The primary race winners within the inaugural operating of the HSR Street Atlanta Basic 10 Hour introduced by Mission Meals had been topped Sunday afternoon after 4 days of excellent HSR competitors at Michelin Raceway Street Atlanta (MRRA) this previous weekend. The spotlight of the complete occasion – which additionally included the HSR Fall Historics – was the debut HSR Street Atlanta Basic 10 Hour that took its place alongside the HSR Basic races at Daytona Worldwide Speedway, Sebring Worldwide Raceway and Watkins Glen Worldwide as a part of the first-year HSR Basic Endurance Cup introduced by Mission Meals sequence.
The HSR Street Atlanta Basic 10 Hour introduced by Mission Meals was the third spherical of the inaugural HSR Basic Endurance Championship season that options the 4 ‚tribute occasions‘ celebrating the most important and longest-running sports activities automobile endurance races in america. The Basic Street Atlanta 10 Hour honors the legendary ALMS and now IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 10-hour race that ends annually’s up to date sports activities automobile racing season at MRRA. The HSR Basic 10 Hour featured 4 totally different Run Teams every taking to the two.54-mile Georgia highway course for 3 totally different segments over the course of Saturday and Sunday.
To not be outdone, the debut HSR Street Atlanta Basic 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 successful performances.
The closest race emerged within the at all times aggressive GT Fashionable (GTM) battleground of Group C that grew to become an all-Porsche 911 GT3 contest from the drop of the inexperienced flag. The driving duo of Ed Wheatley and successful 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 struggle to the end.
Using a 22.398s lead into Sunday’s ultimate, 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 trustworthy your entire race, however a number one cost to the checkered flag Sunday got here up simply quick.
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 ultimate. Ehrlich received the spherical however Wheatley and Llibre secured their second HSR Basic Run Group win in lower than a 12 months with a 16.348s margin of victory that was the closest of the Basic 10 Hour. Wheatley and Llibre had been additionally victorious of their Run Group in final December’s HSR Sebring Basic 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 successful Cadillac.
The victory within the first HSR Street Atlanta Basic 10 Hour gave Marshall, Foss and Matador Motorsports the excellence of rapidly turning into the primary staff and drivers to win all 4 HSR Basic races no less than as soon as with the identical staff, driver and automobile mixture.
The No. 02 Cadillac staff’s most up-to-date HSR Basic victory got here in March’s HSR Sebring Basic 12 Hour, and an equally completed and hard-to-beat competitor duplicated that document within the mixed Group A and Group B race at MRRA.
Todd Treffert has been one among if not probably the most victorious driver in HSR for practically a decade, however a race win in an HSR Basic had been elusive till his breakthrough victory within the HSR Sebring Basic 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 along with his second Group B win within the first three rounds of this 12 months’s HSR Basic Endurance Cup introduced by Mission Meals.
The same ‚hold them shut‘ technique was a successful received in Group D the place the powerhouse staff of Pierce Marshall and Eric Foss, within the Matador Motorsports 2017 No. 02 Cadillac DPi, received their fourth HSR Basic of their final six begins. The Basic 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 staff swept each of Saturday’s opening rounds to construct a 40.511 second benefit over the No. 60 Acura squad heading into Sunday’s ultimate. 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 a detailed second in his division and total in Saturday’s opening Group A/B race, which was received 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 difficulty 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 bother for the rest of spherical two, and in Sunday’s ultimate phase, to comb 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 Street Atlanta Basic 10 Hour.
The Group A winner made a mark of its personal within the Basic 10 Hour as the one one of many weekend’s 4 winners to comb 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 organize his residence for potential flooding because of the 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 staff in HSR Basic competitors in 5 years when he joined the late Jim Cullen and Frank Beck for a pair of HSR Daytona Basic 24 Hour introduced by Mission Meals Group A wins in 2020 and 2018 in Cullen’s Olthoff Racing 1970 No. 01 Lola T70.
Basic 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 Street Atlanta Basic 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 Basic 24 winner Aaron Scott in a 2009 No. 20 Zytek LMP1 .
Subsequent up on the 2025 HSR schedule is the eleventh HSR Daytona Basic 24 Hour introduced by Mission Meals, and the HSR Daytona Historics, at Daytona Worldwide Speedway November 5 – 9.
