Keeping a secret from Sam Posey

LAKEVILLE — It was a very difficult secret to keep, particularly in an industry expert at sending info through the grapevine faster than a Lamborghini lapping Lime Rock — and especially considering that the surprise was for a man (a legend, really) from Sharon.But the secret was kept, and so on Saturday, March 9, at the Amelia Island (Fla.) Concours d’Elegance, one of the world’s most famous automotive events, and where this year the honored guest was Sam Posey, Lime Rock Park owner Skip Barber announced that the track’s front straightaway will be forever named Sam Posey Straight.According to the attendees at the Amelia banquet honoring him, Posey was rendered speechless — no mean feat in that he is one of the most erudite, articulate gentlemen you’ll ever meet.“I know that Sam deeply loves Lime Rock Park,” said Barber at the banquet. “He’s been racing here 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 here, in a Formula Vee that had 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 Formula Vee 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 beautiful buildings here, including the now-iconic paddock tower, were designed by Sam,” Barber said.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 — he’ll be doing Formula 1 for NBC Sports Channel this year — 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 sportswriting 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.Bill Warner, Amelia’s founder and chairman, said, “Sam is one of the true gentlemen of motorsport and so respected for his knowledge, insight and dry humor. He has done so many things so well in racing, and he has that one-of-a-kind style in the commentary booth. Sam is a big supporter of the Amelia Concours and has also been a judge and seminar panelist with us. It is a great pleasure to have had him as our guest of honor.”When Barber got back from Florida, he said, “I wanted to do this special thing, for Sam and Ellen and the kids, so that Sam could savor it, appreciate it, in the here and now. That’s not an opportunity commonly afforded. I’ll be sending him the revised track map in about a week!”