Q: I lived in Florida from 1969 to this year, and the Sebring 12 Hours was a yearly pilgrimage for much of that time starting in 1971. With the HSR Pistons and Props last weekend, it got it me to thinking about all the race cars with great liveries I got to look at and watch. So here goes with a few. Prototypes only.
Porsche 917 — Gulf, Martini and Rossi
Porsche 962 — Coke, Preston Henn’s Swap Shop, Lowenbrau, BFGoodrich, Sach’s,
Bridgestone, Columbia Crest, Copenhagen, Wynn’s, Miller, Havoline, Momo, Torno
Ferrari 512 — Penske/White Racing
March 83G/86G — Kreepy Krauly Racing, Momo
Jaguar XJR-5/XJR-9/XJR12D — Group 44, Castrol, Bud Light, Silk Cut.
There are many more including lower classes that had great memorable liveries. Spark any memories for you? And what was your first year there either spectating or working?
Jeff, Colorado
MP: Oh yes, the Marchs and Jags and 962s. The Group 44 XJR-5s and XJR-7s are among the most beautiful cars and gorgeous liveries with the tone-on-tone greens chosen by team owner/driver Bob Tullius.
My first Sebring was the 2005 12 Hour, running a World Challenge GT team and coaching a Star Mazda driver.
Q: The IndyCar “major event” for 2025 has me curious. Considering street circuits are all the rage right now, perhaps a city in the Northeast? We could definitely use an IndyCar race that’s not a flyaway unlike every other on the calendar.
Justin, Connecticut
MP: Street races have been popular since the early 1980s when they became a huge part of each IndyCar and IMSA calendar. There was a point where street circuit events were far more popular than they are now, but yes, if you’re going to penetrate a new market and court new fans, it’s easier to go where they live or work than to ask them to go outside the city and discover something new at a dedicated racing facility.
Here’s what NBC listed as the top 10 viewing markets for IndyCar in 2023. If I’m looking to create a street race where there’s a high probability of it being well received and well attended, I’d start from here:
| RANK |
MARKET | RATING |
| 1 | Indianapolis | 3.26 |
| 2 | Knoxville | 1.82 |
| 3 | Louisville | 1.52 |
| 4 | Greenville | 1.39 |
| 5 | Ft. Myers | 1.36 |
| 6 | Dayton, OH | 1.30 |
| 7 | Milwaukee | 1.23 |
| 8 | Cincinnati | 1.20 |
| 9 | Detroit | 1.18 |
| 10 | Richmond-Petersburg | 1.18 |
Q: Just a quick message about Pato O’Ward’s F1 test. Faster than all newcomers and faster than most vets. He did us IndyCar fans proud.
MK, Buffalo, NY
MP: Pato has made a leap this year, which is why McLaren is leaning so far into using him more often in F1-related activities.
Q: In Charles Leershen’s book “Blood and Smoke – A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Birth of the Indy 500,” there is mention of “…some two hundred bricklayers working frantically against the onset of winter…”. Also, “…it would take 3.2 million bricks to cover the
Speedway, and the job would cost $180,000…”. As a trial, 200 yards of
the front straight was bricked, and on September 11, 1909 was tested
successfully by driver Johnny Aitken. The last brick, made of bronze
with a brass coating, was laid ceremonially on Monday, December 7, 1909.
Bernie, Aubrey, TX
MP: Thanks for helping to answer the Mailbag reader’s question of how many people installed the bricks.
Q: In light of the Vegas GP and the impressive TV rating the race garnered at an inhospitable time slot, I think it’s fair to say F1 has officially surpassed IndyCar as the No. 2 form of racing in the country. Additionally, I would venture to say F1 has surpassed NASCAR in terms of “pop culture” relevance. (TV ratings do not tell the full story).
My question is: Would you welcome Liberty Media taking over IndyCar and making it a complimentary series to F1 if it ensured preserving the prestige and heritage of the 500?
Do you have any idea if Penske Entertainment would consider a joint venture with Liberty where Liberty takes over IndyCar and Penske focuses on promoting a select few races including the 500?
Jah S Buckhead, Atlanta, GA
MP: I’ve been told more than once that Liberty approached Penske with an offer to buy the series, and Liberty was harshly rebuked.
If Liberty were to buy IndyCar and try and preserve what we have while applying its creativity and marketing/promotional expertise to take it to the heights Penske Entertainment have yet to produce, I’d pray for it to happen tomorrow.
Q: While watching the last F1 race of the season, something dawned on me as the cars zipped in and out of the pits. Why is it that in IndyCar stalling while leaving the pits is a common occurrence, especially at the 500 where someone ruins their race every year? Yet in F1, it’s unheard of. Is the clutch setup that much different between the two series? And if F1 can come with some sort of anti-stall device, why can’t IndyCar?
Same goes for standing starts — no one ever stalls off the line in F1. However, the last time that I remember IndyCar trying a standing start, it was a disaster when someone near the front stalled, resulting in a huge crash.
Bob C, Mills River, NC
MP: Couple of things here: The tall first gear used at Indy is something no F1 car has to deal with, so if we’re looking at hardest situations to exit the pits without stalling, it’s there. The other item to consider is a single F1 team spends almost as much as the entire IndyCar field spends on a season of racing, and who knows how much an F1 engine supplier spends compared to an IndyCar engine supplier. With that part understood, the dollars invested into F1 anti-stall technology is light years ahead of whatever was spent years ago in IndyCar. Also, IndyCars stalling is not a common occurrence. If 33 cars make seven pit stops at Indy, that’s 231 stops, and what do we have, two or three in the race? That comes out to something like a 99 percent success rate. If it’s five-six stalls, it’s 98 percent, etc.