The Audrain Group has enjoyed five years of expansion and growth under the passionate guidance of CEO Donald Osborne. On October 14, 2024, however, the company announced that Donald would step into a new role as consulting director. His position as CEO will now be divided between Benjamin Mercer, current COO, and Nic Waller, president of the Audrain Automobile Museum, Audrain Newport Concours and Motor Week and Audrain Motorsport.
Reflecting on his tenure, Donald said: “It has been gratifying to have worked in my role as CEO, being able to combine so much of my background and various passions in helping to create so many memorable automotive experiences. Being a part of the team that has brought the Audrain Automobile Museum its tenth anniversary and five editions of the Audrain Newport Concours and Motor Week has been amazing.”
Taking over from Donald’s leadership is no small task. In a recent video call, Nic Waller shared his vision for Audrain’s future as he prepares to take the helm on November 1, 2024.
Between 2019 and 2021 people would often ask ‘Audrain? What’s Audrain? How do you spell that?’ Now, with our YouTube presence and all of the events we are doing, people know what Audrain is
“It certainly came as a shock,” Nic admits of the appointment – although his life and career path seem almost predestined for the role. He grew up in Dulwich, South London, and his parents were both involved in British motor racing during the golden age of the 1950s and 1960s.
“This was where I got my DNA,” Nic reflects. “My parents were friends with Briggs Cunningham, and during his Le Mans years they would join him and a few others from the Bentley Drivers’ Club to run the pits. I grew up with these stories of cars, and dad had Bentleys – it was kind of destined, I suppose.”
Nic’s career path in the classic car world began with a 20-year stint for the Lavenham Group in England, which specialised in the publication of motoring books. His work included producing a poster book on the history of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which caught the attention of chairman Sandra Button, who invited him to join the concours’ selection committee in the early 2000s.
“For the next 14 or 15 years, I was spending half of my time in the UK and half in the US, going backwards and forwards. Pebble Beach introduced me to so many car collectors,” Nic says. He has remained deeply connected to the event as a selection committee member and judge, and as the voice of its prize-giving ceremony.
This trans-Atlantic experience proved invaluable and helped open the door to other ambitious projects, such as the revival of the Double Twelve events at the legendary Brooklands circuit in Surrey, UK. “I got involved with Alan Wynn from Brooklands, and together we set up the first of the Double Twelve events in 2008 and continued the centenary event they put on in 2007.”
Just over ten years later, Nic’s association with Audrain began when he was invited to serve as a judge in the inaugural 2019 Newport and Motor Week Concours. “Talking to the other judges, talking to the entrants, it was clear that this was the most impressive first attempt at a concours that any of us had been to,” Nic remembers.
“I said to Donald at the time: ‘If you ever need some help, I would be keen to do it.’ Little did I know, three or four months later Covid comes along, and I get a call from Donald saying ‘we would love to take you up on your offer’.”
The timing was fortuitous, and Nic relocated to Newport in 2020 in order to begin lending his concours expertise to Audrain’s expanding portfolio of ambitious motoring events. Since then, the company has experienced significant growth, now boasting 300 Motorsport Club members and almost 2000 museum members.
“Between 2019 and 2021 people would often ask ‘Audrain? What’s Audrain? How do you spell that?’ Now, with our YouTube presence and all of the events we are doing, people know what Audrain is,” he says proudly. “There’s no longer any need to explain it, and it has just grown and grown.”
Recent evidence of this growth can be seen in the addition of the London to Brighton-inspired Veteran Car Tour in 2022, as well as the continuous expansion of the Newport Concours and Motor Week and securing a prestigious role as the presenting partner of the Goodwood Members’ Meeting.
Interestingly, however, Nic says that the museum’s weekly Cars and Coffee events have become a regional phenomenon. “Every Sunday morning between the end of March and the end of November, we host Cars and Coffee at different locations around Newport,” he explains. “Sometimes it’s at the beach, sometimes we hold it at Fort Adams or one of the mansions. Wherever it is, though, it attracts between 300 to 500 cars every single time. It’s amazing – the enthusiasm is enormous.”
Looking ahead, Nic’s aim is to continue the company’s upward trajectory without diluting the intimate atmosphere that sets it apart. Future plans include a driving tour on the West Coast of the US in 2025, and potential events in the UK and Northern Europe. Nic also wishes for Audrain to continue innovating within the concours space, with initiatives such as the 30 Under 30 class for owners aged under 30 years old with cars valued at less than $30,000.
“I think we were the first in the world to do the whole 30 Under 30 thing,” Nic continues. “It’s an entry level to the concours world. Some people get a little snooty and say “concours is so boring”, but I don’t believe that it is. It’s a great social pastime, and it’s wonderful to keep these cars on the road and in working order.
Such progressive thinking extends to the classes we could see announced for future instalments of the Audrain Newport and Motor Week Concours: “We’re adding Cadillac as a featured marque in the concours for 2025, with both pre- and post-war classes. I’m also hoping to put together a class of all the road-going Ford GT40s. It would also be great to have a class for Alfa 6Cs and 8Cs. We’re attacking both ends, but we will still have both European and American classics.”
“Our hobby and passion is moving on. Owners are getting a little younger, and there’s a lot of new people coming into it who are interested in cars from the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s. We have to evolve, but it’s evolution rather than revolution.”
Nic’s open-minded approach also extends to the current preservation versus restoration debate in the concours community. “In my book, a preservation car is something that has been treasured and maintained – carefully loved for years and years.” Nic says. “It hasn’t necessarily been repainted – perhaps touched up here and there – but definitely not a barn find. But we should always applaud cars that have been beautifully and perfectly restored, because that’s a huge industry we need to support to make sure it carries on – so there has to be that balance.”
As Nic prepares to take the helm at Audrain, he’s also focused on honouring Newport’s rich motoring heritage, and explains why it has become such a hub for motoring enthusiasts: “Newport itself is so historic; the first motor race in America was in Newport and the Vanderbilt Cup started here, too. It’s fascinating to continue that history.”
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