Lola the Featured Marque at 2019 HSR Classic Daytona
On-track action for the fifth running of the HSR Classic Daytona presented by IMSA starts in just five months at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) where famed British manufacturer Lola will take the spotlight as the featured marque of the classic 24-hour race at DIS, November 13 - 17, 2019.
A competitor test day on Wednesday, November 13, kicks off the 2019 HSR Classic at Daytona presented by IMSA. The full-day test sets the stage for the following four days of official competition, which culminate with the classic 24-hour race from Saturday, November 16, at 2 p.m. EST straight through to the final checkered flag 24 hours later on Sunday, November 17.
Lola will be lauded at the HSR Classic Daytona presented by IMSA 50 years after Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons co-drove the No. 6 Chevrolet-powered Sunoco Team Penske Lola T70 to the overall victory in the 1969 Rolex 24 At Daytona. The 1969 winner (No. 6 pictured above) is likely to be among the participating Lolas at the HSR Classic Daytona. A stout entry of similar generations T70 coupes and spyders is also expected, as well as more recently retired Lola racing machinery from the last few decades.
Always well represented on "HSR Classics" at Daytona and Sebring entry lists, Lolas participating in last year's fourth running of the HSR Classic Daytona included several 1966 through 1970 T70 models, a 1969 T165 Can-Am car, 1973 T294 sports racer, 1989 Lola T89/90 Sports 2000, 1999 Lola B98/10 LMP1, 2000 Judd-powered Lola B07/18 LMP1 and several late-1990s and early-2000 era Lola B2K/40 SRPII cars.
Lolas have been highly successful in the HSR Classic Daytona, including a Group A win in 2018 by Jim Cullen and Frank Beck in the Olthoff Racing 1968 No. 101 Lola T70. The victory was the second-consecutive and third time in the four runnings of the Classic 24-Hour race that a Lola was driven to victory in Group A.
The 1969 Lola T70 of Gerard Lopez and Frantz Wallenborn, which was brought to Daytona by the Iconic Racing team from Europe, won Group A in 2017 while Marc Devis and Christian Traber took the group win in the inaugural 2014 HSR Classic Daytona in a 1966 Lola T70 Spyder.
The 2014 event saw Lolas driven to victory in two different HSR Classic Daytona divisions. The Devis and Traber Group A victory was followed by a Group D win by John Reisman and his father Paul Reisman in a 2002 Lola B2K/40 from Hudson Historics.
