A packed paddock of Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) cars and competitors representing a fast and vast array of vintage and historic sports cars, stock cars and open-wheel racing machines descends on Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta early next week for the 47th HSR The Mitty presented by Hagerty. HSR’s oldest race and first blockbuster event, The Mitty presented by Hagerty is a high-speed rite of spring dating back to the mid-1970s that truly offers something for everyone.
In addition to a non-stop schedule of HSR’s season-long WeatherTech Sprint, B.R.M Endurance Challenge and other feature race series championship rounds, the 47th The HSR Mitty presented by Hagerty at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta showcases a few highlight races of its own. This year’s featured marque is the robust era of Street Stock road racing that was popular with fans and competitors alike in the final decades of the last century and into the new millennium. Laying the groundwork for what evolved into modern day series like IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and nearly every championship in the SRO America lineup of series, Street Stock is known for huge fields, emerging drivers and – along with big horsepower cars from around the globe – small-bore cars delivering huge excitement.
Eligible entries include authentic cars that competed in everything from the IMSA RS/IS/Radial Challenge, Champion Spark Plug Challenge and Firestone Firehawk series to SCCA Showroom Stock, World Challenge and the Playboy/Escort Endurance to Motorola Cup North America, Grand-Am Cup, the Rothmans Porsche Turbo Cup and more. That mix has opened the door to a current and still growing entry of more than two dozen period correct Street Stock competitors, including 1980s era Hondas and Acuras – Preludes, CRX and Integra models – E30 and E46 era BMWs, a variety of Datsuns, Nissans and Mazdas, a 1983 VW GTI and a typically stout entry of Porsches, including several 944 Turbo Cup cars. All will be in the spotlight in the Street Stock Feature Race that is a highlight of Saturday’s schedule at The Mitty at 12:50 p.m. EDT.
The 47th HSR The Mitty presented by Hagerty also hosts the Fourth Annual ‘Gene Felton Memorial Challenge’ that celebrates a first of its own this year. Introduced in 2022 to honor the late IMSA driving star and 2019 HSR The Mitty Grand Marshal, the Gene Felton Memorial Challenge will be a part of HSR’s NASCAR Classic series for the first time on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Launched just last year as a showcase for vintage and historic stock cars retired from contemporary competition, the NASCAR Classic series was inspired in part by the strong entry of HSR Historic Stock Car competitors at The Mitty in recent years.
This popularity was fueled by the introduction of the Gene Felton Memorial Challenge and the turnout the race annually draws in a show respect for the race’s namesake. Felton’s racing achievements were many, including 45 career victories in the professional ranks of IMSA in production-based cars, and four consecutive Kelly American Challenge Series championships. Each year’s Memorial Challenge winner receives a special race trophy and is also honored to have a plaque bearing the winning driver’s name placed on The Lanier Technical College Gene Felton Trophy. Based on hardware from Felton’s vast collection, the permanent perpetual trophy commemorates the driver’s long association with the Lanier Technical College, where he helped interns in the Motorsports Vehicle Training program get hands-on racing experience.
Three-time and reigning Gene Felton Memorial Challenge winner ‘Front Row Joe Nemechek is a perfect three-for-three in the annual tribute race. Nemechek has kept a personal lock on the perpetual Lanier Technical College Gene Felton Trophy as the only driver to win the Pro category each of the three years the race has been run. Nemechek goes for four-straight Felton Memorial victories this year in his NEMCO Motorsports 2006 No. 47 Toyota Camry.
The Mitty weekend also includes for the second year a round of the HSR Prototype Challenge presented by IMSA championship that debuted in 2024. The second HSR Prototype Challenge season features expanded class structures and race-weekend events, with a new round of the all-prototype series at VIRginia International Raceway later this summer. The Prototype Challenge race at The Mitty starts Saturday at 6:05 p.m. EDT for a 90-minute run into twilight.
After featuring only LMP3 cars in last year’s inaugural HSR Prototype Challenge season, the series has fully expanded to four different classes in total this year. From the top-tier P1 class for retired LMP1 and DPi cars on down to the P4 division for first generation Daytona Prototypes and in between, the Challenge series has a class for every type of contemporary prototype just past its competitive prime.
Last month’s Prototype Challenge season opener at Sebring came down to an all-DPi battle for the overall win between one of the biggest friendly rivalries in HSR. Bob Neapole and Guy Cosmo emerged victorious in the RBN Motorsports with Cosmo-Sport 2020 No. 60 Acura ARX-05 prepared by Hudson Historics ahead of their friends and competitors Pierce Marshall and Eric Foss in the 2017 No. 02 Matador Motorsports Cadillac Dpi.
Not surprisingly, the tables were turned later in the Sebring weekend when Marshall and Foss edged Neapole and Cosmo for the Group C win in the event’s featured HSR Classic Sebring 12 Hour presented by Mission Foods, the opening round of this year’s inaugural HSR Classic Endurance Championship presented by Mission Foods.
Other 47th Mitty schedule highlights include a pair of one-hour B.R.M Endurance Challenge races that each feature a specific and period-matching and correct group of race cars. Saturday’s first B.R.M race at 2:50 p.m. EDT is home to the GT Modern (GTM), Historic and Prototype Modern divisions. Sunday’s one-hour B.R.M race puts older machinery in the GT Classic (GTC), Vintage and Historic classes in the spotlight at 8:10 a.m. EDT to kick-off the final day of racing at the 47th HSR The Mitty.
A longtime favorite of HSR competitors and fans, the SascoSports International/American Challenge is a production-car showcase of big-bore American-made iron battling with top sports cars from Europe and beyond. The all-out sprints see competitors race for the overall win in addition to top-three honors for the International, American and all-Porsche divisions.
Another huge entry for the 47th Mitty once again will call for the SascoSports Challenge races split into two events. Race B, for the small-bore machines of Groups 2 and 3, kicks-off the weekend’s racing schedule Friday at 6:50 p.m. EDT. Race A, for larger displacement race cars, is scheduled to go green Saturday at 4:45 p.m. EDT.
The HSR Global GT series is home to a variety of contemporary but recently retired GT racing machines going head-to-head in a flat-out sprint. Saturday’s Global GT race at 5:25 p.m. EDT immediately follows the Sasco Sports A sprint.
Tickets for the 47th HSR The Mitty presented by Hagerty at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta can be purchased online at: https://am.ticketmaster.com/ral/buy/Mitty2025.
