 02 Matador Motorsports workforce swept each of Saturday’s opening rounds to construct a 40.511 second benefit over the No. 60 Acura squad heading into Sunday’s last. Quite than attempt to additional hole on the Acura, nonetheless, closing No. 02 Cadillac driver Marshall was content material to path the No. 60 to the end on Sunday.
Treffert completed an in depth second in his division and total in Saturday’s opening Group A/B race, which was gained outright and in Group B by Ford Motor Firm CEO Jim Farley and his legendary co-driver Jan Magnussen. Sadly, Farley’s lovely Wolf Motorsports 1978 No. 98 Ford-Lola T298 retired with a suspension concern early within the second A/B spherical, and Treffert was fast to pounce. He saved his No. 41 Carrera RSR in entrance and out of hassle for the rest of spherical two, and in Sunday’s last section, to brush total and Group B honors. Treffert’s one-lap win over the pristine 1976 No. 84 Chevrolet DeKon Monza of brothers Theo Bean and Patrick Bean was the most important margin of victory within the inaugural HSR Highway Atlanta Traditional 10 Hour.
The Group A winner made a mark of its personal within the Traditional 10 Hour as the one one of many weekend’s 4 winners to brush all three of its group race segments. The Downforce Motorsports 1966 No. 98a Superformance GT40 ready by Olthoff Racing led the race from begin to end after rebounding from a contact incident early within the weekend and an unplanned solo drive by Olthoff racing proprietor and driver Dennis Olthoff. The Superformance GT40 was slated to be co-driven by proprietor Dan Lengthy and Olthoff, however Lengthy left the observe early within the weekend to arrange his dwelling for potential flooding as a result of tropical storm and hurricane forming within the Atlantic ocean off the Southeastern U.S. coast.
An skilled and prime driver in his personal proper, Olthoff capably soloed to the convincing victory, sustaining the Group A lead all through and ending fifth total behind the top-four Group B finishers. The win was the primary of Olthoff and his workforce in HSR Traditional competitors in 5 years when he joined the late Jim Cullen and Frank Beck for a pair of HSR Daytona Traditional 24 Hour introduced by Mission Meals Group A wins in 2020 and 2018 in Cullen’s Olthoff Racing 1970 No. 01 Lola T70.
Traditional Sebring 12 Hour Group A winner David Agretelis completed second behind the GT40 and a good sixth total in his 901 Store 1972 No. 166 Porsche 911 S/T. Third in Group A went to Robert Spence in his related 1972 No. 63 Porsche 911 S/T.
Different third-place podium gamers within the HSR Highway Atlanta Traditional 10 Hour included Colin Dougherty in Group C within the DAS Sport 2016 No. 16 Porsche 991.2 GT3 R, Jim Hamblin in Group B within the 901 Store 1971 No. 18 Porsche 911 RSR and the returning duo of Keith Freiser and a number of HSR Traditional 24 winner Aaron Scott in a 2009 No. 20 Zytek LMP1 .
Subsequent up on the 2025 HSR schedule is the eleventh HSR Daytona Traditional 24 Hour introduced by Mission Meals, and the HSR Daytona Historics, at Daytona Worldwide Speedway November 5 – 9.
