I’ve so wanted to return to the Lime Rock Historic Festival, and with the encouragement and support of fabulous artist Chris Osborne and Michael Ricciardi of European Motorsports, I made the journey. Over 2,100 miles of driving later, I still can’t believe the amazing time I had there.
Michael Ricciardi of European Motorsports
Chris Osborne and her amazing art
With the help of the Lime Rock Park marketing staff, including Mitchell Conroy, Mike Distefano, and Nicholas Leone, I got to live-sketch dream cars.
Me sketching the Bugatti Atlantic - Photo Christopher Carveth
The first was the Mullin Automotive Museum’s famous Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic. As I sketched away, I met old friends, and made new ones, including Peter Mullin himself, who came to see what I was hatching. He is in fact buying the original art, with the proceeds of the sale going to the supported charity The Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Peter Mullin and I - Photo Christopher Carveth
1936 Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic
The next day, I pinched myself … there was the 1937 24 Heures du Mans winning Bugatti Type 57G from the Simeone Museum! Another stunning subject to sketch!
Me sketching the Bugatti "Tank" - Photo Dom Miliano
Of course, it was all part of the largest North American gathering of the Bugatti marque, with 60 + examples assembled! So much French rolling beauty in one place!!
1936 Bugatti Type 57G "Tank"
Over the weekend, I was so happy to connect in person with Lyn St.James, a real racing hero of mine, plus the wonderful Tom Cotter, writer, racer, and TV personality.
Me live-sketching the Cunningham C-4RK recreation - Photo Brian Koch
On Coucours car show day, I chose to sketch Chuck Schoendorf’s brutish Cunningham C-4RK recreation. I love the purposeful lines of that racer … it just shouts, “Get out of my way!”
1952 Cunningham C-4RK
On the last day, I wandered around to say hello to friends Phil Lamont and Michael Gans, stopping at Tom’s stand to check out his Cunningham C-3 when he requested a sketch of it. No problem! The barn-find racer still has its patina, making it a challenging subject to sketch.
1952 Cunningham C-3
I sold 3 of my 4 sketches, allowing me to more than cover my costs, while also providing a bit of a show for the spectators. I was made to feel so at home at Lime Rock Park, I can’t imagine not returning for next year’s Historic Festival.
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The Greenwich Concours d’Élégance is a premier event in North America that I’ve had the honour of attending previously in 2014 and 2015.
Interestingly, a client from New Jersey ordered 2 prints this past Christmas from me because she remembered me live-sketching at the 2015 edition.
This stirred me into considering a trip to the 2018 Concours when out of the blue, I received a text from my good friend Michael Ricciardi inviting me to join him there.
Michael owns European Motorsports in Lawrence MA, and he had two cars at the Bonhams auction being held at the Concours. One was a stunning, low mileage 1986 Lamborghini Countach and the other was an equally stunning low mileage 1986 Ferrari Testarossa “Flying Mirror”.
Michael Ricciardi with the Countach and the Testarossa.
While Michael was prepping the cars for auction, I decided to do custom license-plate art for each. I think that it really added some spice to both cars.
Our sometimes dinnertime wheels was a stunningly beautiful front-engine, 12-cylinder Lamborghini Espada … even I felt cool in that car!
Lamborghini Espada ... so so cool!!
Once we arrived in Greenwich, we were invited to a Friday evening cocktail party held at the Malcolm Pray Achievement Centre, the event being hosted by his daughter Melanie Pray. It was so good to meet Melanie, an incredibly dynamic person! My art was also on display there, which was a real treat, but the biggest treat for me was seeing my dear friend Deb Stearn Pollack, who had come in from Los Angeles to see a close friend and take in the weekend’s event.
Deb and I beside my art on display.
Deb is an automotive PR guru who also puts together the “Drive Toward a Cure” Tours, a major fundraising event for Parkinson’s Research, which I have supported through donations of original art.
I gave Deb one of my VIDA Design scarves.
My appearance at the Greenwich Concours d’Élégance was kindly supported by the event organizer Mary Wennerstrom, Event Chairman, and her team. They were amazing!
This year’s Concours celebrated the cars of Briggs Cunningham and of John Fitch, and was attended by David Hobbs, signing his new autobiography “Hobbo”, and Wayne Carini, host of TV’s Chasing Classic Cars.
Me live-sketching the Cunningham C4RC - Dom Miliano photo
I managed to get one sketch done per day. On Saturday I did a live-sketch of the beautiful Cunningham C4RC #5222, owned by the wonderful Larry and Jan Pfitzenmaier, and on Sunday I live-sketched Peter Sach’s 1957 Ferrari 335 Sport Scaglietti Spyder, which also happened to win Best of Show Sport.
Me live-sketching the Ferrari 335 Sport Scaglietti Spyder - Robert Brodowski photo
Over the two days, I met countless great people and made new friends. I was thrilled to be visited by my dear friend Chris Osborne and her lovely friend Melanie. Chris is a premiere automotive artist, and it was just so great to see her again.
Me with Chris and Melanie - Ed Hyman photo
Needless to say, I had an amazing time in Greenwich!
Once back in MA, I hung around a few days more with Michael, live-sketching one of his cars, and changing the entrance wall at European Motorsports by putting up my art. It was nice to see my art displayed in a proper way in a proper place; hopefully there will be a better chance of selling it there!
My art at the entrance of European Motorsports
I’m itching to get back to see my New England friends!
The 1949 24 heures du Mans marked the return to racing at the Circuit de la Sarthe after World War II.
There were 49 starters for the race, driving Delages, Frazer Nashs, Bentleys, HRGs, Aston Martins, Healeys, Simcas, Talbot-Lagos, and for the very first time, Ferraris.
Two Ferrari 166 MMs were entered, one being driven by the team of Luigi Chinetti and Peter Mitchell-Thomson (Lord Selsdon) and the other by Jean Lucas and Pierre Louis-Dreyfus.
The Ferrari of Chinetti and Lord Selsdon kept a stead pace near the front while the Ferrari of Lucas and Louis-Dreyfus crashed out early on lap 53.
Lord Selsdon was feeling quite ill at the time, managing a total of only 72 minutes of racing, so Luigi Chinetti did the lion’s share of the driving for the race.
Eight hours in, Chinetti pushed the Ferrari into the lead, which he kept to the end, nursing the car with a slipping clutch.
Amazingly, it was Luigi Chinetti 3rd Le Mans win, having also won in 1932 with Raymond Sommer and in 1934 with Philippe Étancelin.
It was also a landmark win for the fledgling Ferrari company, and a hint of the future domination that Ferrari would have on the race through the 1950’s and the early 1960’s.
In each time-period of Grand Prix racing, there are stars that shine brighter than others … Nuvolari in the 1930’s, Fangio in the 1950’s, Clark in the 1960’s, and so on ...
In the late 1980’s/early 1990’s, Formula 1’s brightest star was Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna.
Born on March 21st, 1960, Senna started racing karts at a young age, then moved into open-wheeled Formula 3, winning the 1983 British Formula 3 Championship.
He entered Formula 1 in 1984, driving for Toleman-Hart, before moving to Lotus-Renault for 1985 and winning his first race in the Lotus 97T at the rainy Portuguese Grand Prix.
After his three seasons with Lotus, in 1988 he moved to McLaren, joining teammate Frenchman Alain Prost.
A very strong rivalry developed between Prost and Senna, yet Senna won 8 of 16 races in the McLaren MP4/4, and took the Formula 1 Driver’s Championship. This, combined with Prost’s 7 wins, gave McLaren their 4th Constructors’ Championship.
Senna stayed with the McLaren team through to the end of 1993, winning 2 more Championships (1990, 1991) before moving to the Williams team for 1994.
The 3rd race of the 1994 season was held in San Marino. Sadly, in the Saturday practice session, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger died in the crash of his Simtek-Ford.
During the Sunday May 1st race, Senna crash his Williams, hitting the wall very hard on the 7th lap, and never regained consciousness.
The legend was no more …
