Race car liveries serve a number of purposes. They’re there to attract fans and to make a race car look good. Perhaps most of all, though, they’re there to show off sponsor logos and pull in the big bucks to keep a team afloat. Every so often, a team runs a special livery to get fresh eyeballs and make some waves. Brad Jones Racing did just that when it chose to run a design penned by a 10-year-old with a deep love for Australia’s V8 Supercars.
It all stemmed from a competition that the team ran in October. Run with the team’s primary sponsor, Pizza Hut, it challenged fans to submit their own livery design for the team to run at the season finale Adelaide 500 in November. The team received almost 60 submissions from the contest, but one stood out head and shoulders above the crowd. Tween Grace Lewis penned a charming drawing featuring Pizza Hut logos past and present.
“Grace’s entry truly touched our hearts,” said Simon Stocks, Pizza Hut Australia’s Director of Marketing and Digital. Similarly, driver Macauley Jones was stoked with the results. “Watching Grace’s drawing come to life on our car is pretty cool – it’s just like if she drew it herself on the Pizza Hut Camaro,” he said.
Naturally, the 10-year-old designer was ecstatic to win the competition. “I can’t believe I won the whole thing,” said Lewis, adding “I worked really hard on the design, and I can’t wait to see it in real life at the race.” By virtue of winning the contest, Lewis was also treated to tickets to the event, along with a merchandise pack and a tour of the BJR race car. Lewis actually has a familial link to Supercars, too, with her mother Leah working as a volunteer at the Adelaide event.
Macauley Jones hasn’t had the hottest season, with joint-best finishes of 7th in the Melbourne Super Sprint and Darwin Triple Crown earlier this year. Regardless, there’s everything to play for in the two races lined up in Adelaide this weekend.
It’s nice to see the team commit to what is, fundamentally, a very fun idea. Lewis’s design might not be what you’d typically see on a racing car, and it might have been drawn on a template more befitting a van than a sleek Camaro coupe. Regardless, it was brimming with heart and soul and that’s what got her the win in the competition.
Too often, racing liveries are straightforward assemblages of a stack of disparate sponsor logos, crammed in around one major company and a tired color scheme. By choosing the cutest and most entertaining design, the team should draw eyes and attention in a way that even an exquisitely designed professional livery could not. I mean, we just wrote about a brand right now! It works!
Image credits: Brad Jones Racing
I like this kind of thing when it’s done well,and this is spot on
They replicated her drawing very literally… But its great to see her efforts reproduced for real.
I remember the kick I got in seeing my first published logo/stationary designs ‘in the wild’!
This car is one of the 4 car ‘Brad Jones Racing’ outfit.
Brad Jones built the team 30+ years ago to support his own racing and it has just gone on from there.
They have 1/2 the budget of the of the bigger name teams and are consistently mid pack/top 10 with the occasional top 5.
What they don’t have in dollars or on track success they often make up for in profile. They always draw attention to themselves (and their many many sponsors) by being so open in talking to the media so this livery stunt is just another example of that… and a brilliantly cheap one.
Fun fact – Macauley Jones is Brad Jones Nephew and not bad steerer
This isn’t cheesy at all. Anyone who disagrees can go gag on a piece of pineapple.
Beats Rexy in child designed liveries IMO
Very cool. It’s fun to make race car liveries. I found I enjoy making liveries in Gran Turismo 7 almost as much as I enjoy the actual racing. I happened to make a Taco Bell livery for the Aston Martin DB5 last night. Some might say that’s sacrilege, I think it’s humorous.
A couple of years ago, an up and coming nascar driver had his sponsors pull out on him toward the end of the season. He was preparing to exit when IIRC Jimmy Johnson jumped in to sponsor him. He tearfully accepted and offered to put Johnson’s face on his car. Johnson laughed but didn’t take him up on it. He totally should have anyway.
Of course, this year’s Talladega Nights Wonderbread and Old Spice liveries were pretty epic.
No one will dare out-pizza this hut
More of this. I think slightly rough cartoony scribbles work awesome as race car liveries. Nice job.
First I for one believe these liveries should be measured by results not cuteness.
Second I believe this is a very effective results oriented livery and is better than most designs you see on cars designed by so called marketing experts.
This girl has a career ahead of her provided she doesn’t succumb to teachers and experts on how to do what she is doing better than most professionals.
This totally has an early ’00s alt rock album cover art vibe, which is wonderful.
I’ve seen some cool kid-designed racing helmets, but that’s awesome to see it on a whole car. Love it!
The smiley face U complete with tongue absolutely puts a cherry on top.
Well done, Grace