Welcome to part 2 of the 2017 Classic Motorsports Mitty recap, where we dive into the rest of the classic race cars that flocked to Road Atlanta last weekend and weren’t already covered in the Porsche-only recap from yesterday. Porsche was the featured marque of the race but another 200 cars or so were welcomed to the paddock.
The Mitty is perhaps the south east’s biggest motorsports reunion and it draws in some of the best classic race cars from the country. Everything from Datsun 510s and BMW 2002s to a Lola Bo7/18 and a Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo (which is in fact the one spitting fire above) got the chance to tackle Road Atlanta last weekend, so here’s around 40 of the best cars for your viewing pleasure.
Click past the jump to see what makes The Mitty an event you can’t miss. I’ll keep my talking to a minimum, as is preferred by everyone. As always, full resolution photos and about a hundred bonus shots are on my Flickr.

Even compared to a Karmann Ghia, the Lotus Super 7 is still hilariously small… but awesome.

A Corvair had an off-track excursion and kicked up a bunch of dirt. Everyone made it through just fine, but I’m sure this 2002 wasn’t pleased.

The only Ferrari I’ve ever seen at The Mitty since I’ve been going. He was glued to this BMW CSL the entire time.

“It’s currently Corvette, Ford, Porsche, Porsche, and… DATSUN rounding out your top five!”, said the announcer who was as impressed as I was as how fast this 240Z was.

These two cars above are some of the most fearless racers at each Mitty. They’re always the ones battling for the lead in this class and can be seen powersliding out of corners and jumping up on two wheels over the curbs. These guys are something else.

So picture this. I’m taking shots of the Can Am and historic sports racers class as they go on their recon lap. My eye is in the viewfinder when I pan over and see THIS. My first ever GT40 Mk.IV sighting. Turns out this was technically a continuation car, but it was allegedly constructed on an authentic chassis that Ford built in 1967 but never used. Sadly, it only ran a few laps before retiring.

But these GT40s though… were also continuation cars. I’m not complaining though.

And now… parking lot/paddoc break!

The best fuel delivery car I’ve ever seen.

My absolute favorite regular here at The Mitty has to be this Robertson Racing Ford GT Mk7. Seeing this car at my first Petit Le Mans in 2010 blew my fragile little mind. Any day where I get to see it again is a good day.

Sadly, this E36 320i was not actually driven by Randy Pobst according to the entry list, even though he’s a local.

I can honestly say I’ve never seen an Eagle Corvette GTP before, probably not even in pictures. But I’m glad I finally did.

The smoke is coming from locked brakes, rest assured. I could see the Intrepid driver’s panicked expression from here.

There were quite a few lock ups here at turn 7. The smoke in the air made for some cool shots.

The cancelled Jaguar XJR 7/8 on its annual two laps. This car is here every year but hardly ever runs more than just a few laps at a time. It’s the kind of thing that gets vintage racing a bad rep, but the car’s just too pretty to not include here.

But one car that was absolutely not pampered in any way was this Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo. It may have been the fastest car of the entire weekend thanks to a driver who wasn’t afraid to summon all of its might. Goodwood Road & Racing have onboard video from the race where it absolutely slaughtered everything else in its run group. Viewing this is mandatory. Other GTP cars and even more modern Corvette-powered Daytona Prototypes (most driven by talented drivers, no less) had no chance. It ended up lapping most of the field over eight laps.

This black and gold DP is one of my favorite cars to photograph and the Whelen car above it is driven very hard. And yes, I like shooting at turn 7 a bit too much.

This gorgeous Judd-powered B07/18 had to be one of the fastest cars there as well. Steve Scullen and Gunnar Jeannette shared driving duties during the final one hour endurance race and they were unstoppable. This is Gunnar driving on the cool down lap. Half-a-second after taking this, he waved and laid down a little rubber for us like a true gentleman.

Well, there you have it. Another amazing weekend of vintage (and not-so-vintage) racing brought to you by the Classic Motorsports Mitty. If you’re in the south east or have the means to get to Atlanta, it’s worth putting on your to-do list. Chances are good that I’ll see you there. With beer.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to check out the Porsche recap from yesterday and the full album of some 200 photos that were taken and lightly edited with love.

[All images © 2017 Hooniverse/Greg Kachadurian]