The front straightaway at Lime Rock Park was renamed Sam Posey Straight to honor the racing driver that saw much success at the Connecticut track. Lime Rock Park owner Skip Barber made the announcement on Saturday, March 9, 2013 at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, where this year Posey was Honorary Chairman. In Lime Rock’s 57-year history, this is the first name change for a section of the track.
Skip Barber commented, “I know – we all know – that Sam deeply loves Lime Rock Park. He’s been racing at Lime Rock since he was a teen – he grew up five miles from the track. Sam was the first driver to lap the track in less than 60 seconds – that was a big, big deal when Sam did that, in 1967. He was driving a McLaren Can-Am car. And that was just two years after his very first race at Lime Rock, in a Formula Vee, a car that has less than a fifth of the power of that McLaren.”
“Sam was able to use Lime Rock as a launching pad for what turned out to be an astoundingly steep early career path. One year after that FV race, he was racing a 500 horsepower Bizzarrini 5300 GT at Le Mans. And of course, we’ve been blessed that no less than three of the track’s beautiful buildings, including the now-iconic paddock tower, were designed by Sam,” continued Barber.
Posey competed in just about every form of racing, including Can-Am, Trans-Am, World Endurance Championship, IMSA, Indy Cars, Formula 5000 and Formula 1. Since 1981, Posey has been one of the most sought-out TV racing announcers, and he’s also an accomplished writer, painter and artist. An avid model railroader, he authored Playing with Trains: A Passion Beyond Scale. Posey not only wrote an autobiography, The Mudge Pond Express, he won a sports writing Emmy in the early 1990s.
Although Posey retired from professional driving in the 1980s, he has not retired from the cockpit; he still drives his PRS Formula Ford at speed during Lime Rock Drivers Club track days.
For more information, visit www.limerock.com.
[Source: Lime Rock]
Thought you might enjoy this. Carl & Jeanne