Historic IMSA Race Friday Qualifying from Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Historic Motor Sports Association Practice and Qualifying Puts Bennett on the Pole Historic IMSA Race at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach MONTROSE, CA (APRIL 13, 2019) – Vintage and historic race cars took to the streets of Long Beach Friday afternoon as the Historic IMSA GTO Challenge wrapped up qualifying at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Historic Motor Sports Association (HMSA) sanctions the Historic IMSA GTO Challenge and its top qualifying car was Craig Bennett of Millford, MIch., in his 1990 Nissan 300 ZX. HMSA President Cris Vandagriff has overseen the vintage portion of the wildly popular Southern California tradition nine times and said he’s always impressed and awed by the cars entered in race. “What makes the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach so special is the number of cars they put in front of this massive crowd each year,” Vandagriff said. “They honor the history of racing with our historic event and they feature the fastest and most modern cars with the IndyCars and there are so many other races in between. It’s a fantastic event.” The cars in the Historic IMSAS GTO Challenge are all be period correct race cars from 1980 through 1991 – helping to celebrate the 50thanniversary of IMSA. The race starts today at 5 p.m. Steve Millen won with the #75 Nissan 300ZX in 1991 and his car is scheduled to race. The 2019 schedule of events for the only sanctioning body in the world that requires period correct race cars can be found at http://www.hmsausa.com/ and features some of the longest-running events in the country. About Historic Motor Sports Association HMSA serves as the sanctioning body for premiere historic racing events such as the world famous Monterey Historic Automobile Races and remains the only organization to mandate the cars race as they were and not what they could have been (historically correct within time period the car originally raced). -30- Cheers, Gabrielle Stevenson gabrielle@socialgpr.com (415) 734-0710