Probably one of the best racing images of the 1980s sat unused for over twenty years. (click to expand) image by ken vreeke

We're not much for print ads—frankly they pass right on by unnoticed most of the time, but a recent image used in Dunlop's "Legends" ad campaign stopped several here at your beloved 'Soup in our tracks.

The Dunlop "Legends" print ad campaign is highlighting legendary Dunlop riders from the past. The ad featuring Dunlop rider Kenny Roberts includes an image taken at the King's final GP race at Imola in 1983 where he set the pole and won the race, but lost the world championship to Honda's Freddie Spencer.

The image in the ad is simply spectacular. It shows the grid pushing off for the race (GP races featured dead-engine push-starts for decades) with Roberts, Spencer, Randy Mamola, Eddie Lawson, Marco Luchinelli, Virginio Ferrari, Raymond Roche, Ron Haslam and even Anton Mang doing the three-step, trying to force their machines to fire. The grid even featured a Rossi—Valentino Rossi's father, Graz' Rossi.

The image was taken at Imola on that amazing weekend by Ken Vreeke, then an magazine writer, now head-man at industry ad agency Vreeke and Associates. Amazingly, Vreeke reports that he shot the image that weekend, and then never looked at it again until searching for a Roberts picture for the "Legends" campaign. Arguably, it is the best image of early 1980s GP racing in existence.

And no, there are no plans at this time for a poster.