Hector Cademartori is the official artist of the 2018 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Editor’s Note: We are very proud to list this remarkable motorsports artist/illustrator as one of our happy group of staff member/contributors to LACar. What follows is the official announcement from the LBGPA.

HECTOR CADEMARTORI
Official Artist of the 2018 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Born in Buenos Aires, where Juan Manuel Fangio was a household name, Cademartori was first influenced in racing in the mid-1960s by the European tradition and great drivers such as Dan Gurney , Jackie Stewart, Pedro Rodriguez, Graham Hill, John Surtees and all the F1 and sports car stars of those days. “Argentina is very much Europe-oriented, therefore we all had a strong influence from Formula One and FIA sportscar racing (my favorite sportscar driver was Vic Elford), but I always followed the Indianapolis 500”.

He started out drawing racing scenes of Lotuses, BRMs and Ferraris in his note pads at school, and his fellow students loved them. Over time he learned to appreciate the history of racing in the 30s, 40s, 50s….and the romance of those years which lend themselves to beautiful art.

“I just wanted to be in racing. I wasn’t a mechanic or a fabricator, or designer, or driver, or sponsor, so I used my artwork to be in the racing business. I consider myself a racer with a brush. I hope the following won’t disappoint those who follow my work, but I used my art to be around racing, my priority isn’t art but motor racing and I’ve been making a living doing this all my life.”- says Hector.

In 1983, Cademartori moved to the U.S. to specialize in his racing art and started selling drawings and paintings, showing them to different people in the motor racing field.

And, his first race poster here in the U.S. was for the 1984 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach! “It was a great feeling to be fresh off the plane and get the opportunity to do the Long Beach GP poster. By the way, the driver of the car on the poster was Chip Ganassi. Heard of him?”

His client list includes racing teams, corporations, magazines, private commissions and his work includes art in Dan Gurney’s All American Racers offices, Indy 500 yearbook covers, Lucas Oil, The Mitty, SVRA and Auto Club Speedway posters, national automobile and motorcycle magazines and book publishers, as well as manufacturers such as Kawasaki USA, American Honda, and Yamaha USA, Toyota Motorsports, TRD and many others.

The official poster of the 2018 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (Hector Cademartori).

Cademartori races his 240Z with SVRA and VARA and currently lives in La Verne with his wife, Florencia.

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Hector’s art can be viewed at authorsandartists.com.
See also: TRIBUTE – Hector Cademartori’s Datsun Christmas Card
Auto Club Speedway: The Making of Hector Cademartori’s 20th Anniversary Champions Poster
LACar’s Facebook Gallery: The Motor Racing Art of Hector Cademartori
For more information about the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, go to gplb.com.