Brian McKinley: AO Racing is a team that wants to win titles and have fun
- Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah
- Jul 29, 2025
- 7 min read
Written by Ghazlan Atqiya Firmansyah, Edited by Aaron Carroll
DIVEBOMB recently spoke with Brian McKinley, AO Racing's Chief Commercial Officer, following the CTMP round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. He discussed the team's branding and identity, explaining how it aligns with their primary goal of winning races.
Not just any paint scheme
Autumn Oaks (AO) Racing easily stood out on the IMSA and European Le Mans Series (ELMS) grid with their cars; a Porsche that features a prominent dinosaur livery, and an LMP2 car with a dragon theme. Putting a unique livery has been done before, but what does AO Racing do differently compared to others?
“I always tell everybody that I think anybody could put a dinosaur and a dragon on a race car, right? We've seen it done before; it is done all the time.
“I think the marketable difference in what we have done that has created the engagement with our fans is how deep we've dived into the story and character development.
There is a comprehensive story behind this unique approach, and every action has been thought out beforehand. For instance, ‘Rexy’, the green GTD Porsche, received a second gold tooth after its victory in Long Beach, and the team continued with this tradition to commemorate every win.
“Everything that we do, there's thoughtfulness behind every action.” “When ‘Rexy’ wins a race, we give him a gold tooth. That's part of the story.
“So, it's not just delivery, it’s an entire kind of marketing strategy and platform that permeates across our cars, our merchandise, our marketing and content that we do on social media.”
This approach also extends to how the team interacts with the fans by valuing their time and being genuine.
“We don't just do an autograph session, we do an autograph extravaganza.
“That genuineness and commitment to all of this detail is, [what] I think, created the connection with the fans in a truly meaningful way.”
The commitment to an everlasting story
The story of AO Racing’s character cars began with a question over how the team could stand out in the packed IMSA grid. When McKinley joined the Illinois-based outfit in 2024, he asked the same thing — What was the story behind ‘Rexy’, and how it evolved into ‘Roxy’ and ‘Spike’?
“It's funny because it's the first question I asked when I joined the team.
“As with every piece of a story like this, there's a lot of folklore behind it. We were trying to figure out how to build something different. We needed to figure out how we could stand out and what we could do differently.”
The inspiration came from P.J. Hyett, the team’s co-owner and the driver of ‘Spike’, whose helmet featured a unicorn and a dinosaur designed by his son and daughter.
“The inspiration came from P.J. Hyett, who is one of the drivers of Spike and our co-owner and founder.
“He had a helmet, and half of the helmet had a unicorn on it, and half of it had a dinosaur on it, because he's got a son and a daughter, and he let them each design half of his helmet.
“That helmet got a decent amount of traction, and that's kind of what spurred the idea. The team members all sat in a room and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about, potentially running a dinosaur on a car?’”
Nothing was done on a whim, and the team were committed to making their unique approach a story for years to come.
“It was a commitment to saying, ‘Hey, we're gonna do something and do it differently.’
“The design of the car took months [to complete]. It wasn't something that was done overnight, because we wanted it to be something that could work for months and years to come, and be part of that story.
“Although it kind of comes from a pretty innocuous place in terms of origination, it was done with a lot of thought and a lot of care.”
A team that wants to win and have fun
AO Racing had reservations about their approach initially, as they were doing something different from their peers.
“I think there's always hesitation when you do [something] different, [especially] motorsports in general.”
McKinley was previously involved in the NASCAR world, where everything operates the same way. It was the same in offering, paint scheme and partnerships.
“Prior to joining AO Racing, I was in the NASCAR world.
“I feel like every NASCAR program operates the same. [Same] offering, same partnerships, same paint scheme, same everything, and it becomes very vanilla.
“When you do different stuff, there is risk and there's fear. In our case, I think the fear was, ‘Are we gonna be looked at as a joke?’ You know, versus a competitive team.”
The team reminded themselves of their original commitment to racing, but they are not afraid of having fun as well, without jeopardising their racing programme.
“We don't shy away from saying ‘we're a team that wants to have fun, but none of that fun comes at the jeopardy of the racing programme.’
“We are motorsports first [and foremost]. We expect to go out and perform and win races first. The story is a secondary component. As the years have gone by, we continue to dive into this story.
“The story of our characters, ‘Rexy’, ‘Roxy’, and ‘Spike’, is on-track performance [that] has essentially melded into one platform with equal weight.”
How to be competitive with a substantial fan base
Last year, AO Racing made waves in the paddock when they took the GTD Pro Teams’ and Drivers’ championships with Heinrich, just in their second season.
McKinley said the team is treated as a fierce competitor on the track since they are the defending champions, and this year they have already taken several victories as well.
“On the track, I think we're treated like a very competitive threat.
“We won the championship last year, we've already won three races this year with ‘Rexy’, one with ‘Spike’ [and] we've proven ourselves to be a competitive race team on the track."
Off-track, some teams thought AO’s identity was silly, but McKinley remained confident of what they had been doing. He knew how to counter the allegations, and that strategy remains effective to this day.
“I think there are a number of teams that look at us and maybe think that it's silly.
“But I would respond and counter that ‘the proof is in the pudding of what we're building and doing.’ We are building on a much bigger platform, and I think other teams see that.”
This year, the team launched a new merchandise line that they brought to the race track and sold online. This new line was so well-received and quickly outsold other IMSA teams, and even IMSA itself.
“This year, we launched a new merchandise line that we've been bringing to the race track and selling online.
“That merchandise line is outselling pretty much any other team in the paddock and sometimes even outselling IMSA, when it comes to merchandise that we're putting out in the marketplace.
“I think a lot of teams look at that and see that, ‘you know, there is a way to do this, to be competitive on the racetrack, but also be a marketing platform that can build a substantial fan base, both in motorsports and outside of it.’”
Favourite fan moment
AO had so many fan interactions with their charming branding. McKinley loved this question and recalled his favourite moment with a fan.
“It's a good question. We have so many fan interactions [and] I'll give you my favourite one.
“A gentleman came up to a merchandise booth and bought some merchandise. He said, ‘I just want to say thank you,’ and I said, ‘What are you thanking me for?’
“He said, ‘You have made my passion and my family’s passion.’ He was always a passionate IMSA fan. Passionate about motorsports [and] cared about it. But he got his kids and his wife to be passionate about it all through this kind of mutual connection with AO Racing.”
McKinley felt proud afterwards as it completed the circle, showing that racing and marketing can complement each other and have a meaningful impact on the team and the fans.
“To hear that, to me, [it’s] like, [it] completes the circle.
“[It] shows that marketing and racing can go hand in hand and have a meaningful impact on both sides of the overall business. So, that was a really cool one.”
The next chapter of the story
For the last question, McKinley hints at AO’s next chapter in sports car racing. The team wants to continue to grow and evolve. They are not afraid of thinking outside the box, breaking some rules and being different, but all with the proper calculations.
“We want to continue to grow and evolve the story.
“What I love the most about my job and our race team is we're not afraid to work outside the box, break the rules, figure out how to be different. But we also do it in a very measured manner [with] a lot of planning.”
Could ‘Rexy’, ‘Roxy’ and ‘Spike’ have a new sibling? The team is studying the feasibility of a GTP or Hypercar entry in the top tier of endurance racing when the time is right.
“The Hypercar program [in WEC and Asian Le Mans Series] is a good example.
“We want to be racing in the top tier of IMSA. Who doesn't? [And also in] global sports car racing. We want to run at that top tier and be able to compete in it.
“But we want to do it in the AO way. And when that pathway presents itself, that's when we will do it.”
At the moment, the team will concentrate on the present, but they have not dismissed the importance of expanding their story.
“We still have, you know, three or four more races for each car.
“It's important for us to continue to execute on everything we're doing, [and] continue to expand our story.
“The intention, desire, and positioning are to figure out ways to grow in the future, both in our characters, our story, as well as our racing platform.”
Comments