HSR Classic Motorsports Mitty 2014 – Report and Photos
Chris MacCallister, 64 AC Cobra
The Speedfest Classic Motorsports Mitty 2014 was held April 25-27 at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. Sanctioned by Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR), the 37th running of the Mitty saw more than 300 entries enjoy the challenging 12-turn, 2.54 mile road course. The honorary Grand Marshal was Brian Redman, who delighted all with stories from his long and successful racing career.
HSR grouped the vintage race cars into 10 classes, from vintage production through modern era global GT. Spectators were treated to everything from early 1950s sports cars through late model Porsches and Ferraris. Historic Moto GP bikes were also raced, adding to the diversity.
Among the more interesting cars this year were Chris MacAllister’s 1971 McLaren M8F and 1964 AC Cobra. Toby Bean and sons Theo and Patrick raced a 1990 Chevrolet Intrepid, a 1960 Aston Martin DB4 and a 2008 Courage Oreca. Christian Zugel brought his 2006 Porsche RS Spyder, resplendent in the DHL yellow colors and a Lotus 125 Exos that Gunnar Jeannette drove to set the fastest lap of the weekend. Dan Curry’s Porsche 962, Mike Smith’s Porsche 935/K3 and Max Heilman’s 1958 Jaguar XK150 were among some of the interesting cars raced over the weekend.
As always, HSR events provide plenty of action and good racing. Among the best races were Jody O’Donnell’s 1969 Chevrolet Corvette beating Mike Donohue in his 1963 Chevrolet Corvette in Group 5, in addition to Donohue’s Corvette nipping the 1961 Jaguar E-Type of Larry Ligas in the Bob Woodman Tires International American Challenge race. Young Theo Bean showed his growing skills in the Courage Oreca as he beat perennial Group 6 winner David Porter’s Pescarolo Judd.
The Mitty has evolved into more than a weekend of vintage racing. Spectators came with their interesting cars, many of them meeting up with like-minded enthusiasts. There were car club corrals for pretty much all sports cars. Others brought their exotics or their homemade creations which added to the atmosphere of this event. These spectators have their own stories about cars and racing (just ask them), but perhaps the most interesting story came from Santiago Uranga and Juan Manuel Rizzotti. They showed up in a 1964 Fiat 600, which they are driving from their native Argentina to Alaska. That they chose to drop by Road Atlanta and see the races and soak up the atmosphere was a great example of the celebration of cars that the Mitty has become.
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Similar to 2011, 2012 and 2013, photographer David Ferguson also documented the 2014 Mitty by HSR, offering the following picture gallery that highlight the diverse entrants. We split up David’s 225 pictures into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, all displayed in the full-width view of Sports Car Digest, while the second gallery can be found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs.
Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Two
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Three
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Four
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Five
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Six
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Seven
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Eight
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Nine
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Speedfest Mitty 2014 – Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
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Dear David,
Always a pleasure to see you at the track. Your photos and articles are superb and greatly appreciated. Love the photo of my Cup car.
Keep your lens aimed at my car(s). I’m usually pretty fast 😉 . Hopefully you’ll see me on a Pro car soon.
Kind regards, Juan López-Santini
Thank you for your comments Juan. I appreciate them. I think that your 27 second margin of victory over similar cars in a seven lap race backs up your claim to being fast. Congratulations on an impressive driving display this last weekend.
Dave
Lovely work Dave! I greatly appreciate the effort to bring us the excellent images of this event. One small request though. If possible please find a moment to attribute the motorcycle images (and provide more of them!). I suspect that there were some “important” scoots there and I know the guys worked hard to get them out for our enjoyment.
TIA
-elh-
Ed, the motorcycles and their riders operate independently from HSR while at the track. They are a friendly and laid back group. They don’t time their laps, and don’t have an entry list. They are great fun to watch and shoot, and I wish I’d had the time to get to know them, but covering over 300 car entries in 24 races did not give me that opportunity.
Dave
Hi David,
A question? MASERATI Montevardi and that with an Chrysler engin?
Cheers,
J
No, not a Maserati, a Monteverdi 375 S I think, built in Switzerland with a Chrysler engine. Few were built, most famous of all the cars Peter Monteverdi built was the Hai, a mid-engined car ,also with Chrysler engine.
Thank you Peter. After taking this shot, a young man got in the car and started to drive off. I asked him what it was, and he said that it was a Maserati Monteverdi. He did not know what year. He said the car belonged to his father and admitted that his knowledge of it was limited. I apologize for the incorrect information, but stand by my statement that it is eye candy.
Dave