The primary race winners within the inaugural working of the HSR Street Atlanta Basic 10 Hour offered 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 total 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 offered by Mission Meals collection.
The HSR Street Atlanta Basic 10 Hour offered by Mission Meals was the third spherical of the inaugural HSR Basic Endurance Championship season that options the 4 ‘tribute occasions’ celebrating the largest and longest-running sports activities automotive endurance races in the USA. 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 automotive racing season at MRRA. The HSR Basic 10 Hour featured 4 completely different Run Teams every taking to the two.54-mile Georgia street course for 3 completely 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 Trendy (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 sturdy opening races on Saturday, however holding on for the victory Sunday took a targeted struggle to the end.
Driving a 22.398s lead into Sunday’s remaining, 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 stored Wheatley and Llibre trustworthy all the 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 remaining. 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 offered 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 general 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 shortly turning into the primary workforce and drivers to win all 4 HSR Basic races at the very least as soon as with the identical workforce, driver and automotive mixture.
The No. 02 Cadillac workforce’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 report within the mixed Group A and Group B race at MRRA.
Todd Treffert has been one in all if not probably the most victorious driver in HSR for almost 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 trying 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 offered by Mission Meals.
An analogous ‘hold them shut’ technique was a successful received in Group D the place the powerhouse workforce 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 right 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 remaining. Moderately 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 general 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 problem early within the second A/B spherical, and Treffert was fast to pounce. He stored his No. 41 Carrera RSR in entrance and out of hassle for the rest of spherical two, and in Sunday’s remaining section, to comb general 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 largest 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 monitor early within the weekend to arrange his house 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 general behind the top-four Group B finishers. The win was the primary of Olthoff and his workforce 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 offered 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 general 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 offered by Mission Meals, and the HSR Daytona Historics, at Daytona Worldwide Speedway November 5 – 9.
