SFHR, RW combine to provide Lucas Luhr his IndyCar debut at Sonoma - MotorSportsTalk

Raise your hand if you saw Lucas Luhr in a Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing IndyCar for Sonoma next month. Anyone? Bueller?

Of course you didn’t.

In what has to be one of the biggest surprises in IndyCar in years, the sports car veteran and all-time winningest driver in the American Le Mans Series (45 wins as of the last round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) will make his IndyCar debut at Sonoma on August 25. Luhr is a five-time ALMS champion and the only ALMS driver to win championships in three separate series classes – GT, LMP2 and LMP1.

Luhr, 34, of Koblenz, Germany, will drive the No. 97 Rotondo Weirich (RW)/SFHR Indy Dallara-Honda as a teammate to the full-season driver Josef Newgarden. Luhr will have his first running by participating in an open test at Sonoma on August 13.

“I am very excited about driving for RW/SFHR in Sonoma,” Luhr said. “I have wanted to drive an IndyCar for quite some time and when this opportunity came up I was very happy to say yes straight away. I would like to thank Steve Weirich, RW, Sarah (Fisher) and Mr. (Wink) Hartman, as well as Honda HPD for introducing us. I’d also like to give a very big thank you to my team owner Greg Pickett at Muscle Milk for allowing me to accept this challenge in the middle of the season.”

While the SFHR press release did indicate this is possible “with the combined efforts of Rotondo Weirich (RW) and Muscle Milk,” we have to stress this is not a Muscle Milk Pickett Racing entry. The ALMS team that competes in P1 with a Honda Performance Development HPD ARX-03c is based in nearby Benicia, Calif.

The possibility of a second car for Fisher has been in play since late June. The team issued a release then which listed Steve Weirich of RW, a construction business, as an owner of one of the team’s three cars. Weirich is the owner of RW and RW Motorsports.

“IndyCar is the epitome of racing,” Weirich said at the time. “It’s always been a dream of mine to build up to that level of racing and to do it with an all- American racing team. The whole alignment of IndyCar racing and the passion I see from SFHR is the same passion I hold, and it’s the perfect alignment of goals.”

As for this release, Weirich said, “”Lucas [Luhr] has great strengths as well and I am looking forward to bringing a driver of his caliber to the IZOD IndyCar Series. Sonoma is a great venue for us as well as IndyCar and we know the synergy of this entry will produce a great result.”

Read into this what you will for 2014, but the bottom line is for now, this is a joint SFHR/RW entry with the possibility of it being an exploratory opportunity for Muscle Milk and its brand in the future.

Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

Women in SuperMotocross: Jordan Jarvis knows how tough it is

The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

Women in SuperMotocross Ashley Fiolek is building community

Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

Read more about SuperMotocross