Finding AO Racing on the starting grid of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is easy: Just go the biggest crowd. Albeit only in its fourth year, Rexy and her pink sister Roxy have captured the hearts of millions of fans.
At Laguna Seca, it was time to welcome the latest creation from PJ Hyett and Gunnar Jeanette: Sketchy, a character with a white base and frazzling lines that represent the long process of the inception of Rexy.
#77 AO Racing: Nick Tandy, Harry King, #23 ASTON MARTIN THOR Team: Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
With IMSA announcing throwback liveries for the Laguna Seca race, AO Racing initially found itself in trouble. “With us being a team that’s only been around for three years, we didn’t have our own historical livery to go back to,” Gunnar Jeanette, team manager and co-founder of AO Racing, told Motorsport.com.
“So we had the idea of doing the first Sketch on the napkin, and we just thought it would be a fun thing for the fans to see and get a new character or the origin story of Rexy.”
“As easy as it looks to have just scribbles, it was actually very hard to come up with something that looked as good as this does. And so we spent a lot of time making sure that the actual execution of the car and how it came out is as good as it is.”
The livery is only the beginning
#77 AO Racing: Nick Tandy, Harry King
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Lumen via Getty Images
Jeanette points out that Sketchy doesn’t mean it is the first-ever imagined design of Rexy, but rather a new character. “It went through the same process of sketched out designs as Rexy did.”
And the livery is only the beginning: “You can put a livery on a car, but it’s very different creating an actual character and a storyline that changes with what happens on track.”
That was especially hard since AO Racing only learned about Laguna Seca being a throwback livery race right after the Rolex 24 at Daytona, so time was very limited.
“And then it’s the supporting of that story and the retelling of that story through on track, off track, video, social media, and then even the merchandise side of it.”
On the merchandise side, things have never been better, items sometimes sell out faster than they get resupplied. Jeanette pointed out that making Rexy a commercial project wasn’t the original intention.
“I’d love to say that we had this game plan from the beginning of AO Racing, but when we introduced Rexy to the world and saw everybody’s response, and particularly how it’s grown over the short amount of time, that lends itself to just being as comprehensive as possible with the storytelling,” he said.
#77 AO Racing Porsche 911: Nick Tandy, Harry King, Alessio Picariello
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Lumen via Getty Images
Of course, introducing a new character always leads to uncertainty, but Sketchy has been an instant success: “The car is only the first step. Developing the character with that, and then it’s developing after that all of the merchandise stuff, the plushies, the T-Shirts.”
“It’s a lot of work. To see it come to life is all very worthwhile. So, I was nervous… I was very nervous with Rexy already.”
No quick return of Sketchy
#77 AO Racing: Nick Tandy, Harry King
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
Jeanette shared a rare disappointment right at the start of the project: “The very first sketch of Rexy, I showed it to my wife, and she said: ‘Oh my god, no, that’s terrible!’ And I was like: ‘Oh no!’ Because I personally was so excited, and I could see the potential in it, and so I just disregarded her comments and went with it anyway. Obviously, she loves it now.”
Jeanette acknowledged that he had hardly any free time over the last months: “I’m too busy to have children, but these are like my children. So, when you create one and sort of bring it to the world, there’s always a little bit of nerves if people are going to like it.”
Asked how much time the Rexy storytelling takes on top of the usual work of organizing a race team, a team voice from the background intervened: “Too much!”
#77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992): Laurin Heinrich, Klaus Bachler, Michael Christensen
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
Jeanette added: “We look at the calendar over the year and create a timeline of what might a special livery or story be, and that’s between Rexy, Roxy, Spike, now Sketchy, and the skeleton cars. So yes, I don’t have a lot of free time in my life right now, because I’m also involved in the European program”
For the time being, it’s uncertain if or when Sketchy will return. “I don’t know”, Jeanette said. “For sure for this year, it’s just a one-off here, but yeah, I think with how well Sketchy has been received, we’d love to find a part of his story where he can race again.”
So, as usual with the characters around Rexy, it needs to fit the narrative. But given how creative AO has been so far, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find a reason to bring Sketchy back. Are they ever running out ideas? Jeanette replies candidly:
“I’m always worried about running out of ideas, but not at the moment!”
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