This is a shot at the end of 2005 when we had 5 different paint schemes on our 5 chassis. That is pretty rare, seeing as a the start of the season, every one had the same scheme. I did not do the all gray car (I was on vacation that week and my co-painter Adam did it his first week), and only did portions of the yellow and green car at the end. The middle three are mine, as documented below.
First is the original rendering I got:
Here are a couple shots before it had decals applied that also show the orange pearl and painted arrowheads well:
And then complete. Never did get a pic in the sun though, which is what this car needed.
In 2005, We went through alot of changes. As seen below this car, We did a color scheme change from our HVM colors to Corona colors, and we also changed our second entry from HVM colors to this Nextel scheme for driver Homero Richards. . It came at a bad time for me, was incredibly elaborate, and was done in a relatively short time frame. Every area of this car was hand drawn, masked, and cut out with an exacto knife. Then all drop-shadows were airbrushed on as well. Since it was just for one race, there was no real way to 'cheat' by making paint spray masks. It could have been done in vinyl, but it was to my benefit to get it done rather than wait for someone to make a decision on vinyl. This scheme had been run by a different team the year before, But Nextel wanted some alterations done. After making them to match the the renderings (tub on left below), the sponsors decided they didn't like it and had me redo it (tub on right). It had to do with decal placement and such, but it didn't change the fact that allot of work went down the drain. Oh, and they changed the white outline from 1/2" to 3/4". But in the end, it definitely ranks pretty high on my list of work I am proud of. It was simply beautiful.
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These shots show some of the artwork up close.
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And on track.....
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Lola, 2005 Scheme, Corona version
Mid season, We signed a deal with Mexican driver Rodolfo Lavin to drive a handful of races with our team initially, a Corona sticker was simply added to our existing paint scheme (seen in original version below), but eventually, we changed the whole car to Corona colors for the remainder of the season. It was, once again, an altered version of our existing paint scheme. As seems to be the case for 2005, I didn't get allot pf pictures. So here are the few I took along with some of the car on track.
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This is the 2005 edition of our Lola. As you can see, it is the close to the same scheme as the 2004, but with some color changes and a little altering to the side of the tub. We fielded both drivers in this scheme, But the roll bar and mirrors were painted different colors to differentiate them on the track. Ronnie Bremer had red, Bjorn Wirdheim white. For some reason, I only found a few pictures of this car that I took myself. I hope to find more in time, but for now, these four shots I took and the four I found online (in action) will have to do.
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This is an old tub that Champ Car had painted up to use for Safety Team demonstrations, like headrest and belt removal etc. Allot more of this tub was painted than usually gets painted. The parts behind the sidepods usually aren't painted, But this is more display than anything, so they wanted it all done. It was done in the same DMD666 as the car above, and the pit cart listed under 'odds and ends'.
This is the scheme we ran from 2001-2004. This is it in 2004, as driven by Ryan Hunter Raey and Mario Dominguez. There were little variations on it over those years, change of colors on certain flaps and such as sponsors came and went, But overall.......it stayed just like this for four seasons.
Here is me in action shooting a '98
Reynard for driver Helio Castro-Neves. The bright heat lamps made for a dark picture, but
seeing the clear-coat rolling up in clouds looks pretty cool. This was taken for a
newsletter that never made print. I put the full suit on for this one!
This is the tub/nose/shock-cover
I am painting above, all done and ready for delivery. Usually, the three pieces are done
separately for numerous reasons, but this was a "first run" and was done
assembled to make sure it was perfect......not that my cars aren't always !!
This is a 1966 A.J.Watson
Indy-car, restored to the specs it ran in 1969 By Race Car Restorations in Speedway,
Indiana. It was driven by Mike Mosley, and turned the first ever laps at Michigan
International Speedway. All I had to duplicate the original paintwork was an old broken
piece of the car,(which happened to have all three colors AND about 7 sponsor
stickers/lettering), and 5 or 6 black and white pictures.
We had the colours hand mixed to match by Finish Master in Indianapolis, and had the small
stickers duplicated. Last I heard it was in a "personal collection" somewhere in
St. Louis.
Here is a side view of the
Watson. All of the lettering that had originally been hand painted was redone the same
way. Including the drivers name, mechanics name, the #90, and the Zecol Lubaid logo.(not
by me)
This early '90's Lola CART chassis
was painted up to be a show car for Stefan Johanssons' Indy Lights team cars.
Surprisingly, most people never knew the difference!
This is the car above.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of any of the Indy-Lights cars I did for the team
over the past couple of years.
This was the car that Johansson
Motorsports tried to field for Scott Harrington in the '97 IRL 500. They eventually gave
the car to A.J.Foyt for one of his quicker cars, but it's run ended in the wall and they
didn't make the race.
This is a 1993 Penske chassis
in the Alumax colors of '94-'95. Bettenhausen Motorsports used to run year-old Penskes up
until '96. This is the car in its' raw form, all paint. Not a single decal yet! In the
cockpit is Tonys' brother, famed Indy 500 driver Gary Bettenhausen. He was just helping to
steer the car down the street as it was towed from the paint shop to the race shop. We
joked with him about this being his "fastest lap yet".
In the background to the right is Famed sprint-car mechanic, and hall of fame member,
Willie Davis. Willie built Gary's sprint cars for years during Gary's most dominant years.
In the background left is Brian Malloy, who is responsible for getting every picture on
this site scanned, brightened, cropped, cut, and sent to me. He is also listed in the
special thanks section of "CART:the first twenty years" by Rick Schafer, for his
ongoing generosity and computer knowledge.
This is Stefan in the car. It
was a great picture, so I had him sign it for me.
This is me on a 1994 Penske
chassis. This as the first Indy car I ever laid a hand on, and the first I ever painted.
However, when I first painted this car, it was in the blue and orange Alumax scheme seen
above this picture.
I don't know If it is the sheer beauty of this chassis, the design, the curves.......Or if
it is the fact that it was "my first", or the fact that is was so completely
dominant in the '94 season, But this is my all time favorite chassis ever built. You
really must see a PC23 in person to respect its sharp, beautiful, yet fierce looks.
This specific chassis was originally a Paul Tracy Marlboro car in '94, Then did the '95
season in the Alumax blue/orange scheme for Stefan Johansson. It then ran in the '96 U.S.
500 in Alumax colors for Gary Bettenhausen, where it would see it's final track time and
end in the wall. It was completely fixed, and painted in the '97-'98 Alumax colors and
served as a show-car for Patrick Carpentier and Helio Castro-Neves for two years .
After the loss of Alumax, the car sat decal-free for a whole year, and then Tony
Bettenhausen decided it was time to go back to how it belonged....as a Marlboro car. He
saw it painted, but never got to see it done.
The car was extensively restored, and is a truly beautiful car to behold. It currently
sits on a multi-level car rack in the Bettenhausen race shop, awaiting a potential buyer.
This was a full page picture in a
'97 "Indy Car Magazine" story about Patrick Carpentier. This is a beautiful shot
of a beautiful car. Unfortunately, most pictures of this car were from the side, which
made it appear to be blue and white only. All of the striping, colors, and
"Alumax" lettering on the wings was paint, not stickers.
I took this picture from the
third level of a show-car rack. The crew was doing pit-stop practice, and I wanted an
action shot. However, the flash would have been distracting, so I took the shot following
the stop.
This Picture was taken
mid-October, 1998......I was laid off two weeks later!! I re-joined the team in January
after the short hiatus mentioned in the "about me" section. I did all three cars
in this photo, but I included the shot because I also did the big Dayglo-Orange stripe on
the side of the transporter, both sides. I thought this was bad, wait 'til you see
the transporter below! I am the guy blinded by the sun Aaaaalll the way to the right.
I like this pic because it shows
Helio's helmet, the fueler helmets, the car, And some pit equipment......no, I'm not in
this pic.
Well...we had to go test, and
couldn't do it in the Alumax colors, so I repainted the sides all the way up to and past
where the first white stripe had been; basically, all the white you see. I am not equipped
for or used to doing this sort of project...it nearly killed me!
1998 Reynard fielded for 1999
season. A pretty car that would never see much print time.
The '99 season never panned out
as hoped by the Bettenhausen crew. This was an all too common sight to see, and therefore
was quite the busy year for me. We had two tremendous accidents before the season started,
so just getting to the first green flag was a chore . Neither of the '98 chassis we had
from the previous year ever made it to the start of a '99 race.
This is probably my favorite car
to date. It is a 1996 Reynard originally run by Stefan Johansson in his final CART season,
1996. When FedEx took over as the CART series sponsor , they naturally wanted their
colours on a CART champ car. They hired a graphics designer to design a scheme
incorporating the FedEx colors and logos in with their new racing connections.
What resulted was this gorgeous car. It is done in FedEx purple and FedEx orange, with
black accent colours on top. All of the orange flags on the car are painted, and all of
the logos and various stickers are clear-coated over. It was VERY time consuming, and was
done three times before it was accepted by FedEx....not because of my work, just typical
corporate decision making process. Sometimes things look better on paper than in real
life!
When the car left our shop for the last time, it was perfect. The show car circuit is
brutal to a paint-job, and last I saw it, it was getting a little worn. But polished up,
sitting outside, it is still a great sight to behold.
What these pictures do not show,
is that there is a huge FedEx logo in orange and white on the rear wing mainplane, and the
FedEx speedometer logos on the top surface of the side pods. The car also sports one
Goodyear tyre and one Firestone tyre on each side. Hey...when you sponsor the whole
series, you can't be partial to any one side.......stay neutral!
High Quality Image:
Late 90's Indy Lights car
Late 90's era Indy Lights chassis driven by Fredrik Larsson for Johansson Motorsports. Indy lights used a common chassis for multiple years in the late 90's, A Lola I believe.
I did three cars for Treadway racing
this year. The first was a '95 Reynard show car. I painted it up as seen above. The team
was desperate for this car in about 48 hours. I knocked it out , but in less than perfect
form. The team was thrilled when they got it. One day after I gave them the last piece, I
got home from work, flipped on the tube, and there was the car on local news. Turns out it
was the first officially registered car for the newly formed Indy Racing League, and they
announced Arie Luyendyk as the driver. I did two more cars for them leading up to that
first 500, which is when they got this picture for me.
It was the first IRL car I saw offered as a scale model collectible, and it was only for
that one year it looked like this. Whenever I see the model in hobby shops, I kinda look
at it and smile....."that's my paint job!" The picture they gave me to go by was
literally done in red magic marker, so I took alot of liberties in doing the car and
therefore semi-"claim" the design as partly my own. Here is a magazine
cover featuring this car. 
I can't remember if this was a Dallara
or a G-force Chassis. I only was involved in painting it once, the first car for the
season opener. It is driven by Robbie Buhl in the Indy Racing League. The car
ended up changing slightly in design with the addition of Menard's and Purex sponsorship, so it took
them a little while to find a picture for me from the early part of the season!
Pennzoil Penske PC20
This is a 1991 Penske PC20 chassis that was restored around the same time as the
Marlboro penske. It was bought by Tony Bettenhausen for the 1992 season, and spent the
following years in the black, white, and orange colors of AMAX coal, Bettenhausen
Motorsport's sponsor. It was then resprayed in the blue and orange Alumax colors as a show
car (as seen above), and then to the '97-'98 Alumax colors also shown above. It was
finally fully stripped of about 13 paint jobs down to the original carbon fibre, and
restored. This car, too, is sitting under a cover awaiting possible future sale.
Yellow Freight 2000 G-Force and helmet
This is the 2000 YELLOW freight G-Force driven by Lyn St. James. This car was done in show-car quality, as it was a one-time entry for the IRL Indy 500. Unfortunately, after a thrash week to get it done in such quality, it would never see the race. During qualifications, She spun, came down and hit the inside wall. The car flipped on it's side, slid up the track, and hit the outer wall, then sliding back down for a third contact with the inside wall. It was a total loss, and didn't have but maybe 20 laps on it. I saw the TV. footage, but never saw the car again. I also did her helmet in this picture.
Here is the car going out for practice. The color is Yellow's corporate color, and is called Swampholly Orange. It looked more like the above picture in person, and was really bright in the sun.
Michel Jourdain, Jr. Lola
Here are a few pictures of Michel Jourdain, taken at various tracks between 2001-2003. We would essentially run this paint scheme from 2001 -2004 seasons with only minor wing color changes here and there. We kept the same basic scheme for 2005, just changing the colors and altering the tub layout a bit.
Bruno Junqueira - 2004 Indy 500
Painted for Newman/Haas racing for the 2004 Indy 500. Sinfully ugly colors, but I didn't pick them!
