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The David Hobbs Collection Available On eBay

Former championship winning race car driver and current NBC Sports Formula One analyst David Hobbs will be making a portion of his motorsports collection available on eBay. This collection will be released in increments over the next several months, with the initial batch available shortly.

The collection features many interesting items such as uniforms, racing jackets, programs, books, pit passes and more. Over fifty years of memorabilia has been collected from his worldwide travels from his native-England and later the United States.

“I’m very excited to finally be able to make some of my collection available for my fans. The opportunity arises as my wife, Margaret and myself are becoming ‘snowbirds’ and will be wintering in Florida. As is usual when one moves, tough decisions are made. So my sizable motorsports library, some uniforms, and ephemera will be made available for my fans.”

David Hobbs is currently majority owner of David Hobbs Honda located in Glendale, WI. He is also the popular color analyst of Formula One racing on NBC Sports. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009.

David’s first race was in 1959 driving his mother’s Morris Oxford. He later turned professional in 1964 and raced extensively worldwide for 30 years. His last professional race driven was the at the Dijoin circuit in 1990 in a Porsche 962 for the iconic Joest Racing Team.

In 1961 he won 14 races from 18 starts in a Lotus Elite fitted with the Mecha-Matic Automatic Transmission designed by his father. One of these wins was the 1600cc sports car classic at the famous Nurburgring 1000 km, the first win by any type of car fitted with an automatic transmission in a major international event.

In 1962 David took part in the inaugural Daytona 3-Hour, now the 24 Hour race and made his first of twenty appearances in the 24 Hours of LeMans. In 1964 he turned professional and won his first pro race in a factory Lotus Cortina at Roskilde, Denmark. He also made his first appearance at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. The following year he won four races in a Lola T70 Sports Car in the United Kingdom (UK) and also raced in USRRC events at St. Jovite, Mosport, Kent, and Riverside tracks. In 1966 he made his Formula One debut in a non-championship race at Syracuse, Sicily, finishing third. In 1967 David drove a Lola Aston Martin at LeMans. He also tested in secret a Jaguar XJ13 at the Mira test track in the UK, setting a closed course record (167.5MPH) for the UK, a record that lasted 19 years.

One of the most famous cars David drove was the John Wyer Ford GT40 featuring the iconic orange and light blue Gulf colors. David drove the illustrious car to victory in the Monza 1000k, finished second at the Watkins Glen Six Hours and was on the podium at the 24 Hours of LeMans. The Wyer Team won the World Championship that year. Hobbs also tested Honda F1 cars and raced for the Japanese firm the Italian GP, where the future President of Honda World Wide, Nobohiko Kawamoto, worked as a mechanic on his car.

David achieved tremendous success in the American Formula 5000 series during its heyday (1969 – 1976). He won 22 races, which is second on the all-time wins list. He won the championship in 1971 and was runner-up by one point in 1969 (after missing the first half of the season while in Europe). He made his first IndyCar start in 1969 and raced in the Indianapolis 500 four times with a best result of fifth in 1974 with Team McLaren.

From 1977 through 1987, David ran IMSA with BMW, Porsche, Jaguar and March, winning eleven races and also finishing on the podium twice at LeMans. In 1983, he won the prestigious SCCA Trans-Am Championship winning it five times in the iconic Budweiser Camaro.

David’s television career dates back to 1976 and has worked at CBS Sports for many years and commentated on all types of racing, Formula One, USAC and NASCAR. David appeared in 17 straight Daytona 500 broadcasts, including the 1979 event that was the first flag-to-flag live coverage of a Winston Cup race; probably the most important step of TV coverage in the United States of auto racing and a huge boost for NASCAR.

Continuing on with ESPN whose coverage included Formula One and LeMans live and on-site. He provided live F1 World Championship coverage with Speedvision, which later became the Speed Channel. David also gave live coverage of the Daytona 24 Hours, 24 Hours of Le Mans, other American road racing series and auto based shows. Since 2013, David has been the racing analyst and color commentator for F1 coverage.

In the late 1980’s David opened a Honda dealership. It has become one of the largest Honda dealerships in Wisconsin with high customer satisfaction ratings and repeat customers. David was chairman of the State Dealer Council 1993-1998 and was on the National Dealer Council for two years.

He also has served on the board of directors for the Wisconsin Motorsport Charities which raised over $500,000 for Ranch Community Services. David was a 10 year member of Citizens Advisory Board for WUWM public radio. He served as a board member and past chairman of Automobile Dealers Association of Mega Milwaukee (ADAMM) and Chairman for the 2008 Milwaukee Auto Show Charity Gala.

Visit our eBay page at http://stores.ebay.com/milwaukeemileman/David-Hobbs-Collection-/ to view the entire collection and for all of the new arrivals in the future!

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A portion of the profits of the David Hobbs Collection will be donated to the Sojourner Family Peace Center of Milwaukee, WI. The Sojourner Family Peace Center provides education, advocacy and resources to keep families safe from domestic violence. For more information, www.familypeacecenter.org/

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