In the Beginning:
HRG was founded in 1997 as the Volvo Historic Series (VHS)
In the summer of 1996, Volvo was looking for a way to market its cars to the racing community. They had been involved in racing in the US for a number of years. For example, in 1957 a Volvo PV444 won its class at Pike's Peak. Art Riley and Bill Rutan won the 1957 Little LeMans endurance race at Lime Rock. Volvos finished 1st through 5th in that race. Riley and Rutan repeated their win in 1958 and 1961. Rutan also won Pike's Peak in 1958. By the time Riley and Rutan retired, they had almost 50 wins in Volvos.
By 1996 though, Volvo was mostly being represented in Vintage racing, including recreations of the 2000 mile La Carrera road race in Mexico and a team of Volvo Amazons (122s) running the 45 day, 10,000 mile Peking to Paris race.
Fred Hammond, Director of Corporate Communications for Volvo reached out to Tom Lynch in April of 1996. Tom, a club racer and board member of the SCCA's Northern New Jersey Region happened to have a day job putting on special events for car companies. Tom contacted former FVee racer and NNJR SCCA Steward Dave Panas. Legend has it they discussed it “over an Ice Cream or two” and made plans to get it on the road.
The three of them conspired to create a series for vintage cars to race in the Northeast, home base for Volvo US. Dave worked with the SCCA to get a set of vintage racing rules created. Volvo supplied the money, $50,000 the first year and a new Volvo as a pace car. Tom’s focus was marketing it to various tracks so we could run our events in conjunction with other races to get maximum exposure for Volvo.
Volvo Press Release March 12, 1999
In March 1997, Volvo made it official
with a national press release. The company would supplement the entry fees for
all participants (drivers would only pay $45 a weekend). They would also
sponsor the season ending Len Frank Memorial Trophy (honoring an automotive
journalist, broadcaster and racer). This award consisted of a trophy and a
$5,000 check to the top series point winner. The top finishing Volvo driver
would get an additional $2,000.
Cash and trophies would be distributed to the top drivers in each of the then, three classes (Under 1500cc, 1501-3000cc and over 3001cc)
A Volvo wagon was given to the group for use as a pace car and promo vehicle. Volvo would also supply radios, advertising and other promotional items including, shirts, gloves, jackets, stopwatches as well as a contribution to the workers fund at each event.
We had a sales brochure printed up.
Entry to the VHS cost $80 a year and included a hard copy of the rule books plus all the required graphics.
The series raced at Pocono, Bridgehampton and Lime Rock that first season.
Less than 2 months after the March press release, the first race (of 5 that first year) was held.
The track was Pocono.
The sanctioning body was the Northern New Jersey Region of the SCCA.
The date was May 10, 1997
10 cars took the green flag out of 14 entrants.
1st place overall went to Duane Matejka in a Volvo P1800 (his car is on the cover of the VHS brochure on the left).
Results from the first Volvo Historic Series Race
The first season’s Awards Banquet was held at the Friar Tuck Restaurant in Cedar Grove, NJ on Dec 6, 1997. Duane Matejka, the winner of the first race, went on to have a great season and cleaned up at the 1997 Awards Banquet. He was the top scorer overall in points, the top finishing Volvo and the group 2 champion. Duane received $8,000 in cash for his efforts. First through third in the other two groups earned, $500, $250 and $100 respectively. There were also points awarded based on the number of cars in a group. For the largest group, #2, 1501cc-3000cc, this meant there was extra cash handed out for 1st-4th places, resulting in total payouts of $1,000, $750, $500 and $200.
Not bad for amateur racing!
VHS newsletter covering the 1998 banquet
There was a customer survey at the end of 1997. I'd like to pass on a few comments from the drivers
1. Good competitive racing for older cars
2. Move the Z cars and the Porsches out of my group - they're too fast
3. Corvettes should be allowed to run slicks
4. My favorite- requesting extra points for yellow Mustangs
The next few years:
VHS @ Lime Rock 2001
The series really took off for the next few years with 50 car fields not uncommon at some of the larger tracks. The series also expanded and started to have support races outside of the SCCA. These included NASCAR’s Busch North, ARCA and The American Le Mans Series.
Major changes ahead:
At the end of 2003, Volvo decided they couldn't afford to support the series any longer and pulled out. Dave and Tom wanted to keep the series alive so they went to the Northeast Division (NeDiv) of the SCCA. NeDiv agreed to re-charter the Volvo Historic Series (VHS) as the Historic Racing Group (HRG) and we kept racing.
With the loss of the $50K sponsorship money, and the emergence of other vintage racing organizations, participation numbers declined for several years. But our reputation for being a fun and safe place to race is drawing old and new drivers into the series. We fully expect us to be still around (Link to current schedule), having fun and trash talking at the 30th anniversary celebration in 2027.
Cool cars and great people are a powerful combination
HRG at the 2019 Thompson Vintage Motorsports Festival
Picture gallery of VHS cars and events
