Old Indy/F1 Oil Painting

[FootScoot]

That's really neat looking. Makes you wonder if they did anymore of them. :)

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Is there any reason to think that it is definitely Indy? It looks like a late 60s-early 70s Ferrari F-1. I would also guess that it is raining, and the car has just become almost airborne on one of the humps that several tracks in Europe had in those days. I thought at first that it was simply that the ground clearance of the car was wrong, but the front suspension parts are in a position that they would be in if the body were in a raised position, like almost flying over a hump. Lots of cars got 4 wheels off the ground in those days, on humps. I wonder if your search would produce results if you changed it to F-1, particularly cars that were red?

[KnowtoriousWon]

Looks like a Formula 5000 Lola from '69-71. The #6 makes me think of the Penske/Donohue car but it should be blue. Might be based on the car thay ran in the 1971 "Quesor" GP at Ontario Califormia.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yep. We're on the right track, I think. I wonder if there is a photo that inspired the painter? The hump may still be something of a clue, since the Lola in the photo above shows front suspension parts that are angled up to the wheels from the body, and the painting doesn't. Seems like a detail a painter wouldn't miss. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Road and Track was a different magazine from today entirely. In every issue there was a banquet of perfect photos, really incredible race photos, as well as paintings. There was a famous one of Jim Clark with all four wheels off the ground by a good six inches, doing close to 200mph during a race. There was one I remember of a bright yellow F-1 being passed in the rain by a red sharknose Ferrari so fast that the rooster tail of the Ferrari's wheels nearly obliterates the yellow (in those days, it meant Belgian), car, which might be another sharknose.

[SpeedyNH]

looks like Mark Donohue to me, likely at indianapolis or maybe milwaukee.
speedy