- Full HSR Weekend Features Sports Cars and Road Racing Machines From the Last 60 Years Competing in Era-Appropriate Run Groups at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, October 13 – 16
- Little Minis to Bring Big Thrills as a Featured Run Group at HSR Fall Historics at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
BRASELTON, Georgia (October 13, 2022) – A stout entry of Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) cars and competitors returns to one of America’s premier road courses for the second time this season for this weekend’s HSR Fall Historics at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, October 13 – 16.
The full weekend of competition on the 2.54-mile road course North of Atlanta launches a three-race stretch run that includes some of HSR’s most popular events and venues to close out the 2022 HSR racing season.
Fall Historics highlights include a full slate of HSR sprint, endurance and feature races. Minis will also be showcased at the HSR Fall Historics this weekend with the addition of the popular Can-Am Mini Challenge race as a featured event of HSR’s annual autumn visit to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Introduced in 2008, the Can-Am Mini Challenge brings together Canadian and American classic racing Minis from the early 1960s on up and a variety of related small-bore “specials” that share the unmistakable Mini DNA.
Past Can-Am Mini Challenge events have been held at circuits such as Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and other legendary venues. All competing Minis run “A-Series” engines and are required to be genuine race cars with logbooks and proper safety equipment. The door is also open for A-series powered variations of the Mini, including one eye-catching Unipower that is sure to be a favorite of race fans and competitors alike.
Kelly Wittenauer has entered a very rare 1968 No. 84 Unipower GT, which is a Mini-powered special. Of the 73 Unipower GTs built, only six cars left the factory fully prepared for competition on the track. Competition models were factory built to full race specifications with additional chassis bracing, four-wheel disc brakes and rose-jointed suspension. Only four of the six original cars survive, and the Wittenauer Unipower is one of only two in the USA.
After originally being imported to North America through New York, Claude Houde purchased the Unipower in 1972 and competed primarily in Canada on such well-known circuits as Trois-Rivieres and Mont-Tremblant in the car’s prime. Houde, who owned the car for 44 years, later raced the Unipower on many of the same tracks on which the car competed in its prime in vintage and historic racing competition. The Wittenauers purchased the Unipower in 2018 and it continues to be one of the most popular cars wherever it competes.
In addition to Saturday and Sunday Mini Feature Races, the packed HSR schedule of Atlanta Fall Classic events includes two B.R.M. Chronographes Enduro Challenges and the WeatherTech Sprints races for all run groups in the standard Saturday/Sunday doubleheader format.
The Feature Race lineup includes Friday’s weekend-opening HSR Stoner Car Care Global GT and SascoSports International/American Challenge sprints that run back-to-back starting at 3:30 p.m. EDT.
The one-hour B.R.M. Enduros are home to specific and period-matching groups of race cars. Saturday’s Historic, Prototype and GT Modern (GTM) B.R.M. race at 3:30 p.m. EDT showcases race cars from primarily this century. Sunday morning’s Vintage and GT Classic (GTC) B.R.M. race at 8:10 a.m. EDT features a variety of sports cars and GT machines from the 1960s and ’70s.
Friday’s Sasco Sports race is a production-car showcase of big-bore American iron going head-to-head with top sports cars from Europe and beyond. The flat-out sprint has competitors racing for the overall win in addition to top-three honors in the International, American and Porsche classes.
The popular HSR Stoner Car Care Global GT race Friday showcases contemporary but retired GT racing machines while the Classic RS Cup rekindles the thrill of the original 1970’s International Race of Champions (IROC) Porsche series. The Classic RS Cup sprint concludes Saturday’s race schedule with a green flag at 4:40 p.m. EDT.
The Fall Historics is the final race before the eighth running of the HSR Classic Daytona presented by IMSA, the classic 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway (DIS), November 2 – 6.
The HSR Classic Daytona is once again followed in 2021 by its “HSR Classics” sister event, the HSR Classic 12 Hour at Sebring, Pistons and Props, presented by the Alan Jay Automotive Network. The seventh-annual running of the HSR Classic Sebring 12 Hour closes out the 2022 HSR racing season on the legendary Sebring airport circuit, November 30 – December 4.
The HSR Classics events at Daytona and Sebring share the card each weekend, respectively, with the Daytona Historics and Sebring Historics races that will see all season-long HSR championships decided on two of the most legendary circuits in the country.
Spectator tickets for this weekend’s HSR Fall Historics are available for purchase at the driver and crew registration building at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta beginning Friday, October 14. Learn more at HSRFallHistoricsTickets. Tickets for the HSR Classic Daytona 24 and the HSR Classic 12 Hour are available now at www.HSRTickets.com.
Competitor information for all events is available at www.HSRRace.com.
About HSR: An International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) property, Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) was formed in the mid-1970s with an event at Road Atlanta. There was one goal then and it remains true today: to celebrate the race cars from the past. As a “time machine” of sights and sounds, HSR provides a venue for competitors and spectators alike to share in the wonderful history and excitement created by the cars that competed at race tracks around the world. HSR currently sanctions eight vintage and historic racing events at some of the world’s most renowned race tracks, including Road Atlanta, Sebring International Raceway, Daytona International Speedway and more. The complete schedule and full event information can be found on HSR’s website at www.HSRRace.com. Look for the HSR Channel on YouTube and follow HSR on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/HSRrace/ and on Twitter and Instagram at @HSR_race. A dedicated website for the Classic 24 Hour at Daytona presented by IMSA is available at www.Classic24hour.com.
