Race car liveries serve a number of purposes. They’re there to attract fans and to make a race car look good. Perhaps most of all, though, they’re there to show off sponsor logos and pull in the big bucks to keep a team afloat. Every so often, a team runs a special livery to get fresh eyeballs and make some waves. Brad Jones Racing did just that when it chose to run a design penned by a 10-year-old with a deep love for Australia’s V8 Supercars.

It all stemmed from a competition that the team ran in October. Run with the team’s primary sponsor, Pizza Hut, it challenged fans to submit their own livery design for the team to run at the season finale Adelaide 500 in November. The team received almost 60 submissions from the contest, but one stood out head and shoulders above the crowd. Tween Grace Lewis penned a charming drawing featuring Pizza Hut logos past and present.

“Grace’s entry truly touched our hearts,” said Simon Stocks, Pizza Hut Australia’s Director of Marketing and Digital. Similarly, driver Macauley Jones was stoked with the results. “Watching Grace’s drawing come to life on our car is pretty cool – it’s just like if she drew it herself on the Pizza Hut Camaro,” he said.

Naturally, the 10-year-old designer was ecstatic to win the competition. “I can’t believe I won the whole thing,” said Lewis, adding “I worked really hard on the design, and I can’t wait to see it in real life at the race.” By virtue of winning the contest, Lewis was also treated to tickets to the event, along with a merchandise pack and a tour of the BJR race car. Lewis actually has a familial link to Supercars, too, with her mother Leah working as a volunteer at the Adelaide event.

Macauley Jones hasn’t had the hottest season, with joint-best finishes of 7th in the Melbourne Super Sprint and Darwin Triple Crown earlier this year. Regardless, there’s everything to play for in the two races lined up in Adelaide this weekend.

It’s nice to see the team commit to what is, fundamentally, a very fun idea. Lewis’s design might not be what you’d typically see on a racing car, and it might have been drawn on a template more befitting a van than a sleek Camaro coupe. Regardless, it was brimming with heart and soul and that’s what got her the win in the competition.

Too often, racing liveries are straightforward assemblages of a stack of disparate sponsor logos, crammed in around one major company and a tired color scheme. By choosing the cutest and most entertaining design, the team should draw eyes and attention in a way that even an exquisitely designed professional livery could not. I mean, we just wrote about a brand right now! It works!

Image credits: Brad Jones Racing