Photography by Dave Green
Daytona represented a good-news, bad-news weekend for AO Racing.
Bad news first. While both cars–the No. 77 GTD Pro Porsche 911 GT3 R and the No. 99 LMP2 Oreca-Gibson–were in contention for almost the whole race, the Porsche finished eighth in class, while the other car came home in sixth.
The good news? Saturday evening, less than a third of the way through the race, the team posted this on its Facebook page: “SOLD OUT: Our entire stock of merchandise at Daytona is sold out. If you missed out, please continue to shop at aoracing.com/store. We’ve got lots more stock coming and are fulfilling orders as fast as our little T-Rex arms can go!”
T. rex arms? Oh yes. That would be Rexy, the bright-green Porsche 911 with huge teeth in the front of the car. The purple team car is named Spike, a dragon, sporting a dragon nose and teeth up front and big, orange dragon wings behind the cockpit.
The livery is cartoonish–and that’s a compliment–resonating with kids and therefore adults who are pleased their children have found something to connect with in the motorsports world.
And as for that merchandise, AO Racing has commissioned T-shirts, hoodies, stickers, posters, plush toys, hats, flags, keychains and pins. It’s brilliant, really–so effective and so cheap: Most every car in IMSA is wrapped, and unlike in NASCAR, many teams don’t have to make space to plug a big sponsor.
If you’re wrapping your car anyway, why not have some fun with it? They’ve even created Roxy, a pink T. rex, which occasionally replaces Rexy in the lineup. Both Rexy and Roxy have been turned into Hot Wheels cars.
It’s all the result of team driver and co-owner P.J. Hyett’s modest way of honoring his children: He had his helmet painted with a dragon on one side for his son and a unicorn on the other side for his daughter. It was a small step from there to make characters out of their cars.
AO Racing–that stands for Autumn Oaks, the name of Hyett’s car collection–was formed by Hyett, a 41-year-old software developer who co-founded a company that was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, and Gunnar Jeannette, a championship-winning driver and the son of Kevin Jeannette, a legendary Porsche specialist who crew-chiefed cars for Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Bob Wollek, Derek Bell and Paul Newman.
While AO Racing’s cars look like they were created by Disney, this team is serious about competition. Rexy won the 2024 IMSA GTD Pro championship with three wins and two poles, while Spike the Dragon, in its rookie season, scored four poles and a podium. Spike, the team insists, is eager for his first LMP2 win, and bringing aboard former Penske pilot Dane Cameron, who co-drove to Porsche’s overall victory in the 2024 Rolex 24 and the season championship, should help make that happen.
At the ’25 Rolex 24, both teams showed what they could do. Rexy the Porsche led 150 laps, and Spike the Dragon LMP2 led 281. In the race’s closing stages, Spike was slowed by electrical issues, and Rexy had to make an unscheduled pit stop.
That, as mentioned, is the bad part of this story. But one good part is that both Rexy and Spike will be back at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 15, which gives AO Racing six weeks to restock that merchandise trailer.
The livery is cartoonish–and that’s a compliment–resonating with kids and therefore adults who are pleased their children have found something to connect with in the motorsports world.
This one resonates with me big time. It's been really awesome to share motorsports with my kid.
I'm trying hard to be patient and do it slowly–I want to make sure it's something she participates in because she likes it, not because it's something I really like.
I was in the media center when those cars crashed near pit-out.
The camera zoomed in on Rexy as it was stopped on the track.
There was a loud boo from the room.
Then the announcers noted that Rexy has simply stopped to avoid the wreck. A moment later, the car started to move forward.
Yay, exclaimed the media center.
It’s amazing what some graphics can do for a car.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Don't discount the impact of the person wearing an inflatable dino costume next to those graphics on the grid walk!
In reply to wae :
Oh, yeah, the total effort is stellar.
My 5 year old daughter, who usually ignores the various racecars that are frequently on TV in the living room, was pretty interested in spotting Rexy and Spike.
The cars are very cool, distinctive, and fun (which we need more of). The hotwheels variants are impossible to find and re-sold online for several times their retail price.
I do wonder how the financials of the team work with what appears to be no sponsorship. Is the wealthy team owner just lighting money on fire by the millions? There's no way you're selling enough merch to cover even the tire bill for the Daytona 24.
In reply to CrashDummy :
Looks like setting money on fire. The owner was the co-founder of GitHub and cashed out when Microsoft acquired it.
My buddy Nathan crews on that Porsche. Next time I see him, I'll tell him how everyone is crushing on "his" car.
j_tso said:In reply to CrashDummy :
Looks like setting money on fire. The owner was the co-founder of GitHub and cashed out when Microsoft acquired it.
Race cars don’t run on gas, or electricity or some other fuel. They run on money.
j_tso said:In reply to CrashDummy :
Looks like setting money on fire. The owner was the co-founder of GitHub and cashed out when Microsoft acquired it.
Think of all the people employed and being able to live good lives off all that cash being burned. Its not curing cancer but its also not burning down the rain forest.
That's what I'd do.
"The way to make a small fortune in racing is start with a large one."
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