Motorsports. To the uninitiated, the noise, the smell, the danger and the fast-forward insanity at a race track is chaotic and nearly incomprehensible.
To the lucky ones, it is an addiction that we will never live long enough to truly fulfill. Once it's in your blood, you will never be able to get enough.
Past.
My initiation started with my dad's vintage car obsession. MGs, Porsches, and a Lotus and weekends at Moroso (aka Palm Beach International) back in the late 1970s.
Then we went to The 12 Hours of Sebring in 1980. I was 12.
That's the year I got bit.
My dad was working as a pit marshal and they were short-handed. They told my dad I could work, too! I looked at them like they were crazy, but in I went! I was standing just a few feet away from the starter stand when the green flag fell and I watched nearly 80 of the fastest machines ever built scream past me in a blistering vortex of sheer adrenaline, skill, mayhem and raw horsepower. That incredible noise, the smells of burnt rubber, tortured brakes, and high octane race fuel, the heat glimmer and the 200mph circus-like visuals are all things that feed the addiction that is racing.
I had 3 911s for the 12 hour race. Unfortunately, all of them DNF. Just finishing Sebring is a major accomplishment, even today.
Me on the other hand? That was one of the most memorable weekends of my life. I was all in after that.
I became one of the youngest nationally licensed SCCA pit marshals, closely followed by becoming a nationally licensed corner worker.
We worked races nearly every weekend from then on. Moroso, the GP of Miami, Tamiami, the GP of West Palm, and, of course, Sebring.
I took Skip Barber Racing School at Sebring in Nov. of 1987 at Sebring (on the original hairpin 'Sebring - New' course).
I autocrossed my modified VW Rabbit with much success in Florida Region SCCA in C Street Prepared (CSP) with my friends and our team called Tropical Time Racing.
I worked for a sign company at the time and made vinyl windshield banners for all of us. We wore matching tropical shirts. We raced Porsche 911s, a VW Rabbit, a VW Bug, a 280z and a Toyota Corolla FX16. We had an old bright yellow VW Bus as a support vehicle and we showed up in force and dominated our classes. It was great as we never had to race each other.
I would say this was where Visual HP began.
In the spring of 1988 I moved to Tempe, AZ to attend ASU and worked Firebird, Phoenix International Raceway, the Grand Prix of Eloy (one of the greatest/oddest SCCA Nationals of all time!) and The F1 Grand Prix of Phoenix... working an F1 Grand Prix was, to say the least, incredible. I also raced karts with PKRA.
Dad did it right. Grew up in SoFla through the 1980s and never had time (or money!) for any drugs other than the addiction of racing. It was a blast!
Corner working was one of the best seats in the house, second only to the drivers.
I have seen crazy things that can only happen at a race track. I usually knew a driver wasn't getting out of our turn before they did. After working turns as long as I did, you just know when a car was where it was supposed to be. Some kids excelled at baseball or football; I was at the races or racing.
It was the one sport I was ever good at.
When I moved back east to Georgia, I lived minutes away from the legendary Road Atlanta, and still do. When I first moved here, I did a lot of the design for Road Atlanta including the Can-Am Reunion poster and the last SCCA Runoffs poster held at Road Atlanta and even designed their pace car graphics back in the early 90's.
I've done work from small local teams to pro teams such as Jeremy Dale, John Andretti, Al Unser, Jr., Scott Goodyear, Gary Bettenhausen, Jimmy Vasser, all the way up to the pinnacle of racing, F1's Michael Schumacher.
Present.
In 2019, I began working with Craton, Inc. who, at the time, had the merchandise contracts for IMSA, Sebring and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
We have been breaking records ever since.
I have now designed the last 2 event posters for the Motul Petit Le Mans and most of the track merchandise for Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
