EDIT: The print is now sold out. Thank you to everyone who purchased the print and rasied over $6000 for the Wilson Children’s Fund
Words: Marshall Pruett, Racer Magazine.
Justin Wilson fans have a new charity print to purchase that will support the wife and children of the late racecar driver. Created by renowned livery designer Andy Blackmore and IndyCar digital artist Ryan Long, the two have come together to create a print depicting each car Wilson drove to victory in a career spanning three decades.
From the Formula Vauxhall Junior car Wilson used to earn his maiden win in 1994 to the Dallara DW12-Honda that took the Briton to Victory Lane for the final time in 2012, 14 cars have been created by Blackmore & Long. And in some cases where images and logos were hard to find, the Wilson family, including Justin’s father Keith, provided invaluable help to accurately recreate the cars.
Altogether, 32 people came together to make the $125 print possible, and of note, Noblesville, Ind.-based Rowland Printing donated the labor and material costs to produce the print. The batch of 50 prints, done at 18″x12″, will be sold on eBay starting at approximately 9 p.m. ET at the following link: http://stores.ebay.com/Celebrity-Charity-Auctions/Justin-Wilson-Memorial. All proceeds will go directly to the Wilson Children’s Fund.
“I had originally met Justin a few times when we were both still in the UK during his time in Formula Vauxhall and always followed his career more closely than others,” Blackmore told RACER. “I wanted to help Justin’s family following his untimely passing and used the helmet graphic from an old Champ Car illustration as the basis of the helmet tribute sticker that helped spread the word, was used as a tribute, and more importantly, raised funds for the Children’s Foundation.
“While chatting with IndyCar’s Ryan Long, who had used a variation of the sticker, I realized, collectively, we had most of Justin’s winning cars drawn up in some shape of form. A couple of cars such as the Formula Palmer Audi had been previously drawn up for another team which resulted in an update.”
Like the print Long created of Wilson in his Rolling Stones-sponsored Andretti Autosport Dallara DW12-Honda at this year’s Indy 500, Blackmore hopes the new print sells out quickly and adds to the fundraising efforts for Julia, Jane, and Jess Wilson.
“Quite a few cars required illustrating from scratch; the older cars took weeks of research and requests to photo agencies, old team personnel and even sponsors, and I was amazed how helpful everyone was,” he said.
“There is a huge list of people to thank (below), and the illustration was fun to do and also a challenge. Although it’s a very small part of the eBay auction, we hope it will help bring back some great memories to Justin’s family, friends and colleagues and also help in a small way to provide more financial security for his wife and girls.”
-Marshall Pruett.
Ryan Long – This wouldn’t be remotely possible without his collaboration and organising print run
Rowland Printing Co, Noblesville, IN (who are printing these for us)
Stefan Wilson
Keith Wilson
Mike Levitt, LAT USA
Zoe Schafer,Fiona Fallon LAT
Keith Sutton, Chris Dando, Sutton Images
William Howe, VA Howe & Co Ltd
Simon Dagless, Universal Racing Services
INDYCAR
Gary Fong, John Leverett, Panoz
Dallara
Michael Shank Racing
Trevor Swttenham, BARC
Steph Sykes-Dugmore, BRDC
Pembrey Circuit.
Vauxhall
Paul Ryan Media
Marcus Simmonds, Autosport Magazine
Kevin Turner, Motorsport News
George Burgess, ISC Motorsports
Paul Laguette
Peter Leung
John Brooks
Brad Hoffner
Diane Swintal
Diana Kay and Russell Harvey of McLaren
Sam Smith
Graham Rahal – for having the drive and vision to run the auction
You can also make a donation at the Wilson Children’s Fund website, take part in the Justin Wilson auction
Lastly, I invite you to watch this tribute by Robin Miller and NBC Sports. Robin, simple nails it.
Rest in peace sir.