– 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/
For more information on The Mitty and other HSR events, please visit www.HSRRace.com for the official 47th HSR The Mitty presented by Hagerty Event Page.
About Hagerty (NYSE: HGTY): Hagerty is an automotive enthusiast brand committed to saving driving and to fueling car culture for future generations. The company is a leading provider of specialty vehicle insurance, expert car valuation data and insights, live and digital car auction services, immersive events and automotive entertainment custom made for the 67 million Americans who self-describe as car enthusiasts. Hagerty also operates in Canada and the U.K. and is home to Hagerty Drivers Club, a community of over 865,000 who can’t get enough of cars. For more information, please visit www.hagerty.com or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
About HSR: Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) is the premier vintage and historic racing series in North America. It was formed in the mid-1970s with an inaugural event at Road Atlanta and became a part of International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) in 2022. There was one goal then and it remains true today: to celebrate and enjoy the racing cars from the past. As a “time machine” of sights and sounds, HSR provides a venue for competitors and spectators alike to share in the wonderful history and excitement created by the cars that competed at race tracks around the world. HSR currently sanctions eight vintage and historic racing events at some of the world’s most renowned race tracks, including Daytona International Speedway, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Sebring International Raceway, Watkins Glen International and more. The complete schedule and full event information can be found on HSR’s website at www.HSRRace.com. Look for the HSR Channel on YouTube and follow HSR on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/HSRrace/, on Twitter X @HSR_race and on Instagram @HistoricSportscarRacing.
