EDITORIAL: Use Your Own Paint Colors, Please!

I am baffled, ladies and gentlemen.  I just don't understand it.  This is absurd.  The new livery schemes have been revealed for the full two-car Acura team run by Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti Global under Michael Andretti.  We have known for a while now that this team was going to expand to two cars in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.  Their well-known Konica Minolta livery on the #10 Acura ARX-06, the blue and black colors, set to be shared by Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Toyota World Endurance Championship driver Brendon Hartley, and IndyCar driver for McLaren, Marcus Ericsson from Sweden.  That is all fine and dandy.  The problem is, their second entry, the #40 Acura ARX-06 set to be driven by Jordan Taylor, Swiss sports car driver Louis Deletraz, IndyCar star Colton Herta, and 2009 Formula 1 World Champion, Britain's Jenson Button, who raced last year at the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans with Hendrick Motorsports and the Garage 56 NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.  

What, may you be asking is the trouble?  OK.  I shall wear my heart on my sleeve for my team here, coming to bat for them.  The trouble is, WTR's sponsor for this new entry, the Dex Imaging company, have put their logos on this car in such a way that it is a black, red, and white livery, that is very, very similar to the Whelen Engineering livery of the sponsor of my friends at Action Express Racing, who are coming into 2024 as the defending overall and GTP class IMSA champions.  For background purposes, Dex Imaging is a company specializing in copy machines, printers, printer ink, printer toner, and repair of these machines.

They are a Florida based business with locations in Tampa, Orlando, and St. Petersburg.  Meanwhile, here is the background information on Whelen Engineering who sponsor Action Express as primary team and car sponsorship for our Cadillac V Series R.  Whelen Engineering has existed since 1952, located in Chester, Connecticut, and are a world leading manufacturer of emergency warning systems including lights, sirens, beacons, vehicle light and siren control systems, Cloud operations for these systems, aerospace lighting systems, aircraft lights and lighting systems, traffic lights and arrows, emergency radios, and air horns.  

There is little to no way to tell the Dex Imaging Acura apart from the Whelen Cadillac save for the cars being designed entirely differently and the engines being different with the Acura and it's 2.4-liter IndyCar derivative turbocharged V6 motor, vs. the Cadillac with its thunderously loud roaring lion of a 5.5-liter atmospheric V8 engine.  I am surprised that Dex Imaging when signing sponsorship agreements with the Acura squad, did not consider that they might be really close in livery to the vibrant red and white, as well as the black accents denoting the Cadillac V Series performance division, and how close the color scheme is.  Thus, the folks at Cadillac and at General Motors cannot be too happy either about what our rivals on the track and in the showrooms at Honda Racing Corportation, and Honda North America, are up to.  

To Dex Imaging, you should have thought more carefully about finding your own identity for your brand before signing a contract.  Whelen Engineering has been a sponsor of Action Express now for well over a decade and has taken us to many of our championships.  I cannot imagine after seeing this that team management at AXR nor company management at Whelen Engineering are too thrilled about a paint scheme (albeit from a different company in a different industry altogether), being so incredibly close to a well-known scheme.  Plus, it was announced today too that Whelen Engineering will also be a title sponsor, a primary title sponsor of the Mazda MX-5 Cup IMSA sprint race support series for identically prepared Mazda MX-5 roadsters that run sprint events with single drivers, on selected IMSA race weekends, and have their own championship at a North American and a global level.

To Dex Imaging, to the Acura team at WTR, you could have done more to be original with the livery on your race car.  I believe this will do nothing but to confuse fans.  WTR, our rivalry with your team, in good spirits, will continue.  But, believe me, the real "lady in red", the Whelen Cadillac, we will be in it to win it, just as we were last year.  We will prove our championship was no fluke and will not take the idea of copycatting colors for a livery, sitting down.  We'll see you on the track this weekend for the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test and qualifying, and for the Rolex 24 itself next weekend.  I believe your boys will be tasting our dust as Action Express goes out and continues to show our winning ways in 2024.  Be ready for a fight.  A clean fight, but a fight, nonetheless.