The Amelia praises Chip Ganassi

Plenty of racing categories in the first running of The Amelia under Hagerty-stewardship. Chip Ganassi was the central guest. A report coming from the field.

The 27th Amelia Concours d’Elegance in Florida, USA came with a few changes this year. The first important one was the move back to the original date early in March. Global restrictions due to the Covid situation had pushed Amelia to a date in May last year.

Racing classes

But the big talking point was of course last year’s take-over by Hagerty from founder Bill Warner. New owners brought a new name: Amelia no more, now you say ‘The Amelia’. The format mostly stayed its successful self as in doing a more traditional Concours d’Elegance and the Concours de Sport. Amelia-founder Bill Warner has a background as a photographer on the racing circuit, meaning his show has always given a preference to showcase many racing classes, which makes this one of our favourite events all around. And a good thing: under the new ownership, interest in racing remains unaltered.

Ganassi

Each year, Amelia manages to get some interesting classes together. The featured honoured racing icon this year was Chip Ganassi. With different championship-winning teams, Ganassi certainly can boast the right credentials. But how can you walk by a class of Gurney Eagles, the 60th Anniversary of Daytona 24 class and a Sebring 12 Hours class? Let alone the several other racing classes and some racing cars mixed into the non-dedicated racing classes.

Enjoying the day out

At first look, one would think there were ‘just’ 215 cars on the field. The reason behind this was mostly to make things a bit more manageable for the judges. The overall quality and presentations made the first year of The Amelia a top-notch event. With over 22,000 people attending the main show on Sunday it clearly shows that people are eager to be out and about again. That we are finally able to enjoy each other’s company and talk about our preferred hobby, the classic car scene.

Best of show awards went to a 2017 Cadillac Dpi-V.R. in the Concours de Sport, an incredibly recent racing car residing amongst much older rivals. A 1934 Duesenberg J-531 took best of show in the Concours d’Elegance.