John Fitch receives 2005 RRDC Bob Akin Motorsports Award

ROAD RACING DRIVERS CLUB

LIME ROCK, Conn. (Sept. 15, 2005) - The Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC)
named longtime racing driver and safety innovator John Fitch as the 2005
recipient of the Bob Akin Motorsports Award at the Rolex Vintage Festival at
Lime Rock Park on Labor Day weekend.

Each recipient is selected by Akin's son Bobby and RRDC members Brian Redman
and Archie Urciuoli and approved by RRDC president Bobby Rahal.

Former RRDC president and racing champion Brian Redman, along with Ellen
Akin, presented the third annual award to Fitch during a dinner celebrating
the vintage-racing festivities at the track that Fitch helped design.

John Fitch has been a blue-water sailor, a fighter pilot, a test pilot, a
professional racing driver, a team manager, race course director, prolific
inventor, highway safety expert, automaker, entrepreneur and dreamer.

He was born John Cooper Fitch in Indianapolis, Ind., August 4, 1917, and is
a descendent of the inventor of the steamboat. His stepfather was an
executive with the old Stutz car company so Fitch witnessed auto racing at
an early age, attending the Indianapolis 500 race in the passenger seat of a
Stutz Bearcat at the Brickyard.

Fitch is also the first national champion of the Sports Car Club of America
(SCCA) and the only American to be on the Mercedes-Benz factory team,
driving GT and sports-racing cars in 1953 and 1955. He drove for the Briggs
Cunningham team for 12 years, winning numerous races, including the first
all-American win at the 12 Hours of Sebring (Fla.) in 1953 with co-driver
Phil Walters. 

He managed the Corvette teams at the Sebring races in 1956 and 1957, and
recently published a book entitled ³Racing with Mercedes,² now available
from http://www.szwedo.com/fitchbook.

Following his 18-year racing career, Fitch became a design consultant for
race circuits as well as an industry-leading consultant in the field of
automobile racing and highway safety systems.

Besides helping design Lime Rock Park, Fitch was its manager in the early
days of the trackıs existence. He invented the Fitch Barrier for highways
and several energy-absorbing barriers for racing.

In accepting the award, Fitch said, ³It's a great honor to receive this
award memorializing Bob Akin, someone I considered a friend and admired
greatly both as a man and as a racing competitor. It is my hope that Bobıs
name can be a permanent part of the racing world by naming a racing safety
device after him ­ The Akin Barrier.²

³John has been a true gentleman of racing for decades,² said Redman. ³In
fact, some of the vintage vehicles on the track today were brand new when he
first raced against them.

³We honor not only the on-track successes John has achieved, but also the
safety innovations he has designed over the years, both on the track and
off. His timeless enthusiasm for the sport and for making it safe are
unsurpassed, and he truly exemplifies the qualities that qualify him for the
Bob Akin Motorsports Award.²

Akinıs widow Ellen added, ³John has been a friend of ours for years and I
know Bob had always admired his talent not only as a driver but as an
innovator. I know Bob would be very pleased with the selection of John Fitch
as the recipient of the award in his name.²

Sam Posey was the first recipient of the Bob Akin Motorsports Award in 2003,
and the late Charlie Gibson received the award in 2004.

The distinctive trophy was conceived by the RRDC to honor the memory of
long-time RRDC member and past president Bob Akin, who lost his life in a
racing accident in 2002.

The trophy was designed by Steuben Glass in Corning, N.Y., and is given to
an amateur, vintage or semi-professional American road racer who best
exemplifies the extraordinary qualities and characteristics that Akin
represented, including a passion for motorsports and automobiles, a high
level of sportsmanship and fair play, and for his/her contributions to
motorsports.

The permanent trophy, listing annual winners, is on display at the
International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, N.Y. The
recipients receive a smaller, engraved version of the award.

The Road Racing Drivers Club was formed in 1952 to promote road racing and
driver safety. The RRDC today continues to recognize, promote and mentor
road-racing drivers. Along with the Bob Akin Motorsports Award, the RRDC
presents the Phil Hill Award (annually to a driver, sponsor or sanctioning
official who makes outstanding contributions to road racing), and the Mark
Donohue Award (annually to an outstanding driver at the SCCA National
Runoffs).

Membership in the RRDC is by invitation only.

Additional information on the RRDC may be found on www.rrdc.org.