By BARRY FOSTER
News-Sun correspondent
SEBRING - For nearly a decade, Roger Warrick's work has signaled to local fans that the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is just around the corner. It is his interpretation of the cars and track locations that comprise the official poster for America's oldest sports car endurance race.
It is copies of that poster that generally begin to pop up in late January and early February.
For the past nine years, the Kentucky-based artist, working with raceway officials, has painstakingly recreated different track locations and competitors in a combination salute to past winners and a tease of things to come.
Through Warrick's brush, both enthusiasts and non-race fans have been able to glimpse a freeze frame view of competition from different vistas around the 3.7-mile course. Vignettes have included scenes at the legendary Hairpin, the iconic Turn 10, Sunset Bend as well as an inventive look up the famous front straightaway.
This year may well be one of his most interesting depictions. It is a perspective that only certain VIP's have seen over the years - a look at the green flag lap from the starter's stand.
"An exciting 'fisheye lens' view," as track officials term it.
This year's poster is a tribute to the Le Mans Prototype cars which will make their final appearance at the track under the banner of the American Le Mans Series. The ALMS will cease to exist after this year as they merge with the competing Grand-Am series for the 2014 season.
All the major race competitors are prominently displayed in this rendering, with the new Audi e-tron quattro LMP leading the way.
"It looks like this may be the last opportunity to compete with an LMP1 car at Sebring," said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "We would really like to use this chance and say goodbye to the fans with a nice showing after our fantastic success story in recent years."
That "success story" involves 10 overall wins for Audi in 13 years of competition in one of the world's toughest tests of speed and endurance.
Also depicted on the poster are P-1 staples Dyson Racing and Muscle Milk/Pickett Racing as well as the very popular Rebellion Racing team and the new Nissan Delta Wing car, which was introduced at last year's 12 Hours.
The GT division also is well represented on the poster with illustrations of the Tequila Patron Ferrari of Extreme Speed Motorsports, Team Corvette, the Rahal BMW and the Falken Tire Porsche among others flying across the start/finish line.
This will be the ninth official Sebring 12 Hours poster for artist Roger Warrick, who has been a motorsports fan since his dad took him to see his first dirt track race in 1973 at the tender age of six. His early love of drawing led him to attend The Columbus College of Art & Design, where he attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration in 1989.
Warrick has worked as a freelance illustrator in Indianapolis and Cincinnati. His racing originals and prints have been commissioned by Grassroots Motorsports, Watkins Glen International, Mid-Ohio Raceway, Drive! Magazine, Bristol Motor Speedway, Newman-Haas Racing, and AutoWeek among others.
He has been the official poster artist for the Sebring 12 Hours since 2005, and his work hangs in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
Warrick works from his home studio in Burlington, Ky., which is near Cincinnati. In addition to the official Sebring Race poster, he has done other pieces with a nod to the 12 Hours, including a piece titled "Driver's Meeting" depicting caricatures of many of the famous men who have raced and won at Sebring.
Posters will be available at the Rolex24 in Daytona, the American Le Mans Series Winter Test here in Sebring and at the track during Race Week. Officials say they will be available online soon.
Friday, January 18, 2013 - www.newssun.com/011813-race-poster