Historic Sportscar Racing Photo
Mega Entry List for This Weekend’s 47th HSR The Mitty presented by Hagerty at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
– Massive List of HSR Competitors With an Endless Mix of Road Racing and
Sports Cars from More Than the Last Half Century Has Arrived at Michelin
Raceway Road Atlanta for the 47th HSR The Mitty Presented by Hagerty,
April 24 – 27
– Championship Winning Honda Prelude Touring Cars from Danny Stewart
Among the Memory-Stirring Entries for Saturday’s Featured Marque Street
Stock Race
– “Birthday Boys” Chris Wojtal and Gary Moore Celebrate Milestones at
The Mitty Presented by Hagerty with Wojtal’s Returning National
Championship 1966 No. 475 MG Midget and Moore’s Pristine Cobra
Automotive 1994 No. 12 Ford Thunderbird NASCAR Cup Car
BRASELTON, Georgia (April 22, 2025) – A large list of HSR competitors
with an endless mix of road racing and sports cars from more than the
last half century has arrived at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for this
weekend’s 47th HSR The Mitty Presented by Hagerty, April 24 – 27. With
213 cars in the paddock comprising 574 entries across a packed schedule
of HSR WeatherTech Sprint, B.R.M Endurance Challenge and HSR Feature
races, The Mitty presented by Hagerty once again lives up to its
reputation as a “must-attend” blockbuster event for competitors and race
fans alike.
Filling the Featured Marque spotlight at this year’s Mitty is the golden
era of Street-Stock road racing in North America that began over 50
years ago and has evolved into such top series today as the IMSA
Michelin Pilot Challenge and others.
Two entries of note that will take part in Saturday’s highlight Street
Stock feature race at 12:50 p.m. EDT are a pair of race and
championship-winning Honda Prelude Si cars from longtime HSR competitor
Danny Stewart.
Entered in their competition prime nearly 30 years ago in the IMSA
Endurance Series by TI Racing Enterprises, the Touring Class No. 31 and
No. 38 Honda Preludes combined for numerous driver and manufacturer
titles and several race wins, including a significant overall victory in
the 1996 24 Hour race at Mosport, which is known today as Canadian Tire
Motorsport Park. The cars were early production cars, which were pulled
and sold as flat rate cars by American Honda. Remarkably, the 1994 No.
38 Honda Prelude (VIN: JHMBB2157R0000001) and the 1993 No. 31 Honda
Prelude (VIN: JHMBB1178P0000002) essentially carry serial numbers 1 and
2 for Preludes in the U.S. in their respective model years.
“When kids see the VIN numbers on these cars they freak out,” Stewart
said. “A lot of my competitors and friends in the paddock give me a
good-natured hard time and call me crazy for keeping these cars going,
but these are legendary for today’s generation that has grown up in the
street tuner era. Plus, they are a lot of fun to race.”
Floridians Gary Blackman, of Sebring, and Greg Loebel, of St.
Petersburg, shared the 1997 IMSA Touring Class Driver Championship
teaming in the No. 31 Prelude Si. Prior to that triumph, Terry Earwood –
now a current HSR race steward – won a 1996 IMSA Drivers Championship in
the No. 38. The success also secured manufacturer championships for
American Honda both years.
Two more cars of note at The Mitty will be driven by a pair of drivers
celebrating significant birthdays and even more milestones at the 47th
HSR The Mitty presented by Hagerty.
Chris Wojtal has attended The Mitty for decades but this weekend
fulfills a personal dream of competing in the blockbuster event after
just celebrating his 50th birthday earlier this month. Wojtal’s debut
also marks the return of a notable car that first put a winning mark on
Road Atlanta at the SCCA Runoffs just a couple of years after The Mitty
debuted in the mid-1970s.
Wojtal owns and makes his debut in a 1966 MG Midget (pictured at top)
that Mike Pinney drove to the 1978 G Production SCCA National
Championship at Road Atlanta. The car later had multiple owners but was
never campaigned regularly or modified for bigger classes after the 1978
national title. Wojtal runs his first races in the car this weekend in
Run Group 2 and the Sasco Sports International/American Challenge Group
B sprint.
“This car brings together everything great about The HSR Mitty, MG, the
Runoffs and Road Atlanta,” Wojtal said. “I have been coming to The Mitty
for decades and this is finally a bucket-list moment realized.”
Pinney carried No. 60 (pictured below) on the Midget for 1978’s national
championship run but Wojtal opted for the three-digit No. 475 to
celebrate his half century of trips around the sun. The number swap is
one of the few major changes made on the MG since the national
championship win nearly 50 years ago.
“The 4 is for April and the 75 is for my birth year of 1975 to mark my
50th birthday,” Wojtal said. “This really means a lot, particularly
bringing back this car that hasn’t made an appearance in a long time. I
think it was last here for The Mitty around 2012.”
Veteran HSR competitor Gary Moore celebrates both his 65th birthday this
weekend at The Mitty and his 100th HSR race start. Competing with Curt
Vogt and Cobra Automotive, Moore drives his always quick 1966 No. 98
Mustang Shelby GT350 and a unique and more than 30-year-old NASCAR stock
car in this weekend’s Fourth Annual “Gene Felton Memorial Challenge”
race, which is Round 2 of this year’s HSR NASCAR Classic series.
Driven by Daytona 500 winner Derrick Cope (pictured above with Moore) in
its prime, Moore’s 1994 No. 12 Ford Thunderbird was fielded by the Bobby
Allison Motorsports Team and carried unique sponsorship from Straight
Arrow, the Pennsylvania-based products company that produced the
original “Mane ‘n Tail” hair care and personal care products. The
products were originally produced for the equine industry but were so
good that horse owners soon tried them out for themselves with great
success. That evolved into a complementary line of products for the
“two-legged” market that proved to be highly lucrative for Straight
Arrow.
On the track, the No. 12 Thunderbird was a road-race special Cope and
the Allison team raced eight times between 1993 and 1996, split evenly
with four races at Watkins Glen and four at Sonoma Raceway. Best
finishes were an 11th at The Glen and a 12th place runt at Sonoma.
Vogt found the car in California a few years ago, carrying its original
livery it still runs today. He installed a stouter engine and
transmission package and still prepares the Thunderbird for Moore who is
a regular competitor in HSR NASCAR Classic competition.
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. [1]
For more information on The Mitty and other HSR events, please visit
www.HSRRace.com [2] for the official 47th HSR The Mitty presented by
Hagerty Event Page.