Reliving the Golden Age of Motorsport at Historic Sportscar Racing’s Fall Historics

mul.ti.far.i.us
Nov 10, 2021
2 min read

Just an hour north of Oxford juxtaposed with the undulating agrarian lands lies the much-lauded Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, home to the annual historic motorsports revival Fall Historics. Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) strives to recapture the romance and drama of arguably the purest era of motorsport spanning the last 60 years. Around 200 preserved race cars covering decades, with values of up to 1.3 million USD, took to the track in a no holds barred competition, harkening back to the heady, analog, and unregulated days of motorsport’s past. Spectators were encouraged to walk the paddocks and up-close see and interact with the cars and their devoted teams and enjoy the symphonious cacophony of free-revving purebred engines and the auspicious scent of tire smoke, motor oil, and fresh high-octane fuel. Fall Historics provides the unique opportunity to intimately see and hear blue-chip automotive classics which are often relegated to an existence languishing in private collections or behind museum ropes. Events such as HSR’s Fall Historics help to preserve an evocative golden age of automotive culture for a younger generation that did not get to contemporaneously experience the wonders of the 1970’s Porsche International Race of Champions series or the theatrical jockeying of an Aston Martin DB4 Lightweight and Jaguar E-Type’s balletic ingress and egress through the corners.

Early Porsche 911s of racers Neil Bedwell, Ray Shaffer, and Vintage Racing Company await competition with an eager stance.

A lightweight racing variant of the Aston Martin DB4 speeds through turn 10 of Road Atlanta.

Two 911 RSRs battle it out at the apex.

A testament to the eclecticism of HSR’s Fall Historics: a race class composed of Porsche 911 RSRs, E36 and E46 BMWs, and a Ford Mustang Boss 302.

A rare Porsche 914-6 followed by a Porsche 944, 911 RSR, and a Shelby GT350.

A heavily modified Porsche 930 “Flachbau” followed by one of the more modern entrants, a sonorous Porsche 996 RSR.

An elegant Jaguar E-Type.

A rare sight of a Porsche 911 F-Model owned by Atlanta local Neil Bedwell drafted by a lightweight Aston Martin DB4

Palpable excitement in the paddocks with 901 Shop’s 914-6 GT and 911 RSRs.

An exceedingly rare Ruf BTR based on the Porsche 911. Ruf is a German manufacturer of high-performance versions of Porsche models rarely seen in the United States.