Oilpressure

Most that know me know how much I cherish the history of IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500. They also know that I think the idea of throwback liveries is a good one, but I think that the vast majority of them miss the mark.

I’ve written about this before, so I won’t list all of the bad examples we’ve been subjected to. But a couple of them are worth mentioning, just in case you are very new to this sport. It is a sad coincidence that the son of one of my all-time favorite drivers had his hand in both of these.

Parnelli Jones drove two of the most iconic cars in the IMS Museum – Calhoun (the 1962 car that won the pole by breaking the 150 mph barrier, and won the 1963 race) and Silent Sam (the 1967 turbine that dominated the race, before losing a $6 bearing with three laps remaining).

PJ Jones, Parnelli’s son, is recognized as one of the all-around good guys in the sport. He conceived two throwback liveries in different years, with the idea of honoring his dad and his career. It was a nice idea that sounded great on paper, but fell way short in the actual execution – on both counts.

In 2004 and 2006, PJ ran supposed throwbacks that were supposed to mimic Calhoun. Neither came close. In all fairness, it is almost impossible to replicate the livery of a front-engine roadster an transfer it to a sleek rear-engine car. Something gets way lost in the translation. (Photos: IMS & IndyCar.com)

In 2007, PJ attempted to qualify what was meant to rekindle memories of Silent Sam. This one could’ve been easier to do, since the car was one predominant color – day-glo orange, with a few black accents and some STP decals thrown on. (Photo:IMS)

OK, he would’ve had to have STP’s cooperation to do that. Apparently that didn’t happen. Instead there was an out-of-place Direct Supply sticker on the cowling, and a ridiculous Whoosh along the sidepods. It was a very feeble attempt at a throwback that mercifully didn’t make the field.

PJ Jones is a much better driver than many people give him credit for. His CART career suffered by driving the ill-handling Eagle of the late 90s, that was powered by the under-developed Toyota engine at the time. The end of his IndyCar career is known for these two throwback misses that most people remember him for, and that’s a shame.

Why the history lesson on bad attempts at throwback liveries? Well, two reasons. First, there are rumors out there that the Milwaukee Mile could be back on the IndyCar schedule as early as next season. Personally, I don’t think it will happen by next season – but I guess it could. Whenever Milwaukee does return, there is a lot of support to make it a throwback race, much like NASCAR has done with Darlington. I would caution fans for the reasons I listed – it is tough to turn a rear-engine car into a roadster or even older car, through the livery. And even if it is a more modern car they are honoring – it doesn’t always translate.

The main reason I am bringing all this up is that we recently got photos of a throwback livery that actually works, and we will see it this weekend.

Bryan Herta drove the black and with Shell car in the late 90s for Team Rahal. (Photo: Racer.com)

He had flirted with victory several times in that livery, most notably in 1996 when he was on the wrong end of The Pass – Alex Zanardi’s famous pass of Herta through the carousel section at Laguna Seca. Herta had dominated the race, but Zanardi had been closing quickly near the end of the race. Finally on the last lap, Zanardi dove past Herta in the corkscrew and somehow managed to keep the car from crashing – thereby preventing Herta from claiming his first-ever IndyCar win.

Two years later in 1998, Herta finally broke through on the same track and took his first win. The following year, Herta collected win No. 2 at Laguna Seca, while driving that same striking Shell livery.

Sometime last year Bryan’s son, Colton, bought the Reynard that Bryan drove to that victory in 1998 and surprised his father with it on his birthday.

Now they are going one better. Shell is not an Andretti Autosport (soon to be re-branded as Andretti Global) sponsor. They are a Team Penske sponsor. But Herta’s primary sponsor, Gainbridge, was gracious enough to allow the team to depart from their normal logo and livery in order to try and bring back the feel of that Shell car that was a teammate to Bobby Rahal in the late 90s. Based on the photo below (from Racer.com), I’d say they did an excellent job.

I always liked Herta’s Shell livery. I thought it was crisper looking than when Kenny Bräck took over the car a few years later. The later version may have been more correct in the corporate colors, but the black and white really popped in my opinion. (photo: Racer.com)

If you weren’t following CART back in those days, this may not mean a whole lot to you. For those of us that did this will take us back to a time, when a livery stayed on a car for several years and didn’t change from week to week. This was always one of my favorite cars in the late 90s and I’m looking forward to seeing it back on the track where it excelled. Thank you Andretti Autosport and Gainbridge, for finally bringing us a throwback livery we can enjoy.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on September 6, 2023 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.