The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will honor 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time Indycar champion Bobby Rahal at its 16th annual renewal, scheduled for March 11–13, 2011, at The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach.
“One of the great pleasures about Amelia is that we can honor the best of the best,” says Bill Warner, Amelia founder and co-chairman, “and Bobby Rahal certainly falls into the category. His record speaks for itself and he is still going strong today managing a successful racing team along with his son Graham’s budding racing career. We are honored and excited to have him with us on Amelia Island.”
Beyond his Indycar successes, Rahal was also part of the winning combinations at the 1981 Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 1987 12 Hours of Sebring, and in consort with Late Night television host David Letterman, fielded the winning car for Buddy Rice in the 2004 Indianapolis 500. This latter accomplishment makes Rahal one of only three men—Wilbur Shaw and A.J. Foyt are the other two—to win Indy as both a driver and a car owner. These days, Rahal-Letterman Racing fields a two-car team of factory BMWs in the American Le Mans Series, and Rahal is also a principal of Historic Motorsports Productions, which organizes the Legends of Motorsports festivals for historic racing cars.
Also on the docket for Amelia 2011 is a seminar on Brock Yates’s outlaw cross-country run, The Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. A number of participants in those legendary events will be on hand at Amelia to discuss their adventures during the four officially unofficial jaunts that stretched many imaginations and inspired the feature film Cannonball Run. For more information, call (904) 636-0027 or visit www.ameliaconcours.org
