Daily Bread
How to turn a bakery into a winning racing team does not seem to be one of the top searches on Google. Anyway, even though you did not ask, we are going to answer that question.
1989 was a year of huge transformation in Eastern Europe, and Poland was leading the change in the region. The country went from communism to a young and dynamic democracy. Soon after, the Berlin Wall fell, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was also the beginning of entrepreneurship in Poland, still clumsy and inexperienced, where courage, dynamism and open-mindedness were the only real assets people had. Experience, for obvious reasons, was not one of them.
Our bakery started its story there too. It achieved its first major success by delivering bread across the greater Warsaw area.
A family at the wheel
Wojciech Śmiechowski, the founding father of the bakery, is a petrolhead himself. He began racing in a small, air-cooled, rear-wheel-drive Fiat 126p. Those were the days when even the smallest cars were rear-wheel drive. Then came my personal favorite, mono-marque racing, where he competed in the Alfa Romeo 156 Cup and the Golf TDI Cup.
That was then. Now succession is underway, both in motorsport and in the bakery. Kuba Śmiechowski is the son who took over the steering wheel. He is the lead driver in a team running six cars while also serving as team principal. Not an easy job for someone in his thirties, although to be fair, it is not an easy role at any age. Two victories at Le Mans in the LMP2 class mean a lot. They also prove that it is possible to be both a team principal and a driver at the same time. At least it seems feasible for the son of Wojciech Śmiechowski.
The new livery
The team is now preparing for the next Le Mans. That was the reason for presenting the new livery of the Dallara machine. The event took place at my beloved 911 Garage. It is also the place where Akira Nakai-san built the largest number of RWBs in a single location.
The presentation was meant to introduce the team's first art car. The Śmiechowski family is known for collecting and loving art, especially Impressionist painting. The new livery looks like a painting itself. Personally, we regret that it is not an actual hand-painted car. We always have the BMW Art Cars seen at ULTRACE events in mind. They remain my personal point of reference. But we are where we are.
Still, it is great to see a racing team taking its first step toward collaborating with artists, in this case Lange & Lange, an influential duo of stylish long-haired twins. Aleksander and Gustaw created a livery inspired by the Polish landscape, a spring rapeseed field beneath a blue sky. In a country where eight months of the year are grey and cold, rapeseed fields and blue skies are signs of change.
Let's see whether this livery can also help change the motorsport scene and give artists more space to express themselves.
