A quality and sure-to-be competitive field of more than 140 vintage and historic sports cars from the last 60-plus years has converged on Daytona International Speedway for the 10th running of the HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hour Presented by Mission Foods this weekend, Oct. 30-Nov. 3. A stout entry of defending and former race winners and debuting contenders is set for the Classic 24 Saturday and Sunday in addition to a strong lineup for the HSR Daytona Historics, which is a points-paying event for HSR’s season-long racing series and championships.
First held in 2014, the immediate success of the inaugural HSR Daytona Classic 24 called for a second running in 2015. After a year off, the 24-Hour classic race on the 3.56-mile DIS road course returned in 2017 and is now an annual and premier fixture on the HSR calendar.
The HSR Classic Daytona 24 features six different Run Groups competing in succession for a full 24 hours on the DIS road course. The various period-correct classes within each Run Group combine to make almost all closed-wheel competition sports cars from the last six decades eligible for Classic 24 competition.
Among the long list of intriguing in-race stories to follow is the “double-double” bid by Iconic Racing to score twin repeats of its 2023 Group A and Group F triumphs. Iconic team drivers Gérard Lopez and former professional sports car racing World Endurance Champion Marcel Fassler combined to secure overall victories in both Run Group A and Run Group F last year.
Lopez and Fassler, who was making his HSR debut, put in a pair of competitive and controlled runs in 2023, leading all four race segments in both Run Groups to give Lopez his first HSR Classic Daytona Group A triumph since 2017 in the Iconic Racing 1969 No. 60 Lola T70 Mk III.
The Iconic duo then backed up the Group A win with an equally stellar performance in the team’s debut in Run Group F, which is home to modern Prototype machines retired from active competition. Iconic ran a former JDC Motorsports 2019 No. 5 Cadillac DPi that Lopez and Fassler wheeled to another victory to complete last year’s practically perfect Classic 24 weekend.
Lopez, Fassler and Iconic, who were the first team and drivers to score a Classic 24 Run Group overall double victory since Paul Reisman and his son John Reisman accomplished the feat with Hudson Historics in the inaugural race in 2014, now look to be the first team in HSR Classic race history to pull off back-to-back double Run Group race wins in successive years. The team has returned to Daytona with the same winning 1969 Lola and 2019 Cadillac DPi.
The five-day schedule of historic and vintage competition at DIS began Wednesday with a test session for all Run Groups and classes in both the Classic 24 and Daytona Historics.
A highlight was 1992 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of The Year and longtime women in motorsports advocate Lyn St. James — the first woman to break the 200mph barrier on a closed circuit race course — who drove her final and farewell laps in a race car Wednesday afternoon in the 2008 No. 2 Doran Racing Ford GT Mk 7. St. James co-drove the same car to a Group E victory in the E4 class with Brad Jaeger and Memo Gidley in the 2017 HSR Classic Daytona 24.
Wednesday night, St. James will be the guest of honor in a special VIP reception recognizing her 50 years in motorsports. The event is being made possible by DIS, NASCAR, IMSA and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, where the reception will be held in the MSHFA Museum outside of NASCAR Turn 4 at DIS just off of International Speedway Blvd.
More information on both the HSR Classic 24 and HSR Daytona Historics events, including entry lists, ticket purchases and the event schedule, can be found on the official event page — click here.
For a direct link to HSR Classic 24 race tickets, please click here.