The Amelia returns to Florida in March 2025 with a 30th birthday celebration that will see Brazilian racing driver Hélio Castroneves join an illustrious band of honourees.
“I was touched to be asked – I was speechless,” Hélio said in a round-table discussion as part of the event’s media preview. “I know how big and incredible the event has been for many years. When they asked if I wanted to be part of it, it took less than a second to say yes. I’m super excited and looking forward to it: I just can’t wait.”
Hélio has won the Indy 500 four times (2001, 2002, 2009 and 2021), the Daytona 24 Hours three times ( 2021, 2022 and 2023) and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (2020), and he will soon be competing in the NASCAR Cup Series and the ARCA Menards Series. A selection of his previous cars makes up one class at the concours. These include the 2001 Indy 500-winning Dallara-Oldsmobile, the 2008 Pontiac Firebird IROC, the Mid-Ohio-winning 2020 DPI Acura ARX-05, the 2021 Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car driven by Danica Patrick, and the 2008 Petit Le Mans-winning Porsche RS Spyder Evo.
The Amelia 2025 kicks off on Thursday March 6 with the inaugural Reverie event, which blends automotive delights with culinary pairings developed by Zane Nesbitt, executive sous chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. For example, you can enjoy a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder Competizione with risotto and shaved black truffle, a Honda S2000 with nigiri made to order by a sushi chef, a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 with green olive croquette and vermouth, a 1958 BMW 507 Series II Roadster with pork schnitzel and lemon caviar garnish and, for a South Californian Beach style, a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster Woodie Station Wagon with fish tacos accompanied by corn and black bean salsa – with plenty more to discover. You’ll also get to experience a pop-up poet working on a vintage typewriter, live sketch artists, a fragrance studio… and a fedora hat and cigar bar.
Friday March 7 welcomes the Eight Flags Road Tour which sees 40 to 50 cars line up in downtown Fernandina before setting off around the local area. There will also be Ride & Drive experiences, a supercar celebration at a local school and a seminar entitled Behind the Mic, which brings together motor-racing commentators for what is likely to be a highly entertaining trip down victory and memory lane. This year’s Friday Film is the four-part series that focuses on Patrick Dempsey’s return to motor racing.
Saturday March 8 kicks off Cars & Community and RADwood – with 375 cars expected at the former, and 200 at the latter. There will also be a 50-car celebration of BMW’s 3-Series. You can expect a seminar on 30 years of Amelia, too, with Bill Warner on hand with his memories of the great cars to have passed through the event. In the evening there’s the honorary Legends of Speed Dinner, during which Hélio will be interviewed.
Sunday, March 9 is dedicated to the concours, which is again split between a Concours d’Elegance and a Concours d’Sport, with the latter focusing on racing cars. This year’s featured classes for the concours d’elegance include Alfa Romeos of the 1930s and Formula 1 cars from 1950 to the present day.
There’s also a celebration of Corvettes at Sebring, marking nearly 70 years since the car made its debut in SCCA and Cal Club racing. Other classes include Ferrari Coachbuilt, 50 Years of Porsche Turbo, Pre-War Classics and IROC Racers – in all, there will be 300 cars spread over 30 classes.
Since its inception in 1996, The Amelia has donated more than $4 million to non-profit and charitable organisations in Florida, and it continues this year with support for Community Hospice and Palliative Care, Spina Bifida of Jacksonville and local Shop with Cops programmes.
Away from the Amelia 2025 concours, Broad Arrow will be holding a two-day auction on Friday and Saturday. We’ve already previewed some of the modern classics-era machines up for grabs here, but you can also expect to see the above 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder Competizione (estimated at $10m-£14m), which finished fifth overall at the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours. Chassis 1451 was owned by Bob Grossman alongside Fernand Tavano, and would place third in class.
The car returned to the US, where Grossman used it in SCCA racing as well as in International Speed Weeks at Nassau, Bahamas, with notable successes in both. It would effectively go missing until the early 1970s, when it was found in the care of a Maryland banker, and it then passed through several collectors. It was restored in the early 1980s after which is became a regular on the concours scene, and it would also compete in the Monterey Historics in the 1990s. It was then restored again, this time by Wayne Obry’s Motion Products Inc, and it would again be a star of the concours field. It’s been in the hands of its current owner since 2017, and was on display at the 2024 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
There’s also the 1954 Jaguar D-type ‘OKV 2’ (est. $6.5m-$8.5m) and the ex-Hubert Hahne 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV (est. $4.5m-$5m) to savour, out of more than 160 lots in the auction catalogue.
For more details on The Amelia 2025, head here.
For more details on the Broad Arrow auction, head here.
