This autographed poster, measuring 17 inches high by 13 inches wide, is extremely rare; can't stress how much. It was acquired, in-person, at the evening guest speaker event at the 2007 Amelia Island Concours which was done to honor former "road racers" from the world of sports car racing who actually raced on real street roads temporarily used as race courses. You could only get the poster by attending this special event and standing in line while a limited amount of the posters were passed to each driver. My guess is less than 100 were signed; the average age of the driver attendees was 78 so the process was kept short and quick.
Following the event, an inexpensive poster frame was bought for it. To keep the poster from sliding on the larger sheet of white paper-backing in the frame, four small pieces of double sided tape were used to secure the poster in place. The fragments of tape are ONLY on the back of the poster and are less than 1 inch wide in each case. The white paper backing has been removed, except for the paper that actually made contact with the tape. Mention this because the tape does not affect in any way the actual viewing / presentation of the poster from the front; just something that in retrospect I wish had not been done before it was given to me. This poster will frame in "as-new" condition when looking at it.
Anyway, to the poster itself. It honors 9 former stars of "road" racing: Sir Stirling Moss, Brian Redman, Alain de Cadenet, David Hobbs, John Surtees, MBE, and Vic Elford, all from England; and John Fitch, Sam Posey and Herschel McGriff of the US. Stirling Moss, Elford, Fitch, DeCadenet and Surtees are deceased- making this poster all the rarer.
David Hobbs, Alain de Cadenet, and Sam Posey signed the poster in the margins; for a total of nine drivers. These 3 driver's facial pictures are NOT on the poster.
Some key points on those that signed:
- Sir Stirling Moss was easily the greatest Formula 1 driver to NOT win a championship; though he won many key sports car races, including the legendary Mille Miglia. He drove Mercedes, Alfas, Ferraris and Jaguars in sports cars.
- Vic Elford won the Monte Carlo Rally and many races for Porsche, including the 1971 Sebring 12 hours and the 1968 Monte Carlo Rally for rally cars (in a Porsche 911 of all things). He also drove the Chaparral "sucker" car for Jim Hall in the Can-Am sports car series.
- John Surtees was the 1964 F-1 champion for Ferrari and a superb sports car driver, esp. for Ferrari; his Ferrari was featured in the movie "Grand Prix"- John playing the fictitious Jean-Pierre Sarti who gets killed at Monza in the movie's last scene.
- John Fitch was one of the few Americans during WW-2 to actually shoot down a German Messerschmitt ME-262 fighter jet; later spending time in a Nazi prison camp. He won his class in the 1955 Mille Miglia for Mercedes. He served as the first team manager for Corvette racing and created the Fitch Safety Barrier (the yellow barrels you see under overpasses on our roads today).
- Herschel McGriff won the Carrera Pan-American road race all the way back in 1950 in a rugged but bulky American sedan and ran many stock cars races in NASCAR.
- Redman won everything possible in sports car racing except for the 24 hrs of LeMans; he won Sebring, Daytona, Spa, etc. He was partnered in the famous powder blue John Weyer Porsche 908's and 917's with Jo Siffert, among others. He later won multiple F-5000 championships for Texan Jim Hall. He was the team leader and driver for the Jaguar team run by Bob Tullius. He is arguably the most important person in the American vintage racing scene.
- Posey ran in the Can-Am, Trans-Am, F-5000 and world sports car championship. He finished 3rd at LeMans in 1971 in a Ferrari 512M. After retirement, he was best known for his commentary on ABC and Speed Vision, esp. for the Indy 500 and F-1 races. It was his magical voice that introduced the Indy 500 and many F-1 races on TV.
- David Hobbs raced for Penske, Gulf-Weyer Porsche (917) and also in F-5000 and spent decades as a TV analyst. He also raced for John Weyer's Ford GT-40 program. He too is a very famous TV commentator- doing loads of NASCAR races back in the mid to late 1970's.
- While a successful racer, Alain de Cadenet is best known for the marvelous commentary in a group of videos about the greatest sports cars of all time. He is recently deceased.
All of these signatures were done with an Ultra Fine Tip black Sharpie pen, so there's no bleeding of ink into the surrounding paper. All this poster needs is a good frame and a key spot on your motor sports wall. Oh!- and it's been kept out of direct sunlight for the entire time I've had it; and near a dehumidifier too.