Donald Osborne is shortlisted as a nominee for the Historic Motoring Awards’ Classic Car Ambassador of the Year
NEWPORT, Rhode Island (October 18, 2021) – With a few months to go, Donald Osborne still has plenty of time should he wish to finish the year with yet another major milestone, though it’s safe to say that the Nominee for Classic Car Ambassador of the Year for this year’s prestigious Historic Motoring Awards could perhaps take a few months off without missing out on too much. Will that happen? Tough chance.
As Donald Osborne stated in the Audrain Concours seminar with Jay Leno about West Coast versus East Coast collecting, if you want to do anything great such as, drive cross country with your classic car, “Don’t wait to have the time, make the time.” Indeed, one of the ways Donald does judge a classic is the cross-country drive factor, though the intention of making the most of today is where we’re really going with this one.
Benefitting local charities, he and his team at the Audrain Group pulled off yet another excellent concours and motor week the last weekend of September so much so that collector car enthusiasts around the world are now making note that Audrain’s are the latest must-attend events for the annual classic car calendar. One of the highlights from the week’s schedule were the seminars, led by a dazzling line-up of classic car influencers.
Donald moderated two seminars for Audrain’s Newport Concours and Motor Week, one called “Good, Better, Best Collecting” with Miles C. Collier and Mark Hyman and then another called “Collecting Left Coast vs. Right Coast” with Jay Leno and both attracted hundreds of people, as did all of the seminars hosted in the charming theater at Audrain’s Concours Village.
When asked what his favorite 2021 memory has been thus far, Donald responded: “Being able to re-connect with so many people after the stresses of 2020 ranks highest- seeing old friends and making so many new ones has been so rewarding!”
There is a lot to be proud of in 2021 and that includes finishing season six for “Jay Leno’s Garage” on CNBC Primetime, continuing to represent and support clients with his business Automotive Valuation Services, returning to Italy to complete his fifth Mille Miglia on behalf of Audrain Motorsport in a 1940 Siata 1100 Viotti Aerodinamica Coupe, creating an extraordinary quantity of high-quality video entertainment content for the Audrain Museum Network, co-curating three new exhibitions for the Audrain Automobile Museum that brought widespread attention to the Newport, Rhode Island-based museum, and leading his team at the Audrain Group through a number of important achievements across all three of its entities: museum, concours and motorsport. While these personal achievements certainly underscore the determination and vision of his leadership, they also affect so many other people and communities around him by generating job opportunities, giving to charity, inspiring younger enthusiasts and helping preserve classic cars for future generations.
Looking ahead, what does Donald hope for, for 2022? “I have seen remarkable strides in opening the access to the collector car world to a wider audience, especially young people. The growth in digital communication during the pandemic has had the perhaps unexpected, by some, effect of not only bringing new enthusiasts to discover aspects of automobiles they had not previously known, but also to drive them to experience them in person. Being a part of that through both streaming and broadcast programming as well as through exhibitions at the Audrain Automobile Museum and our wildly popular seminars and Cars & Coffee events is gratifying and more than humbling. It’s more than I could have ever hoped and I look forward with eagerness for more to come!”
The Historic Motoring Awards will be held on November 18, 2021 at the gracious Rosewood Hotel in London. Tickets are still available.
