NASCAR’s annual springtime visit to Darlington Raceway in South Carolina has brought with it a relatively new tradition in the last few years in the form of the organisation’s ‘Throwback Weekend’. Each year, teams in NASCAR’s three national divisions of racing – Truck, Xfinity and the top-flight Cup Series – pitch up to the 1.37-mile oval with their cars painted in one-off, retro-inspired liveries.
Usually, these special schemes are nods to past NASCAR liveries, but for this year’s Cup Series Throwback race, the Goodyear 400, RFK Racing took a different approach and won the race with a paint scheme inspired by the legendary Castrol TOM’S Toyota Supra. Leaning on its sponsorship from oil manufacturing giant Castrol, the team applied the livery – almost a perfect replica of the legendary white, green and red scheme – to the Ford Mustang of Brad Keselowski, who went on to win the race.
Racing in the JGTC (now Super GT) series between 1995 and 2001, and taking the championship in ’97 and ’99, the Castrol TOM’S Supra has become an icon thanks to its racing success and its starring role in almost every game in the Gran Turismo series. While the livery arguably is best remembered on the JGTC Supra, a very similar scheme appeared on Toyota’s WRC Celicas and Corollas for much of the ’90s.
The Castrol TOM’S Toyota Supra, as featured in Gran Turismo 7
It was at the October Motegi round of the 1999 JGTC season that the Castrol TOM’S Supra last won a race, but now its instantly recognisable livery is on a race-winning car once again. It’s a little ironic that a Ford with a paint job inspired by one of the most successful Toyota racing cars of all time beat a number of Camrys to victory, but since RFK, a Ford team, is sponsored by Castrol, that’s the way it goes. Either way, it’s good to see this iconic colour scheme back on top after 25 years.
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