Welcome to the Official "Wrap-up" webpage for the 2008 Grand National!

On behalf of the Grand National Planning Committee, thank-you to all the participants and volunteers for making the Golden Jubilee of the CLC such an unqualified success.  This webpage will be updated often, providing GN08 statistics, links to photos, and any other interesting GN08 information.  Please visit this site often, as we'll be updating it frequently.

This 24"x36" Acrylic-on-canvas painting was created specifically for the creation of the 2008 Grand National event posters. I unveiled the original painting at the January 2008 Grand National committee meeting where it received rave reviews. The concept for the poster design was also approved that evening.

Because of the limited GN capital budget the VFR-CLC committee members and myself agreed that I would have to invest all of the time and money involved with creating the original painting as well as the design and printing costs of the event posters. I have had a long standing tradition of donating ten percent of my proceeds from commissions from VFR-CLC members back to the club, so regarding the auctioning of the original painting at the GN banquet, I also agreed to donate ten percent from the sale of the original painting. My hope was to recoup all of my expenses involved with the painting and posters, which thankfully I did.

The painting itself was nearly a year in the making. It was July of 2007 that I began conceptual sketches to formulate my ideas for the painting. By August 2007 I had settled on the background being Independence Hall in Philadelphia along with the feature car. Also in August I performed the photo shoot with the 1931 Cadillac V-12 370-A Roadster which I picked for its color scheme and its spectacular design features. It was in October 2007 that I had the opportunity to drive to Philadelphia to gather all of the required photo references of Independence Hall. In December 2007 I tweaked and finalized the concept and sketches of the overall composition of the painting. The actual painting process began right after the holidays and continued through most of January 2008.

Once the painting was completed and digital high resolution images were created, I had Trevor Reed at Direct Impact Marketing design the posters and create print-ready files for reproduction. In March 2008 two separate qualifying printing companies quoted on the task of printing the 250 posters. Each company supplied a proof for review and the highest quality printer was contracted for the job. Posters were completed in April 2008.