Historics Invade High Banks of Daytona Speedway

Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) presented the 2016 Daytona Historics at the 3.57-mile Daytona International Speedway road course on November 10-13. Slightly over 100 cars entered the event. The TransAm series was also at the speedway, as nearly 60 cars showed up for their season-ending races.

The weather was close to perfect. There were five racing groups for the seven classes, plus the Bob Woodman Tires International/American Challenge, two night enduros and two one-hour enduros.

There were several dominant performances at the 2016 HSR Daytona Historics. Toni Seiler came from Switzerland with his 1969 Lola T70 and won both feature races and both enduros. That Daytona is the site of the Lola T70’s only major triumph made Seiler’s wins more special. Sean Brown and his very quick 1975 Ford Escort won both feature races in Group Two and Three. The Reismans did likewise in Group six with their Corvette-powered Coyote Daytona Prototype.

Niek Hommersom was blindingly fast in his Maserati MC12 GT, lapping over four seconds faster than anyone else in Group Eight and Nine, but the Maserati was a non starter for the heat races. Perennial Group Ten winner Juan Lopez-Santini hadn’t raced since the Mitty at Road Atlanta this April, but he picked up where he left off, winning a feature race and two enduros. Transmission problems kept him from starting the other feature and the Global GT Series race.

Interesting cars included two Lola T70s, a lovely Ginetta GR4, an interesting and very fast Ford Falcon-bodied car, Hammerson’s Maserati MC12 GT, a Buick-powered Alba GTP and Porsche 906 and Ford GT40 replicas. But the most interesting car there had to be Robert Rawe’s 1963 Aston Martin DP214 replica. There were only two of these prototypes built in period, with one destroyed after a fatal accident. Rawe painstakingly built his replica at a cost of over one million dollars and it’s a stunning piece of machinery.

And of course, there is the Daytona International Speedway itself. It’s big, fast, loud and full of history. The weather is usually good this time of year. It’s not the prettiest place, nor is the course particularly challenging, but the Speedway has a special air about itself that is unique in the racing world.

2016 HSR Daytona Historics – Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)