SpeedWorks Mustang Challenge Race Team Unveils "Save the Shark" Livery

For Immediate Release

Contact:                Jan Fambro

                              (310) 826-2962



 

 

 


SpeedWorks’ Mustang Challenge Race Team Unveils the 

“Save the Shark” Car


 

Great White Shark Image Photographed by Driver Chip Scarlett


 

INDIANAPOLIS (January 18, 2010) – SpeedWorks’ Mustang Challenge race team
today unveiled the livery for its “Save the Shark” FR500s race car to be
piloted by Chip Scarlett in the 2010 Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Series.
The shark image portrayed on both sides of the car body was photographed by
Scarlett who is combining his long-time avocation and passion for underwater
photography and saving an endangered species, the Great White Shark, with
his passion for racing. Scarlett photographed this young, eight-foot long,
female Great White in August 2005 in the waters off Guadalupe Island,
Mexico. Great White Sharks reproduce slowly, with only a few pups to a
litter. As such, they are threatened by longline fishing, pollution, finning
and loss of habitat. Australia, South Africa and the United States have
designated Great Whites as an endangered, protected species.

 



 


“We think it will be one of the most – if not the most – dynamic looking car
in any of the race series this season,” said SpeedWorks co-owner Peter
Parrott. The “Save the Shark” race car will see its first track time on
March 1 and 2 when the SpeedWorks Mustang Challenge team tests at Virginia
International Raceway on its way down to the season-opener Ford Racing
Mustang Challenge races at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 6 and 7.
Scarlett and his wife, Susan, plan to make materials available at each
Mustang Challenge race explaining the key role sharks play in the health of
the oceans, and their current plight at the hands of illegal shark finning
operations.

 

While the 2010 Mustang Challenge season will be Scarlett’s first full-time
foray into professional racing – he competed in the Miller Park Racing
Association 2009 race series –he has made it clear he intends on being a
serious competitor by bringing on former Formula One, PPG Indy car, and
World Championship Sports Car driver Desiré Wilson as his driver coach.
Desiré remains the only woman to win a British national F1 championship
event by taking the checkered flag at Brands Hatch in 1980. She also won two
World Championship Sports Car events at Monza and Silverstone in 1980.
Desiré raced a Saleen Mustang from 1986 to 1988, winning several races and
the Manufacturers Championship for Ford.

 

Scarlett’s award-winning underwater photography has appeared in publications
like Ocean Realm, Nature’s Best Magazine, Fathoms, Scuba Diver, and Dive
Adventure, and been exhibited at the British Underwater Image Festival in
Birmingham, Asian Dive Expo (ADEX) in Singapore and the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington, among other locations. His video essay titled
“Loving Sharks” won the 2009 Ocean Geographic Underwater Photo Journalist
Award at the Celebrate the Sea festival in Singapore, while his Web site (
<http://www.johnscarlett.com/> www.johnscarlett.com), which includes “Loving
Sharks,” won the prize for most artistic underwater Web site at the
<http://www.underwater-festival.com/> Festival Mondial de l'Image Sous
Marine in Antibes, France.

 

About SpeedWorks

Indianapolis-based SpeedWorks runs Mustang Challenge and Indy Lights race
teams. On the Mustang Challenge side, the team has two full-service arrive
and drive programs: (1) a rental program for drivers who don’t own their own
race cars; and (2) a program for car owner’s who need a place and a team to
store, maintain, prep and transport the car to the races. SpeedWorks also
has coaching and training programs that are designed to improve and expand
your performance driving skills. Personalized instruction, coaching, testing
sessions and high-performance driving experiences are provided.
www.speedworksrd.com <http://www.speedworksrd.com/> 

 

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