The motorsport art of Randy Owens UPDATED
An Indy winner, Long Beach and Hobbo
When we last visited the motorsport art of Randy Owens, we explored some of his greatest Indy car hits. Well, Mr. Owens is at it again and the newest Indy body kit (sans aeroscreen) features in two of three new pieces.
Will Power gets his win
It’s well known that Roger Penske expects his Indy car drivers to win the 500. By winning the 2018 Indy 500, Will Power became another lasting part of Penske lore. Mr. Owens captures the silver Verizon car on the main straight almost flying past the Pagoda timing tower. As always, Mr. Owens uses his signature technique of streaking color to confer speed and a little dose of atmosphere. The pits are a blur of color as Power hurries past on his way to the biggest win of his career.
Indy cars at Long Beach
Half of a rung down from the Indy 500 on the important race list is the Long Beach Grand Prix. It’s a don’t-miss race for me every year. An American street race that’s now just as much a motorsport tradition as the Monaco Grand Prix. It features recognizable corners and landmarks just like Monaco. Turn One is always good for a laugh (and crash) and it leads to the iconic Aquarium turn. Winding their way to the back straight takes the cars on a high-speed run all the way to the impossibly slow Hairpin turn that closes out each lap.
Mr. Owens captures the sleek look of the current cars as they cue up to do the first gear run through the tight turn in 2019. The object here is for the drivers to power out of the turn to maximize their top-end speed on the curving front straight. This frequently leads to drivers leaning a little too hard on the throttle out of the turn and doing a slow spin just as the rest of the field is still trying to accelerate hard. High comedy and more than one multiple car crash has ensued oh-so-many times.
Hobbo and the GT40
I’ve been an admirer of David Hobbs for a very long time. He’s driven every kind of race car that you can think of. Hobbs is considered one of the most reliably fast drivers among team owners he’s worked for. He made poor cars look good and good cars look even better and he was always in with a chance at winning. You can read about his storied career here.
Hobbs got to drive many legendary cars. But there was no more legendary car than the Gulf Ford GT40 that he drove at LeMans in 1969. Entered by the John Wyer team, Hobbs’ teammates would go on to win the 1969 race. Mr. Owens depicts the beautiful sky blue car at speed in a wonderful testament to the versatile driving career of Mr. Hobbs.
See it all
You can see all of the motorsport art of Randy Owens here.
See more motorsport art here.
