– North America’s Premier Vintage and Historic 24-Hour Race Begins Second Decade of Competition Daytona International Speedway This Weekend
– HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hour Presented by Mission Foods and the HSR Daytona Historics Full-Season Series Championship Races Co-Headline Full Five-Day Event Weekend at DIS
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (November 5, 2025) – Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) competitors from across the United States and across the pond and beyond have arrived at the “World Center of Racing” for the 11th running of HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hour presented by Mission Foods this weekend at Daytona International Speedway (DIS). The longest and oldest race on the HSR Classic Endurance Championship presented by Mission Foods schedule, the HSR Daytona Classic 24 Hour co-headlines the weekend with the HSR Daytona Historics, a full points-paying event on HSR’s season-long racing series and championship schedule this season.
Five full days of on-track action began Wednesday on the 3.56-mile DIS road course with official competition beginning with opening practice and qualifying races for both the HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hour and the Daytona Historics on Thursday. The weekend’s first races take place on the Daytona Historics schedule Friday morning and will continue straight up until the scheduled start of the 11th HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hour presented by Mission Foods this Saturday, November 8, at 2 p.m. EST.
Kicking off the second decade of competition for Classic Daytona 24 Hour, this weekend’s twice-around-the-clock race has attracted the usual triple-digit entry of former race winners, debuting contenders, past and present auto racing champions and motorsports and automotive industry notables.
The Classic Daytona 24 Hour features seven different run groups – A through G – competing in succession for a full 24 hours on the iconic DIS road course, which has hosted the Rolex 24 At Daytona IMSA season-opening race for more than 60 years. Each Run Group – with C and D sharing the track while competing for respective group honors – runs four times throughout the 24 hours, with the individual segments clocking in at just under one hour in length.
It all adds up to 24 straight hours of historic and vintage sports car competition with the winners of each run group presented with B.R.M. Chronographes “The Kube” Black Engraved Desk Clocks after the final checkered flags wave Sunday morning and early afternoon.
HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hour presented by Mission Foods Run Groups:
Run Group A: Pre-1972: Featuring the oldest cars in the HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hour, Group A is home to legendary and early FIA-era prototype and GT machines that raced in various national series and world championship competition. The hands down entry to watch this weekend is two-time and defending division winners Iconic Racing and co-drivers Gérard Lopez and former professional sports car racing World Endurance Champion Marcel Fassler (pictured at top). The Iconic duo is undefeated in its 1969 Lola T70 MkII after contesting Classic 24 Group A the last two years. The only thing that has changed with this winning combination is the Lola’s number. After running No. 60 the last two winning years, the Lola now carries No. 27, which just happens to be one of the most popular and winning numbers in international motorsports competition the last 50 years.
Run Group B: 1973 – 1982: Even the newest cars in Group B are now nearly 45 years old, but the ultra-quick sports prototypes and turbocharged, wide-body GT cars still put on a show comparable to modern-day competition. This year’s Group B battle looks like a three-way 1970s-era sports prototype battle between two Chevrons and the 1972 No. 290 Lola T290 of Eric Langbein and Joe Blacker. The Lola duo battles with the 1976 No. 34A Chevron B36 of Andy Willis, George McDonald and Graham Adelman and Mitch Eitel in his 1975 No. 62 Chevron B31 (pictured at bottom). An upset could be delivered by the returning Alain Rüede who has beat the prototypes before in the Classic 24 in his always quick 1982 No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro IMSA GTO car.
Run Group C: 1983 – 1993; Run Group D: 1994 – 2003: Sharing the track while running for individual division honors, Run Groups C and D feature some returning favorites and exciting newcomers. A Group C challenger is the 1985 No. 75 Porsche 962 of Preston Brown and Denis Dupont while a notable newcomer in Group D is the 2005 No. 31 Courage C65 (pictured above) of debuting Classic Daytona 24 Hour driver Mark Drain. The Courage is entered by British team WAMotorsport with stateside support from Sean Creech Motorsport. A mass of Porsche 996 and 997 GT3 Cup cars make up the balance of the Group D entries, but they are joined by a lone 1994 Porsche 965/964 Turbo and similar GT contenders like Ferrari 360 and 430 Challenge cars, a Corvette C6.R, BMW Z4 and a 2000 No. 92 Dodge Viper GTS-R (pictured above) that Florent Moulin and Iconic return to Daytona 25 years after the car finished fifth in the inaugural Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Rolex 24 At Daytona in 2000.
Run Group E – 2004 – 2020: Run Group E was reclassified just last year to showcase GT Modern (GTM) cars and the result was a flat out fight to the end that produced the closest finish of the 2024 HSR Daytona Classic 24. The division has the honor of starting the Classic 24 for the second straight year on Saturday at 2 p.m. EST, which puts the competitors and GTM cars in HSR’s recently announced Mission GT Challenge series quickly in the spotlight. Michael Merritt and his co-driver at the time led only in the race’s final segment to take the 2024 Group E win in the 2018 No. 898 Charles Wicht Racing Porsche 991.2 Cup. Merritt and the No. 898 team look for the repeat this year with 19-year-old emerging talent Evan Slater co-driving.
Group F – Current Prototype and GT: The fastest run group in the Classic 24, Group F features top-tier LMP1, final-generation DPi prototypes and other modern era prototypes and bigger GT cars retired from contemporary competition. Defending Group F race winners Matador Racing and its 2017 No. 02 Cadillac Dallara DPi of Pierce Marshall and Eric Foss will renew a battle with three other top prototype teams that has waged the last couple of years. Iconic and co-drivers Lopez and Fässler compete in an ex-JDC Motorsports 2019 No. 5 Cadillac DPi while Juan Gonzalez and three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona race winner Butch Leitzinger will be joined by Roberto Gonzalez in their 2017 No. 81 Mission Foods GMT Racing Cadillac DPi (pictured below). Also in the mix is the winning RBN Motorsports with Cosmo-Sport 2020 No. 60 Acura ARX-05 of Bob Neapole and Guy Cosmo, which is prepared by Hudson Historics.
Run Group G – HSR Cars: Group G is home to HSR classes not represented in other groups. Offering a mix of production cars from six different decades of competition, Group G includes many of the same teams and race cars that compete in HSR’s Vintage GT and Historic GT groups, the HSR Global GT series and the new Mission GT Challenge series. Porsche 991.1, 997 and 718 and 981 Cayman GT4s make up the majority of the field, but winning challenges could come from a Mercedes-AMG GT4, BMW M2 and M3 entries, a trio of TCR front-wheel drive cars and even a Panoz Avezzano GT4.
The five-day schedule of historic and vintage competition at DIS began today with a test session for all Run Groups and classes in both the Classic 24 and Daytona Historics.
For additional information on both the HSR Daytona Classic 24 and HSR Daytona Historics events, including entry lists, ticket purchases, the event schedule and more, please click here.
For a direct link to HSR Daytona Classic 24 race tickets, please click here.
About HSR: An International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) property, Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) was formed in the mid-1970s with an event at Road Atlanta. There was one goal then and it remains true today: to celebrate 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 Road Atlanta, Sebring International Raceway, Daytona International Speedway 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/
