Historic Sportscar Racing: Halfway point with The Classic 24 Weekend at Daytona
The 2023 Classic 24 at Daytona held through HSR and presented by IMSA has reached its halfway point and drivers are raving about the weekend.
A week that featured 137 entries in total on grid has not only provided for a great chance to see an exclusive look at the history of racing, but a chance to see them back from yesteryears in a competitive format.
Drivers such as Stuart Wiltshire, who is racing IMSA regulars, ERA Motorsports this weekend, have embraced the experience.
"It was the first thing that we booked with ERA to do both the Daytona and the Sebring weekend, which corresponds in about a month's time," he responded. "I couldn't wait to get back over. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a new experience. The last time I'd been to America was Disneyland in 2000 and to come over here and sample the burgers, the beer and this wonderful stadium was just fantastic for me. I'm absolutely in awe of the state. We subsequently came back here to watch the Daytona 24 with ERA, as well, as a guest and maybe one day, who knows, we might manage to do a proper attempt at this, but for now we are loving it."
That even translated to his cohorts, with Ryan Dalziel, one of ERA's drivers in the LMP2, and Kyle Tilley, driver now turned owner for ERA.
Both had raving reviews of the weekend and had nothing but positive feedback coming in.
Tilley responded by stating "This event is always one of my favorites as a driver. Oddly enough, this is what I've never won. I've done it four or five times and we've always had something come up and we haven't won it. I've won the actual Daytona 24, but never this."
Tilley would go on to talk about the weekend for ERA stating that "this weekend, we have Stuart Wilshire in the Orange livery car and Dwight, your IMSA driver, in the yellow livery car, so both cars are the current ORCO 7.
That's the full IMSA specification. This car is running with a Gibson 3.4 liter engine which makes around 100 hundred horsepower less, but because that one is so restricted down to be current in spec, we've managed to bring this one up using gear ratios and things like that. So fun weekend, always cool to be part of and always fun to see which cars show."
Although the weekend only lasts another 12 hours, the impact it has already created had been heard and seen by fans and drivers alike.
Not only that, but the action has been suspense filled with teams giving it their all so far through the half way point.
We can only expect that the racing will continue to stay up at a high this weekend here at Daytona.