Jaguar XJR-16 returns to Highway Atlanta at HSR Mitty, 30 years after its dominant win there
Precisely 30 years after a dominant win at Highway Atlanta within the prime of the IMSA Camel GT period, Ross Motorsports could have a pair of the mighty Jaguar GTP machines again on the quick 2.54-mile street course north of Atlanta for the forty third Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) Mitty, April 21-25.
Pushed by Davy Jones, the V-6 twin-turbo XJR-16 made an impressive sequence debut at Highway Atlanta within the IMSA Camel GT race in late April of 1991, profitable the pole and securing a dominant race win. Solely Chip Robinson in a Nissan NPT-91 completed on the identical lap because the profitable Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar.
Raul Boesel, who completed third behind Jones and Robinson at Highway Atlanta in a Jaguar XJR-10, was upgraded to his personal XJR-16 a month later at Lime Rock Park. That’s the No. 3 Jaguar Ross Motorsports and staff proprietor/driver Malcolm Ross will race at The Mitty.
Ross can be bringing the 1991 Highway Atlanta winner to The Mitty to function a backup and attainable elements automotive if wanted.
“This will likely be my first weekend in them,” stated Ross, who acquired the pair of Jaguars from fellow proprietor/competitor Richard Eyre in England rather less than a 12 months in the past. “The 1991 Highway Atlanta winner is chassis No. 191 and went on to win three extra races. The XJR-16 we will likely be racing is chassis No. 291 that was pushed by each Boesel and Martin Brundle in 1991.”
Moreover, Ross is competing in Group 3 at The Mitty on the wheel of a 1965 No. 69 Lotus 23b.
“Our Lotus has a ton of European racing historical past,” Ross stated. “It ran with quite a lot of totally different configurations and engines at numerous instances and at one level was known as the ‘Saturn’ when it ran as a closed-cockpit automotive in England within the late Sixties. It later received a Dutch championship as a modernized sports activities racer within the early Seventies earlier than it was introduced again to its authentic splendor. I purchased it from a fellow on the West Coast named Don Stark and have been racing it for the previous three years or so. It’s most likely my favourite general race automotive we’ve, however then once more I haven’t raced the XJR-16s but!”
