Gainesville, Florida is the home of Freck's Auto Art, Inc., a publisher and distributor of original limited edition racing art and memorabilia products. "It started out as a hobby back in 1998", says Joe Freck, founder and company president. " I have always been an avid race fan, which led me to begin collecting autographed racing prints, photos, team cards and other types of things. Eventually, I began trading with other collectors and dealers. The day came when I was invited by a print dealer to enter into a joint venture for a limited edition print taken from an original painting. The edition would be limited to 850 copies to be hand signed by all four of the drivers depicted in the scene. How exciting! Nearly fourteen years later I have a warehouse full of racing memorabilia and collectibles and a fully incorporated company with our own web site. Before you could say "gentleman, start your engines", we were shipping our products to people in countries all over the world."

How is a limited edition racing print conceived and produced? What makes it different from any other type of car poster? "We like to research the history of Motorsports and find races where something historic, interesting or unusual happened.", says Freck. Our research leads us to a racing scene that tells a story. We look for something with significance. Once we find that defining moment, we commission a talented artist to create an original painting depicting it. The painting is then reproduced as a high-quality lithographic or giclee print edition under our supervision here in Gainesville. Each edition is limited in number, never exceeding 850 prints, which are signed and sequentially numbered by the artist. The real challenges after that are  locating the drivers who are memorialized in the print and arranging to have them personally autograph the edition. Once that is achieved, not only does our customer get a beautiful piece of artwork, but a unique and valuable memorabilia product as well.

To date, Freck's Auto Art, Inc. has produced, published, or has been affiliated with 27 original print editions which have been autographed by racing legends such as Phil Hill, America's first Formula One World Champion, Sir Stirling Moss, considered by many to be the greatest race driver of all time, American racing icon Mario Andretti, Michael Schumacher, Emerson Fittipaldi, and many others. "Perhaps the most interesting thing about our business is having the opportunity to meet personally with these guys and spend a couple of hours with them while they autograph the edition for us", says Freck. "A few years ago we met with Mario Andretti at his offices in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, which was very exciting. In the late 1990s, we did an autograph session with 1997 Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. His management liked the print so much that they negotiated for him to have the original painting for his own collection. We have traveled to the south Florida home of Stirling Moss, to the Barber Motorsports Complex in Birmingham, Alabama, and to the Daytona Superspeedway to get our prints signed. We've also had to crate them up and ship them as far away as Australia, where an edition was autographed by Sir Jack Brabham, and to Brazil to be autographed by Nelson Piquet, and to California to have our "Battle At Sebring" print signed by 'Dan Gurney'.

Sometimes, we  produce limited edition prints under corporate license. Our "Minardi Ford" print featuring Formula One pilot Marc Gene was officially licensed from Team Minardi. Our "Born To Race" print autographed by Richie Hearn was officially licensed by Anheuser-Busch.

"Our motto is that If you love racing and you love cars, you have found the right place", says race fan, car guy and art publisher Joe Freck.

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