The Gooding and Co. classic-car auction is usually dominated by post-World War II European sports cars from Ferrari, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, or prewar classics from the likes of Rolls-Royce and Duesenberg.
But at this year’s auction on Jan. 29 in Scottsdale, Ariz., bidders will find an even more unusual item for sale: Lot 47 is the Dallara-Honda racecar driven to victory in the 2014 Indianapolis 500 by Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Andretti Autosport, a leading IndyCar team, currently owns the car and is offering it with a catch: The new owner must allow Andretti Autosport to continue racing the car through the 2018 season. After that, the new owner can take delivery of the car. Or what is left of it.
The rough-and-tumble sport of IndyCar racing is generally not too kind to the machines that race in it. Most end up crashed before the projected end of their useful lives.
Still, David Gooding, the auction house’s president, said, “The sale of this lot is unprecedented in modern motorsports.”
He said the car might fetch $600,000 to $750,000 — or more.
After the 2018 IndyCar season, Andretti Autosport is promising to “restore and repair” Hunter-Reay’s car in its period-correct 2014 livery, according to the Gooding auction prospectus. The exception is the Honda race engine, which is owned by the manufacturer.
Since the engine is an integral component of the car’s structure, the owner could receive the car in pieces. And the Dallara-Honda is not, nor could it be made to be, street-legal.
To assuage the disappointment of having to wait three years to receive the inoperable, engineless, obsolete chassis, Andretti Autosport is throwing in two season-long participant credentials for the IndyCar series races at which the team enters the car through 2018.
“The opportunity to auction off our 2014 Indy 500-winning — and still active — racecar and provide the winning bidder with an immersive ownership experience with our team delivers a great way to celebrate an iconic moment in our team’s history as we prepare for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500,” said Michael Andretti, the chief executive of Andretti Autosport.
Andretti and Hunter-Reay are scheduled to attend the auction and present the winning bidder with the bill of sale. An undisclosed reserve price below $600,000 could prevent the sale from being consummated if bids do not exceed that price.
An Indy 500-winning car — if it remains intact — is unlikely to be relegated to a dark corner of a garage. It could be expected to end up in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, which showcases a number of past winning cars, dating to the inaugural 1911 race. The most recent former winner on display is the rebuilt Dallara-Honda that Dan Wheldon won with in 2011.
“Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car would always have a place of honor in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum,” said Donald Davidson, the facility’s historian, “assuming its owner wanted to display it here.”
Putting the car up for sale will provide revenue for Andretti Autosport’s operations.
For the winning bidder, it might seem akin to buying Donald Trump’s jet, then letting Trump fly around the country in it for the next three years. But Ryann Rigsby, an Andretti Autosport spokeswoman, said, “Think of it as having a pony in the race, if you will.”
The car’s new owner will not be its sponsor and is not entitled to any signs, naming rights or advertising space on the vehicle. But such requests probably could be accommodated — for the right price. Major sponsorships in IndyCar racing can run into many millions of dollars.
“We are, of course, open to this opportunity providing a further relationship with the new chassis owner, should they desire to have a larger one via a sponsorship package,” Rigsby said.
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