How IndyCar’s Borg-Warner trophy got here collectively regardless of a catastrophe

There’s no scarcity of traditions relating to the Indianapolis 500, however the main half that Will Behrends performs within the race’s heritage — crafting the race winner’s likeness on the famed Borg-Warner Trophy — needed to forgo its personal common custom after the devastation attributable to Hurricane Helene. 

Helene shaped within the Caribbean Sea on September of this 12 months, creating right into a Class 4 hurricane in simply 4 days because it moved via the Gulf of Mexico and broke landfall within the Massive Bend area of Florida. Crushing winds reaching 137 mph left wreckage in its path throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. The aftermath noticed greater than 230 deaths as Helene grew to become the deadliest mainland hurricane since Katrina in 2005.

Behrends’ city of Tryon, situated in Polk County on the base of the Blue Ridge Escarpment in western North Carolina , has an estimated inhabitants of 1,600 individuals, and was amongst these hit by Helene. The state of North Carolina, specifically, was sufferer to flooding, mudslides, numerous downed bushes, washed-out bridges and impassable roadways, whereas additionally leaving greater than 700,000 residents with out energy.  

Behrends counts himself amongst these extra lucky.

“There’s quite a lot of devastation round us,” Behrends informed Motorsport.com. “For these two weeks that we have been down, my spouse and I have been on the market doing volunteer work, bringing and getting provides to different individuals. 

“We have been with out energy, however we now have a generator and Starlink web, so we have been the fortunate ones. We’re on excessive floor, so we didn’t get flooded. Lots of people proper round us misplaced their houses and had nothing.” 

Uniquely, Helene swept via the identical week that Josef Newgarden, winner of the final two Indy 500s, was initially scheduled to return in for a sitting — a second when Behrends provides ultimate particulars to a life-sized facial sculpture earlier than transferring all of it to the small model that is forged in silver and put in on the historic trophy. Behrends was practically completed with Newgarden’s life-sized head, prepared for the final step, when the storm hit. 

Behrends used the generator to offer energy to the home, however any time spent engaged on the ultimate phases of the clay mannequin within the studio solely got here courtesy of the pure mild filtering via his many home windows. 

“This 12 months was already a problem as a result of the latter a part of my course of is casting these pictures in silver — and for the final 34 years, I’ve had one individual doing that who I’ve come to belief. And he retired,” Behrends stated. “So, on high of all these different challenges, that got here up. 

“Nothing bought achieved for 2 weeks as a result of we had no energy for 12 days. And that was in the course of the time that Josef was going to return right here. Him not coming right here, mainly, took away what has grow to be a really beneficial device for males— and that’s, with the ability to sit with the individual face-to-face, speak to them. For a portrait sculpture that may be very beneficial, as a result of you may solely get a lot from pictures. You do higher work, and it’s extra satisfying, when you may truly interact with them eye-to-eye. We didn’t have that, in order that was one other problem.”

The sittings initially started in 2015 after Juan Pablo Montoya captured his second Indy 500. That is additionally when the life-sized fashions grew to become part of the method. Earlier than then, Behrends labored off a short 15-20 minutes with the winner the day after the race and any portraits gathered from it. 

Helene’s affect set his observe again a decade, however added its personal particular challenges. Roughly 60 p.c of Newgarden’s face remained unfinished when the “freak storm,” as Behrends calls it, struck. He wasn’t positive he would even make the deadline.

“It got here right down to the wire,” he stated. “Thankfully, it turned out properly. We bought a extremely good product and bought it on time, however there have been quite a lot of wheels turning throughout that point.”

Will Behrends engaged on Josef Newgarden’s 2024 Indy 500 Borg-Warner Trophy face sculpture

Picture by: BorgWarner

With an illustrious profession in his personal proper, Behrends has spent the previous 50 years creating sports-related sculptural masterpieces. Past the Borg-Warner Trophy, he is created statues of Main League Baseball legends akin to Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson, most dwelling at their groups’ ballparks. In trying again over this newest problem, there’s a sense of delight in crafting Newgarden’s likeness, particularly towards the percentages that Mom Nature offered.

“This one I’m happy with,” Behrends stated. “It’s humorous, that is the one factor that I’ve achieved in my 50-year profession that I do 12 months after 12 months. Every thing else is one-of-a-kind. Doing this 12 months after 12 months, how do you make it recent yearly? My problem to myself is that I attempt to not do what I did final 12 months; to carry just a little bit extra to it yearly. Which, after 35 years, turns into just a little tough.”

Newgarden, who grew to become the primary back-to-back winner of “The Best Spectacle in Racing” since Helio Castroneves in 2001-02, was lastly in a position to see his likeness unveiled on the Borg-Warner Trophy earlier this month in a ceremony on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Behrends could not attend, however the second left the Workforce Penske driver all smiles, whereas additionally heaping reward on the sculptor for with the ability to push via and end the mission. 

“I feel it simply speaks to Will’s character,” Newgarden informed Motorsport.com. “He’s such a stunning individual. He’s bought a lovely household, bought to fulfill all of them, together with his granddaughters. They’d quite a lot of obstacles this 12 months, together with everyone in that area, and he nonetheless simply charged ahead and made an unbelievable piece. He’s a real skilled.”

The Borg-Warner Trophy, that includes Josef Newgarden’s Indy 500-winning faces

Picture by: BorgWarner

The wreck left by Helene in simply North Carolina alone probably triggered $53 billion in damages and restoration wants, in response to Gov. Roy Cooper, with 126,000 houses broken by the power of Helene. The earlier file set for harm was $17 billion from Hurricane Florence in 2018, which hit the japanese a part of the state. 

“It’s only a actually unhappy state of affairs,” stated Behrends. “There have been quite a lot of bushes down round us, however we survived it higher than most round us. Proper under us within the valley, there’s a restaurant that everyone cherished as a result of it’s proper on the river and has a lined bridge going throughout the parking space to the restaurant. The bridge, the restaurant, it’s all gone now. It’s simply washed away. Individuals misplaced companies, in addition to houses.”

Amongst one of many oddities, although, was that one among BorgWarner’s amenities in Asheville was additionally within the hurricane’s path, however was happily spared, together with the staff.

Michelle Collins, the World Director of Advertising and marketing and Public Relations for BorgWarner, shared her sympathies for the individuals enduring the aftermath. She was additionally grateful that Newgarden had the expertise final 12 months with Behrends after successful his first Indy 500.

“It might have been nice to have achieved it once more this 12 months, however I used to be glad that he already had that have,” Collins informed Motorsport.com. “In fact, it’s solely doable he can nonetheless win once more. And we’re relying on that from him, too. However Will, like at all times, did a improbable job and works with what he’s bought.”

And there are already ideas for Newgarden to make historical past as the primary driver to ever win three consecutive Indy 500s in 2025 and getting an opportunity to return to Tryon. 

“It was simply unlucky that we didn’t get down there this 12 months,” Newgarden stated, “however I informed him I’d love the chance to win three years in a row and to return again and go to, and I hope we get that probability.”