Sam Posey

Born on May 26th, 1944, Samuel Felton Posey made quite a reputation on the North American scene as a versatile F5000 and Trans Am competitor and had two F1 Surtees drives in the 1971 and 1972 US Grands Prix. He contested Le Mans ten times and finished in the top ten five times, with his best finish third place in 1971 with the NART Ferrari 512M. In 1975 he shared the Sebring 12 Hour winning BMW CSL with Brian Redman, Alan Moffat and Hans Stuck and was part of the three man squad with Hervé Poulain and Jean Guichet that raced the first BMW Art Car at Le Mans. He went on to become an auto racing commentator for ABC Sports and in 1989 was part of their broadcast team covering the Tour de France cycle race. ABC brought him back as the lead anchor for the 1990 and 1991 races and he did essay work for Outdoor Life Network’s coverage of the Tour de France, serving as the Race Historian and he later moved to Speedvision. He is also a successful, museum-collected fine artist plus the designer of dozens of elegant homes and structures, including the tower and other service buildings at Lime Rock.

Sam was born to a well to do family, with his grandfather being a New York financier and head of an insurance company, that split its time between Manhattan’s Upper East Side and northern Connecticut. Sadly, he never knew his Naval officer father as he went off to war in 1944 and was killed on Okinawa shortly after Sam was born. He went to the Gunnery School and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and his mother, Mary, enthusiastically supported his fixation on competition and speed. In 1958, even though only 14 years of age and not having a driver’s license, she let him spend part of his inheritance to buy a two year-old Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing from racer John Fitch for $2,500. He taught himself to drive fast, gaining car-control basics by driving through fields of alfalfa and on an airstrip that an uncle had built. He eventually had a victorious run at a Mount Equinox hill climb in Vermont, “it turned out it was an absolutely perfect car for the thing because you turned in, and the rear suspension jacked, you’d floor it, and basically it would slide out behind, the axles would come back, and then you’d have a straight shot.” His mother loved cars and in her later years would collect her grandchildren from school in her 1969 Plymouth Superbird. She bought him a Formula Vee, which further sharpened his skills, and had the mechanic of a garage in their hometown of Sharon, who also enjoyed racing, prepare it. She bought stock in Lime Rock, which let Sam run the car on test days even though he was under the legal SCCA age of twenty one and competed at Lime Rock in 1965 and would go on to quickly develop a reputation as a good all-rounder in the US Road Racing Championship and Formula A. He admitted “it was remarkable to me that she would let me do this. But she always said it was the only thing I was good at. I was terrible in school. Bottom of the class all the time, just couldn’t do math, couldn’t do languages. English was fine. I was in good shape there…Racing was something that I could do, something I soon realised my classmates couldn’t do. It was only natural to get involved in something that would give me a sense of success, but that’s only part of the story. The rest of the story is, I loved it. I love driving. The only race that my mom really was scared about was Indy, and when Indy started she went into her laundry room and ironed a shirt for three hours, the same shirt. She came to a lot of the races. I think she liked going, and I don’t think either of us in any way perceived the danger. We just didn’t understand it. We were too naive. I mean you look down the grid now for 1959, let’s say, and it’s ‘dead, dead, dead,’ right down the list.”

It was driving a Porsche 904 GTS with Jim Haynes and Harry Theodoracopulos at Daytona in 1966 that he made his entrance onto the international motor racing stage and the trio faired well, starting twenty second and coming home eleventh overall and fourth in class. He told how a “customer of our garage was Harry Theodoracopulos, who asked me if I would drive with him in the Bridgehampton Double 500, which was an international race, an FIA race. I managed to get my international license and we won our class in Harry’s Alfa Romeo GTZ, a good-looking car. At the same time I was racing the Alfa with Harry, he helped me with contacts with Porsche and I bought a Porsche 904, prepared by the factory. It came in time for Daytona. We had problems with the brake calipers because we didn’t know to change the pads, but we still finished eleventh overall.” In further outings with the 904 he was third and twenty first at Lime Rock and Bridgehampton while shared drives with Theodoracopulos in an Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint saw fourth at Mid-America Raceway and fifth in the 12 hour Marlboro. He made his Le Mans debut that year, after “John Fitch got me a ride with the Bizzarrini team. He was going to be their distributor here. He told them that if they wanted him to distribute here, he needed an American driver, and he nominated me. That was fantastic for me.” However, he and Massimo Natili were disqualified from the race for crossing the pit safety line. The Bizzarrini was a Strada 5300 and with Can-Am just getting going, he told how “we thought we could do something great with an open body two seater that they had built, but they wanted a lot of money to insure it. Ray Caldwell, who I was working with at the time, said that for that kind of money, we could buy a McLaren. So we did. We put a 289 Shelby Ford in it and that’s how we got into the Can-Am. We had a great time with it.” He would go on to drive a variety of machines in later series, including the Caldwell D7, a Lola T160 and a Ferrari 712M though outings in the McLaren from September onwards saw twenty first at Mont Tremblant, eighth at Bridgehampton, thirty eighth at Laguna Seca and eighteenth at Riverside and in the final races at Nassau he was thirty first in the Governor’s Trophy and Nassau TT, ninth in the Nassau Classic and sixth in the Nassau Trophy.

Alternating between a McLaren Elva Mk11 and a McLaren M1B in USRRC events in 1967 he was second at Watkins Glen and the Stardust GP at Las Vegas, fourth at Pacific Raceway and Kent plus sixth at Mid-Ohio and the 50 Mile Road America (with Jerry Entin). He had started on pole at Las Vegas (eventually finishing second to Donohue) but flipped at Bridgehampton, where he felt it was because something broke or he had missed a shift; it turned out that the shift linkage had broken and he had to kick the door open and slide out. At his next race, at Watkins Glen though, he qualified on the front row and finished second to Donohue. In shared Porsche 911 drives with Peter Gregg they were third at Marlboro and tenth at the Sebring 4 Hours. Autodynamics launched the Caldwell D7 Can Am car that year, with Sam as the main driver and Brett Lunger and Ray Caldwell driving selected rounds. Sam had met Caldwell, a New England engineer, while racing Formula Vees, and while running the McLaren they had begun work on their Caldwell D7, which incorporated a driver operated tall rear wing. One was destroyed in a massive testing accident at Lime Rock though its only finishes were twelfth and thirteenth at Mosport and Riverside. Adapting to more complex Can-Am courses was a major problem though as “at turns like the Carousel at Elkhart Lake, we were blindingly fast. In a nine-second trap, we were four-tenths to five-tenths faster than anybody else. Then, we’d get down to the rougher turns and we’d give all that time up, plus more. The Caldwell was a mixed bag. We never had any high finishes in it, but it had a lot of promise.”

His first two races in 1968 came in February and March with a Ford Mustang and he was twenty first in the Daytona 24 Hours with Jim Kauffman but he and Milt Minter retired from the Sebring 12 Hours due to brake issues on lap sixteen. In a later solo drive with the car he was ninth at Bonnet Park. Sam also contested Trans Am races with Roger Penske’s Camaro, finishing second at Watkins Glen, third at Bridgehampton, Meadowdale and St.Jovite plus sixth at Bryar. He had been leading at Watkins Glen when he spun on gravel, which dropped him to a second place finish, something that “Roger never forgave.” Donohue dominated that year’s championship with the iconic Penske Sunoco Camaro and won ten of the thirteen races though Sam’s second place was the only race that Donohue was beaten by a Camaro. After starting on pole at Mosport Park’s SCCA F5000 race with a Le Grand Mk7, a wheel hub problem saw his race end after two laps. He drove the car again at Brainerd, and was fourth in practice, but refused to start the race as the car was too dangerous. Autodynamics had a short lived F5000 project with the Caldwell D8, which was intended for Lunger but though two chassis were built, Lunger crashed the first during a test and the races were done with a second chassis. It only did five races and in his only outing in the car Sam scored the best result with a fifth place finish at Lime Rock Park. He contested USRRC and Can Am events with the Caldwell D7B and finished fourth in the first round in Mexico and improved to third in the following round at Riverside Raceway, scoring the car’s only podium finish, then was fourth at Mid-Ohio and seventh and eighth at Laguna Seca and Mont Tremblant. He had one Can Am outing in a Caldwell D7C in September, finishing tenth at Road America, but then switched to a Lola T160 and was eighth at Bridgehampton, fourth at Edmonton, ninth at Laguna Seca, fifth at Las Vegas and second in the 200 Mile Fuji. Recalling his time with Caldwell, Sam told how “my Mom never put one penny toward my racing. She lent me money for a week once. I had a monumental crash in Riverside in the spring of ’69, and we needed another car. I mean, our car was written off. So she advanced me the $13,000 that it took to buy this car, and I paid her back right away. But people saw her writing the check, you know, and they assumed…But I had an inheritance from my dad. It wouldn’t buy a set of wheels today but it was enough to do the Caldwell car.” Caldwell engineered their Can-Am racer, while Sam had worked out the aerodynamics with an MIT professor. The car featured solid axles front and rear and he stated “it might’ve worked better if tracks were smoother and flatter than they actually are but it was plagued by a tendency to “jerk from side to side as if it was going down the trolley tracks.”

The first of three NART outings in 1969 came in February at the Daytona 24 Hours where he and Ricardo Rodriguez finished twenty third (and class winners) in a Ferrari 275 GTB/C and he was thirty sixth (and tenth in class) with Bob Dini in the following month’s Sebring 12 hours in a Ferrari Dino 206 GT. Teamed with Ricardo Rodriguez and Teodoro Zeccoli, there was an eighth place (and fourth in class) at Le Mans in June with a Ferrari 250 LM and Sam’s Ferrari would finish in the top 10 in the next four years. Contesting the USRRC with the Chevrolet-powered Eagle Mk5 he won the second round at Monterey and was second at the Colorado GP at Continental Divide but an accident ended his run at Sears Point and in the following races he was second and fourth at Seattle and Minnesota. While at Riverside in April, he lost his brakes so decided to spin the car to reduce speed and maybe go off the course safely but at the last second he spotted another car sitting sideways, directly in his path. Sam survived the fiery crash with minor injuries but the other driver (Ron Courtney) was badly injured. A switch to a McLaren M10A brought seventh at Lime Rock, fourth and fifth at Brainerd and Mosport, a victory (from pole) at Lime Rock and second at Thompson to finish third in the championship. In USAC events with the Granatelli STP Lotus-Plymouth he was third and fourth at Kent and seventh and eighth at Indianapolis. There was a victory at Lime Rock in a factory Ford Mustang, run by Carroll Shelby’s team and driven by Peter Revson and Sam recalled “Peter got in the show at Indy and I was congratulating him. We were friends and he said, ‘You know, the Mustang is going to be open. Why don’t we call Shelby?’ So we called him right from the pay phone and got Lou Spencer, who was his right-hand man at the time, and Lou shouted, ‘Shel, we need a driver for Lime Rock. How about Sam Posey?’ And Shelby came back, ‘Who’s that?’ But we got the deal and put the car on the pole with a hell of a run. At Lime Rock, you do the turns but the last thing is the downhill. And so you got your lap, and it’s really good, but now you’ve got to take the chance going flat out of that last turn. It was an exhausting, hot day, and the race was more than three hours. I won it, and then I won at Laguna in the 5000 (series) the next weekend-or was it the weekend before? Either way, I was feeling good.”

Following this he returned to F5000 with a Surtees TS8, qualifying on the front row in all eight races during 1971. He was second at Seattle and Lime Rock and third at Riverside, took victories at Mid Ohio (from pole) and the Seafair 200 at Seattle Raceway though finished the season second to David Hobbs. NART outings saw retirements at Sebring and Daytona though he was eighth in the Buenos Aires 1000kms alongside Nestor Garcia-Veiga and Luis Di Palma and took a third place podium finish (behind two Porsche 917Ks) paired with Tony Adamowicz in a Ferrari 512M at Le Mans, his best finish at the event. He was also sixth with a 512M at a Watkins Glen Can Am race plus was fourth with Roy Woods Racing’s McLaren M8E in the LA Times GP at Riverside. He made his World Championship debut in the US GP at Watkins Glen with a Surtees TS9. Rolf Stommelen had contracted a tooth infection, and would not be able to drive, and Mike Hailwood was already signed to drive the third car. John Surtees had a competition during practice between Gijs van Lennep and Sam for Stommelen’s car though it was not until after practice that he decided to let Sam drive. He qualified eighteenth but retired from a strong run with a blown piston on lap fifteen.

His first two races in 1972 were with NART but he retired the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 from the Daytona 6 Hours in February and was thirteenth the following month with Adamowicz at Sebring. Le Mans saw a sixth place result with Adamowicz though he and Hobbs retired from the Watkins Glen 6 Hours due to engine issues. His second World Championship GP came back at Watkins Glen, where he qualified twenty third in a Surtees TS9B and finished twelfth. He was fifth at Indy and Pocono in USAC races with a Norris Industries Eagle and Sam recalled the famed Indy engine builder, Herb Porter, prepping their turbocharged Offy for the four-lap qualifying run at Indianapolis. At that time there was no driver-adjustable boost and Porter reached to the turbo, looked at Sam, said, “Rookie?” and increased the boost. He asked “road racer?” and increased it again. “Sports cars?” Saw a further twist. Porter assured 1,200hp for qualifying and Sam was seventh on the grid and came home fifth. Fred Carrillo, the founding California hot rodder and connecting-rod maestro, had broken his leg and Jack McCormack, who had been Sam’s Trans Am mechanic under Caldwell, went to visit him in the hospital. An Oklahoma oilman named Doug Champlin was also visiting and the two quickly decided to start a race team, with Sam as driver with the Champ Carr Racing Surtees TS11 (the ‘Carr’ was short for Carrillo). Although he did not run the complete eight-race series he still placed second three times and was third twice but came runner up in the championship, this time to Graham McRae. He was fifth in a Can-Am drive with Vasek Polak Racing’s Porsche 917PA at Laguna Seca while IMSA races with a Corvette saw twenty fourth alongside Denny Long at the 200 Mile Lime Rock but despite starting on pole for the 250 Mile Daytona Finale he did not finish. He was second at the 6 Hour Mid-Ohio, alongside Haywood in a Porsche 911 while in Trans Am he was eighteenth at Road America with a Datsun 510 and second at Road Atlanta.

The first two months of 1973 saw him at the Tasman series in Australia/New Zealand with a Surtees TS11, where he was second at the Teretonga International, fifth at Surfers Paradise and sixth and seventh at the Sundown International and Warwick Farm. He ran at the front again in F5000 with the TS11, finishing second at Laguna Seca, Road America and Riverside, third at Brainerd and Lime Rock but again came second in the championship, this time to Graham McRae. In a Trans Am race with a Brumos Porsche 911 Carrera he and Peter Gregg were second at Lime Rock while in IMSA with John Greenwood’s Chevrolet Corvette he was third in two races at Lime Rock. He retired in a NART Ferrari drive at Le Mans though was fourteenth (and sixth in class) at the Watkins Glen 6 Hours, paired with Francois Migault and contesting USAC events with Norris Industries Eagle-Offenhauser, he was sixth in Ontario though did not finish at Pocono and Ontario.

In 1974, a Trans Am outing with Ted Trudon’s Porsche Carrera RSR produced fifth at Lime Rock and he was eighth in a World Sports Prototype drive with the RSR at the Watkins Glen 6 Hours with Elliott Forbes-Robinson and David Hobbs. Norris Industries Talon MR1 F5000 finishes included fifth and tenth at Watkins Glen and Ontario and thirteenth in a USAC Phoenix 150 with their Lola-Chevrolet. While in practice for a Watkins Glen Can Am race, when he applied the brakes of the Ferrari 712M, the pedal fell to the floor sharply and he ended up braking a bone in his foot. Unable to continue, he handed over the driving duties to Brian Redman for the race.

Sam was recruited by BMW in 1975 to campaign the 3.0 CSL Coupes, which, like many of the IMSA contenders, featured a bodykit that included much wider fender flares and a deeper front valance. BMW raced several cars with much success but lost the Camel GT Challenge trophy to the Brumos Racing Porsche RSR. He and Hans Joachim Stuck retired at Daytona and Sebring though teamed with Brian Redman the pair were sixth at the Watkins Glen 6 Hours and second (in a 1-2 finish behind the Stuck and Dieter Quester CSL) at the 6 Hour Riverside. In solo drives he was second at the 100 mile Mid-Ohio (and took fastest lap), third in the 250 Daytona finale plus fourth and seventh in the Schaefer 350 at Lime Rock and the 1 Hour Talladega. A highlight was victory in the Sebring 12 Hours when part of a 4 man squad with Allan Moffat, Brian Redman and Hans-Joachim Stuck. He was also involved with BMW’s famous art cars, when Hervé Poulain (a French auctioneer and racing driver) asked artist Alexander Calder to produce the first ever BMW Art Car. Poulain then entered the car for Le Mans and he recruited Sam and Jean Guichet as co-drivers though the car retired due to transmission problems after 73 laps.

Sam did not contest as many races the following year and results with a BMW 3.5 CSL alongside Grohs and Hughes de Fierlant saw second at the Vallelunga 6 Hours plus tenth place finishes at the Mugello 6 Hours and Le Mans. In F5000 he was fifth with a Talon MR-1 at Pocono.

The majority of his racing in 1977 came with Bob Sharp Racing’s Datsun 260Z and his best results were second at Sears Point and Road Atlanta plus third at Hallett. Other drives saw eighth at Brainerd (second in class), tenth and eleventh in the 100 Mile Pocono (second in class) and Mid Ohio (first in class), twelfth at Laguna Seca (second in class) plus twelfth (and class winner) at both Road Atlanta and the Daytona 250 Mile, thirteenth (and second in class) at Lime Rock plus eighteenth in the 100 Mile Laguna Seca (third in class). He finished the season second in the GTU championship. A drive at Le Mans with Michel Leclère ended in retirement after 58 laps due to fuel pump problems.

Continuing with the 260Z in 1978, he took victory at Lime Rock, was second and third at Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta, fourth at Sears Point and sixteenth at Portland and nineteenth (fifth in class) at the Daytona 250 Miles. In what would be his last appearance as a driver at Le Mans, he was teamed with Jacques Laffite and Vern Schuppan in a Grand Touring Cars Inc. Mirage M9 and finished tenth and fifth in class.

Racing Datsuns the following year he won at Lime Rock with a 280Z, was second at Laguna Seca, fourth and sixth at Sears Point and Portland plus second with a Bob Sharp 260Z at Road Atlanta. Although Paul Newman raced a Porsche 935 at Daytona, Le Mans and Watkins Glen, he raced Bob Sharp’s 280ZX and won the SCCA C Production national championship, with seven race wins (at Brainerd, Lime Rock Park, Road Atlanta and two each at Summit Point and Watkins Glen, starting from pole in all of them) and two lap records.

He drove NTS Racing’s Datsun 240Z in 1980 and was fifth and tenth at Golden State and Lime Rock plus fifteenth (and third in class) at the Sebring 12 hours alongside George Alderman and Fred Stiff. He was teamed with Paul Newman in Bob Sharp’s 280ZX at the Road America 500 Miles though engine problems while Sam was driving ended their race after thirty eight laps and Newman never got a chance behind the wheel. In 1981 he and Fred Stiff were thirteenth, and fourth in class, in NTS Racing’s 280ZX at the Riverside 6 hours while his final race in August saw a second place finish at the Elkhart Lake 500 Mile with Brian Redman in a Kent Cooke/Wood Racing Lola T600.

After retiring from racing he began doing commentary for ABC Sports, commentating on the Indy 500, the CART/PPG Indy Car World Series plus selected NASCAR races and his voice became synonymous with Indy 500 broadcasts alongside Jim McKay, Paul Page and Bobby Unser. As he became popular and accessible among car clubs and organisations, he was a regular keynote speaker and helped his son John begin a racing school. He also covered the 1989 Tour de France cycle race and with his knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport he was brought back for the 1990 and 1991 races. Sam later moved to Speedvision (also known as Speed Channel) and did essay work for Outdoor Life Network’s coverage of the Tour de France, serving as the ‘Race Historian’. He wrote for Road & Track magazine and is the winner of an Emmy for best writing in sport. He published an autobiography, ‘The Mudge Pond Express’ in 1976, ‘Where the Writer Meets the Road,’ a 2015 compilation of his essays and commentaries and later produced ‘My Motorsports Memories, Sam Posey Scrapbook’. The books tell of his childhood when he and John Whitman raced a sled on wheels down the paved two-track that Posey’s grandfather installed between his house and the Connecticut pond. He is a respected model railroader and the author of ‘Playing With Trains’, a book on model railroading. Added to this he is a successful, museum-collected fine artist, declaring “driving and painting have been the saving grace for me” and in 2001, he was singled out in a Washington D.C., art association exhibit for his move into printmaking. He is also the designer of dozens of elegant homes and structures, including the tower and other service buildings at Lime Rock but sadly, since 1995, Sam has suffered from Parkinson’s Disease. In 2002 he was the first recipient of the Bob Akin Memorial Motorsports Award and in 2010 the F5000 Drivers Association awarded him their Lifetime Achievement Award. The F5000 Association’s President, Seb Coppola, stated “Sam is an iconic figure in motorsports. His contributions to Formula 5000 and other racing series during the 1970s and still today in sports broadcasting have been enormous. We are proud to present this Lifetime Achievement Award to Sam for his many contributions to the heritage of motorsports.” He received the Spirit of Competition Award at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in 2012 and in 2013 the front straight at Lime Rock Park was renamed the Sam Posey Straight and he was the honoured guest at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. He designed a course amid a large stand of high grass on his farm property and would drive a 250cc racing buggy flat out around it lap after lap. Lime Rock Park is close to his house in Sharon and he would take his FFord, prepared by his friend, Don Breslauer, for laps of the circuit. In 2012, someone spun in front of him at Lime Rock during a practice session, which helped convince him it was time to hang it up; “a guy spun in front of me and in avoiding him, I hit the guardrail head on. Broke my thumb and bruised some ribs. I was unconscious for 4 minutes. So that wasn’t good. Ellen didn’t like that much.” However, doctors also began advising against it on account of a blood thinner he took, as its effects made any crash potentially fatal. He stated “I could drive again, yes, but I have a perception now of who I am in the giant scheme of things in racing. If I was out there at Lime Rock with my car, I’d be nothing but a has been driver, you know? I mean, I’m not much anymore. Dan Gurney put it perfectly. He said, ‘Sam, sometime between when you’re 50 and when you’re 100, you’re going to lose speed. It may happen all at once or happen slowly.’…John Fitch gave me a great piece of advice, he said, “Sam, the racing takes place on the black stuff not the green.”