Sam Posey is the Honoree for the 18th Annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance on March 10, 2013. Many of the cars he raced with conspicuous success during his competition career will be featured in the season opening Concours’ “The Cars of Sam Posey”.
Sam Posey’s talent behind the wheel of a racing car rushed to center stage during the mid-‘60s. The polite and articulate New Englander gave the impression he was a man out of time. His degree from Rhode Island School of Design and his gentlemanly demeanor seemed at odds with the fact that he was fast, forceful and instantly competitive in any race car.
His first race came in a Volkswagen-powered Formula V at Lime Rock near his home in Sharon, Conn. Sam quickly graduated from small, low-powered racers into fire breathers like his McLaren Can-Am car and a Bizzarrini P538 5300 GT at Le Mans, just one year after he began racing.
Sam started racing at the moment American road racing erupted in a surge of power, money and uninhibited creativity. His radical Caldwell D7 Can-Am racer joined other unusual and unlimited American sports cars like the high-winged Chaparrals. Decades of technological orthodoxy were swept away by an American-led spirit of design independence and engineering innovation. Sam’s radical Caldwell D7 Can-Am racer will be the centerpiece of “The Cars of Sam Posey” on Amelia’s field on March 10, 2013 and is a testament to the unbridled spirit of American Road racing in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
The Amelia’s Posey collection includes the 200-mph Ferrari 512M that Sam and Tony Adamowicz raced to a podium finish at Le Mans in 1971. A Le Mans winner will also be on the Amelia field to honor Posey’s career; the same car Sam raced to 8th place in the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans was also the 1965 24 Hour winner, the Ferrari 275LM now owned by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. From 1966 Sam raced at Le Mans ten times.
Posey excelled in both sprint and endurance racing. In 1975 he won the 12 Hours of Sebring driving a factory-entered BMW 3.0 CSL. That rare racer, still owned by BMW Motorsports of Munich, Germany, will join the heady inventory of Posey’s race cars at Amelia in 2013.
Sam raced in all professional North American series. His Indy 500 debut in 1972 earned him fifth place. Trans-Am, NASCAR, Can-Am and Formula 5000 successes dot Posey’s broad racing resume and many of the cars he raced in those series will be at “The Amelia” in 2013.
“I can’t think of anyone who has driven a more varied selection of racing cars than Sam Posey. Sam’s raced everything but sprint cars and Top Fuel Dragsters!,” said Amelia Concours founder and Chairman Bill Warner. “And for all I know maybe he’s raced them too!”
Posey’s racing career didn’t end when he retired from the cockpit. As a race analyst for the ABC Television Network’s Indy 500 broadcasts, Posey forged a career that nearly equals his racing exploits. After retiring from the ABC commentary box in 1995 Sam moved to Speed Channel, now Speed TV. His voice and his words open each Speed TV broadcast of the Formula 1 season. His verbal essays, “Posey’s Perspective”, are pivotal components of Speed TV’s “Formula 1 Debrief” show.
Posey’s own F1 career logged two starts in the Grand Prix of the United States at Watkins Glen (1971 and 1972) racing a pair of Cosworth DFV-powered Surtees Grand Prix racers.
The 2013 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance will be held March 8 -10th on the 10th and 18th fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. The show’s Foundation has donated over $2 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc. and other charities on Florida’s First Coast since its inception in 1996.
About The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance
Now in its second decade, the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is among the top automotive events in the world. Always held the second full weekend in March, “The Amelia” draws nearly 250 rare vehicles from collections around the world to The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach and The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island for a celebration of the automobile like no other. Since 1996, the show’s Foundation has donated over $2 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc. and other deserving charities on Florida’s First Coast. The 18th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is scheduled for March 8-10, 2013. For more information, visit www.ameliaconcours.org or call 904-636-0027.
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