HSR Classic 24 Daytona, Daytona Historics, kick off this week

Image by Patrick Tremblay/HSR
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emailBy Vintage Motorsport | November 2, 2020 10:00 AM

With ample COVID-19 protocols in place, Historic Sportscar Racing will run its trademark Classic 24 Hour and the Daytona Historics at Daytona International Speedway starting this Wednesday through Sunday (Nov. 4-.

BMW is this year’s featured marque.

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Download the full event schedule and official entrant list, and c

 

SVRA at Sebring: Handling vs horsepower

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emailBy SVRA | February 14, 2021 6:19 AM

Enjoy this example of handling vs horsepower battling in SVRA vintage racing at Sebring International Raceway…


SVRA, Videos, Vintage Motorsport / Historic

 

Entries, weather, highlight SVRA Speed Tour opener at Sebring

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emailBy SVRA | February 22, 2021 11:00 AM

The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association’s SpeedTour returned to Sebring International Raceway for a weekend of vintage, Trans Am and International GT racing. With sunny skies and picture-perfect weather, the SpeedTour welcomed hundreds of entries from across the three series, along with an event record-setting car show with 450 cars and a host of spectators around the 3.74-mile circuit.

SVRA’s competition was split into five separate races, with each group getting two features during the course of the weekend.

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SVRA at Sebring: Handling vs horsepower

 

Huffy, Buzz Bikes partner with SVRA

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emailBy SVRA | February 26, 2021 7:19 AM

Huffy and Buzz Bikes have entered a partnership with the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) and have been designated the “Official Bikes of SVRA.” United Wheels, Inc., headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, owns both companies.

“Huffy is one of the most recognizable brands in bicycling. Buzz presents a compelling E-bike that will truly distinguish its riders,” said Tony Parella, owner and CEO of both Trans Am and SVRA. “This announcement is part of our strategy to expand into partnerships with top consumer brands. I expect to see the numbers of Huffy and Buzz bicycles steadily grow at SpeedTour events as we move through the 2021 racing season.”

Huffy was founded by George Huffman 129 years ago in 1892 and has been at the forefront of the bicycling culture ever since. Today, Huffy boasts a robust product line including toddler riding toys, kid’s bikes, scooters, electric bikes, and various mountain and cruiser bikes.

Buzz, a leading brand in e-bikes and e-tricycles for adults, provides advanced electronics so riders can go further, navigate hills, even reach speeds of 20 mph. The mid-drive pedal-assist electric motor E-bike features a lockable battery compartment, LCD control panel, index shifting and disc brakes on the front and back wheels.

“Everyone at Huffy and Buzz sees this partnership as a natural fit,” said Kris Parlett, United Wheels Marketing Director. “We look forward to joining others riding our bikes around the paddock on SpeedTour weekends.”

Huffy and Buzz Bikes join other top-brand companies on the growing list of SVRA partners. Among them are Jaguar, Land Rover, Lucas Oil, NetJets, Sunoco, Avis, Mazda Motorsports, Big Machine Vodka, TireRack.com, RACELOGIC, Mission Foods, Hawk Performance, F.A.S.T., Marathon Coach, Adobe Road Winery, and CG Detroit.

SVRA’s nationwide platform is at the heart of the organization’s growth strategy. Agreements with powerful brands combine with the significant participation of legendary professional drivers and the paddock’s high net worth demographic to help attract more partnerships. This strategy provides three pillars for business expansion. Company officials report consistent annual double-digit growth since 2012.

 

SVRA Ready for Weekend Sebring SpeedTour

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EmailPhoto: Richard Prince / Vintage MotorsportSebring, FL — With a robust number of entries for Trans Am and vintage races, as well as the car show at this weekend’s Sportscar Vintage Racing Association Sebring SpeedTour, it’s nearly go time at the historic track.

The official schedule for the Feb. 19-21 Sebring weekend was finalized last Saturday and the entry list by group is set.

The event is welcoming spectators, and is following health and safety standards that include mask-wearing and social distancing. Get event and ticket details.

 

Road America, Road Atlanta, Daytona, Sebring, Backdrop for Four-Race HSR Fall Spectacular

by VM Staff Photo: HSRHistoric Sportscar Racing will kick off its annual fall stretch of races this week, its four-races-in-four-months schedule including return visits to four legendary U.S. race circuits starting this weekend, September 17-19, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

After a successful guest appearance last year with the Vintage Sports Car Drivers Association at the Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival, HSR has been invited back for this weekend’s 36th running of the popular Road America event. The ELVF weekend will feature HSR competitors from all classes placed in existing and appropriate VSCDA run groups.
Photo: HSRThe Road America return is immediately followed by the HSR Fall Historics at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, which is back to its traditional date, September 23-26, after a one-off October running last year due to COVID-19 rescheduling.

The perfect complementary event to April’s HSR Mitty at the Northeast Georgia track, the Fall Historics has developed an appeal and popularity of its own with competitors and race fans alike: Last year’s running was one of the largest ever.

Next up, the centerpiece — the seventh running of the HSR Classic Daytona presented by IMSA, a 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway, October 27-31. The 2021 event will celebrate perennial sports car racing powerhouse Porsche as this year’s featured marque.
Photo: HSRIn addition to 24 hours of racing and Porsche in the spotlight, the HSR Classic Daytona weekend will also feature the first HSR Street Stock Road Racing and RS/IS Reunion, a race celebrating the pioneer eras of showroom stock and street stock endurance road racing as well as IMSA Racing Stocks and International Sedans.Eligible entries include cars that competed in the IMSA Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship, the SCCA Pro Escort Endurance Championship, the Motorola Cup North American Street Stock Championship, the IMSA Radial Challenge, IMSA Champion Spark Plug Challenge, IMSA Executive Motorhome Challenge and several other street stock and small sedan series from the 1970s and 1980s through earlier in this century.

 

Photo: HSRThe HSR Classic Daytona once again will be followed by its sister event, the HSR Classic 12 Hour at Sebring, Pistons and Props, presented by the Alan Jay Automotive Network. The sixth-annual running of the event will close out the 2021 HSR racing season on the legendary Sebring airport circuit, December 1-5.

The HSR Classics events at Daytona and Sebring share the card each weekend with, respectively, the Daytona and Sebring Historics races that will see all season-long HSR championships decided on two of the most iconic circuits in the country.

Spectator tickets for the HSR Fall Historics, the HSR Classic Daytona 24 and the HSR Classic 12 Hour are available now at HSRTickets.com.

Road America VSCDA Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival spectator tickets are available at RoadAmerica.com.

 

Jack Cassingham, 1936 – 2021

by VM Staff

by Tom Cotter

One of vintage racing’s most talented, disciplined and successful drivers took the checkered flag on August 29, 2021.

Jack Cassingham was born and raised in San Jose, and as a teenager lived the California lifestyle to the fullest. He built his first hot rod, a Navy Blue 1940 Ford, while in high school with money he earned on his paper route and a job at the grocery store.

As a 19-year-old he met an attractive brunette, Mary Lou Yglesias, and three years later they were married.

Jack lived the life of a Top Gun pilot, both in and out of the cockpit. (Top Gun was his FAVORITE movie, BTW, and he watched it numerous times.) As an eight-year pilot for the Marine Corps, Second Lieutenant Cassingham flew a Crusader F-8 fighter jet in Japan and Vietnam. Once, while on a training flight, Jack and another pilot each flew their F-8s at full throttle deep into the Grand Canyon, just feet above the Colorado River. Fortunately, the two never got caught.

After leaving the Marines in the mid-1960s, he began a career as a commercial pilot. The young family picked up and moved from California to Dallas when Braniff Airlines offered him a pilot position. When Braniff folded, the family relocated again to Lake Norman, near Charlotte, North Carolina in 1983, to work for Piedmont Airlines, then US Air. They remained in their beloved lakefront home for nearly 40 years. Because of airline regulations, Jack was required to retire at age 60, even though both physically and mentally he more closely resembled a 40-year-old.



The airline industry’s loss, though, was vintage racing’s gain, as Jack jumped headfirst into a new passion that would consume the next 20 years. He co-drove his first race in 1996, became Rookie of the Year 12-months later and won SVRA Driver of the Year honors in 2006. Jack’s bright-yellow MG Midget was superbly prepared and often driven at the front of the Group 1 field. Jack and Mary Lou’s motorhome was a familiar sight in vintage racing paddocks throughout the East Coast until he hung up his helmet a few years ago.

Going back to his roots, Jack built two more hot rods in his Lake Norman, N.C., garage: a 1935 Chevy sedan and a Ford Model A roadster.

Jack is survived by Mary Lou, his wife of 63 years, three daughters — Jill, Robin and Karen — and 5 grandchildren.

Donations in Jack’s name may be made to his daughters Jill’s and Robin’s favorite animal rescue causes: mynextpet.com or adoptocpets.com

One wonderful footnote: Jack’s #1 crew member for many years, grandson Devin Duckworth — who shadowed Jack in the paddock from the time he could walk — recently tracked down and purchased the yellow MG Midget Jack built and raced for so many years. Devin’s intention is to begin racing his grandfather’s car again soon.

 

Midnight Hour Snapshot Catches the Many HSR Classic Daytona 24 Run Group Battles

by VM Staff Photo: HSRContenders and challengers in the HSR Classic Daytona presented by IMSA powered strongly through the midnight hour Saturday and on to the halfway point of the Classic 24-hour race being run for the seventh time this weekend at Daytona International Speedway).

Strong protagonists have emerged in all the Run Groups, though more than one top competitor was sidelined or knocked well down the order with problems in the grueling endurance event’s first half.

The HSR Classic Daytona began at 1:00 p.m. EDT Saturday with the oldest cars in the race – Run Group A – having the honor of kicking off this year’s edition of the twice-around-the-clock historic and vintage race.
Photo: HSRThe Group A leader at the halfway point was John Delane in the GMT Racing 1972 No. 8 Chevron B21. Delane won the HSR Classic Sebring 12 Hour last December in the same machine and is looking for his second “HSR Classics” win in a row Sunday at Daytona.

The last time Alain Ruede raced in this event back in 2019, he stepped up to take the overall Group B victory in his 1982 No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro GTO car. This year, he is halfway home to a repeat Group B win in the Camaro, leading the second-place 1976 No. 119 Chevron B36 of Josh Boller by just over 17 seconds.
Photo: HSRGroups C and D are running together for the third time in this year’s event Classic Daytona, and the mixed grouping is once again providing some of the best competition. The Group D and overall leader is the 2003 No. 54 Doran JE4 Daytona Prototype of Forest Barber and Terry Borcheller, which took the group victory in its most recent appearance in the 2019 Classic Daytona.

Close behind the Doran in second place overall is the HSR Classics-debuting 1991 No. 3 Jaguar XJR-16 of owner/driver Malcolm Ross and teammate Corey Fergus.

Ross, Fergus and the Jaguar led Group C in the darkness, but not far behind was defending Group C Winner Angus Russell in his ex-Kremer Racing/Leyton House 1985 Porsche 962C prepared by Amalfi Racing.The top-three overall in Group C and D are all on the same lap.

 

Photo: HSRIn Group E, a familiar and former HSR Classics-winning car and driver duo have returned to the top of the standings for the first time in several years. Juan Gonzalez purchased the ex-Rollcentre Racing 2007 No. 18 Pescarolo Judd in 2017 and won the HSR Classic Sebring 12 Hour with co-driver Butch Leitzinger in his first race in the car.

Gonzalez has been looking for a Classic Daytona win to go with his Sebring triumph ever since, and was halfway to reaching that goal in Sunday’s early hours. Gonzalez and Leitzinger had a one-lap lead over a stout field of Group E competitors at the mid-race mark.

The Group F halfway leader was William Hubbell (Hudson Historics 2012 No. 230 Corvette Daytona Prototype) while Scott Kee and Ron Zitza (Zotz Racing 2016 No. 351 Porsche Cayman GT4) paced a tight Group G field.
Photo: HSRNotable Classic Daytona competitors knocked from winning contention or retired from the race include the GMT Racing 2007 No. 7 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP of David Porter and Joao Barbosa, which overcame a pre-race hydraulics system issue to take the green flag and battle for the lead in both of Saturday’s race opening rounds.

Barbosa was at the wheel of the 908 late in the second Group E race when the hydraulics issue returned just before the checkered flag. The Peugeot was retired, ending a four-race HSR Classics win streak for the car, team and drivers at Sebring and Daytona dating back to Porter’s 2019 debut.

Meanwhile, a rear suspension issue struck down the Robillard Racing ex-Wynn’s/Hotchkis Racing 1986 No. 10 Porsche 962 of Joe Robillard just a couple of laps into the first Group C race of the day. It was repaired in time for Race 2, but was 20 laps behind the group leader at half distance.
Photo: HSRIn case you missed them, here are the recaps from Thursday and Friday along with a photo gallery from those days.