Remembering the White, Red and Blue Of Brumos Porsche

For five decades, Brumos Racing of Jacksonville, Fla. has been winning major races and championships racing white Porsches carrying distinctive red and white stripes – usually bearing No. 59.

It might come as a surprise to even veteran sports car aficionados, but Brumos did not always field that paint scheme.In the early days, the Brumos cars were painted tangerine, with Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood driving orange Porsches to titles in IMSA GT and SCCA Trans-Am.

Why tangerine? It was the favorite color of Ferry Porsche, who operated the company founded by his father, Ferdinand Porsche Sr. Brumos – which began selling, servicing and racing Porsches in 1959 – deferred to Porsche’s color choice for its cars.That changed in 1973 at the Daytona 24 Hours. New Brumos team manager Bob Snodgrass – Gregg’s partner at Brumos – suggested painting the team’s new Porsche 911 Carrera RS white with red and blue stripes to signify that Brumos was America’s leading Porsche dealer. Snodgrass had heard that the orange cars did not show up well in black-and-white photography, which prompted him to make the change, which was approved by Gregg.“That paint scheme really grew on people,” Haywood said. “It’s a classic design on a Porsche 911, and within a very short period of time that color scheme came to be identified with Brumos – we couldn’t change it. That is an iconic paint scheme known all over the world. Everyone might not see the name Brumos, but they know it is a Brumos car. Not many racing teams in history have had that kind of identification with a color scheme.”Brumos and Roger Penske both entered new Carreras for the season-opening event, going up against the favored Cosworth Mirage, Matra-Simca, Ford Lola T282 and Porsche 208 prototypes. Prior to the race, the meticulous Gregg disassembled his car and discovered a loose flywheel. While Gregg warned Penske of the potential flaw, Penske felt it was a pre-race ploy and ignored the advice.Early in the Daytona event, the two Carreras battled for position, with Mark Donohue and George Follmer driving the Penske Porsche battling Gregg and Haywood while the prototypes fell by the wayside one by one. That became a Brumos-Penske fight for the lead when Francois Cevert blew the engine of the Matra-Simca at 12:30 a.m., and the final competitive prototype was on the sidelines. Follmer was leading at 5 a.m. when the Penske car retired with engine problems traced to – you guessed it – a loose flywheel. That left Gregg and Haywood with a 35-lap lead. Their only problem the rest of the drive to the checkered flag was a cracked windshield when Haywood collected an errant gull. Brumos became the first team to win a major endurance race overall in a 911-based Porsche. Gregg once again earned his nickname, “Peter Perfect.”

With its winning Porsche shipped to Germany, Gregg and Haywood partnered with Dr. David Helmick to win the following month’s 12 Hours of Sebring in a light-yellow Porsche. Since then, though, the flagship Brumos car has carried the Daytona-winning paint scheme.Highlights for Brumos included three consecutive victories in the Daytona 24 – 1973 (there was no race due to the fuel crisis in 1974), 1975, and 1976 (in an Audi). Gregg won in a Brumos No. 99 in 1978, and David Donohue, Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia won the 2009 Rolex 24 in a Porsche/Riley DP, giving Brumos five victories in the American classic.“Racing what it sells,” Brumos also won numerous titles in the IMSA Supercar Championship, while Leh Keen and Andrew Davis teamed to win the 2011 Rolex Series GT championship in a Porsche 911 – painted identically to the car that won the 1973 Daytona enduro. Today, Brumos remains active in vintage and historic sports car competition, continuing the legacy of the familiar No. 59.