Banz, Ziegelman, Burnstein close HSR Savannah Speed Classic with wins

Banz, Ziegelman, Burnstein close HSR Savannah Speed Classic with wins

Vintage Motorsport / Historic

Banz, Ziegelman, Burnstein close HSR Savannah Speed Classic with wins

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Mike Banz scored a perfect five-for-five race weekend win sweep while Linden Burnstein and Jonathon Ziegelman combined for victories in yesterday’s featured B.R.M. Chronographes Historic Prototype and GT Modern Enduro and HSR Global GT race as the 2017 HSR Savannah Speed Classic came to a competitive conclusion on Sunday.

Banz earned at least one race victory in his Heritage Motorsports-prepared No. 13 1974 Porsche 911 RSR on each of the three days of Savannah Speed Classic competition on the 1.965-mile Grand Prize Circuit on Hutchinson Island.

The perfect five-for-five run by Banz included sweeps of both the Saturday and Sunday Group 5 WeatherTech Sprints and overall and class victories in Friday’s Bob Woodman Tires International/American Challenge race and Saturday’s B.R.M. Chronographes Vintage and GT Classic Enduro.

Banz also won Sunday’s HSR Classic RS Cup race while finishing a solid fifth-overall behind the more modern and faster HSR Global GT machines that finished in the top-four in the combined class feature race.

The overall and HSR Global GT winner was Ziegelman, who drove the same KMW Motorsports No. 917 2007 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup race car that he and Burnstein co-drove to the B.R.M. Enduro overall win Sunday morning.

Ziegelman and Burnstein shared the B.R.M. Enduro overall and GT podium with David Richardson and Justin Jackson, who co-drove a similar FlatSix Motorsports-prepared No. 06 2007 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup to runner-up honors. Hartmut von Seelen and Kevin Wheeler teamed up to finish third overall and in GT in the KMW Motorsports No. 51 1974 Porsche 911 RSR.

The B.R.M. Enduro Historic Prototype win was earned by Jeff Borghesi in his 2000 No. 7 Lola B2K/40 prepared by Hudson Historics.

In addition to Banz in Group 5, WeatherTech Sprint race winners that swept both Saturday and Sunday races included Jeff Mitchell (Group 2), Brad Hoyt (Group 3), Tom Fraelich (Group 4) and Brian Norman (Group 8).

Hoyt’s wins came in his immaculate No. 183 1962 Lotus 23b, Fraelich was victorious in his equally pristine No. 10 1979 March 79V and Norman doubled-up in a No. 9 2006 Dodge Charger he prepares himself.

Mitchell earned his pair of WeatherTech Sprint wins in his No. 41 1974 BMW 2002 in addition to also hitting the podium this weekend in the No. 73 1974 Porsche 911 RSR. Both of Mitchell’s race cars are prepared by Driving Machines.

Additional Sunday WeatherTech Sprint winners included Ward Witkowski in Group 7 in the No. 28 1989 Lola T89/90 and Reese Cox in Group 9 in the MTI Racing No. 98 2006 Corvette Z06.

Russell Wittenberg broke through for his first WeatherTech Sprint Group 10 win in his No. 33 2009 Porsche Cayman S that carries the livery of the well-known TAG Heuer Supercup Porsche Mika Hakkinen drove in the early 1990s before winning back-to-back Formula 1 World Championships in 1998 and 1999.

Next up for HSR is the third running of the HSR Classic at Daytona presented by IMSA and the Daytona Historics at Daytona International Speedway, November 8-11.

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