BorgWarner Honors Famed Sculptor Of The Indianapolis 500 Trophy

From Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk in 1990 to Marcus Ericsson in 2022, sculptor William Behrends is closing in on having one-third of the 109 faces on the Borg-Warner Trophy as his art.

Ericsson, who won the 106^th Indianapolis 500 in 2022, was Behrends 33^rd face on the permanent trophy that honors all winners of the Indianapolis 500 plus Speedway savior Tony Hulman.

Later this year, Behrends will craft the image of 107^TH Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske for his victory in the May 28 Memorial Day Weekend speed classic.

Newgarden is the 75^th different driver to win the race. The additional faces belong to the drivers who have won the race more than once, the two relief drivers that steered the winning car to victory in 1924 and 1941 and the gold face of Anton “Tony” Hulman, who purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Eddie Rickenbacker in November 1945 after it sat dormant from 1942-45 during World War II.

Since the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, there have been 795 different drivers that have competed in the famed race that is known around the world.

For much of its history, the Indianapolis 500 has featured a 33-car starting lineup.

Because the number “33” is such a special number at the Indianapolis 500, BorgWarner executives and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway honored Behrends with his very own “Baby Borg” Trophy at the Indianapolis 500 Victory Awards Celebration on May 29.

“We realized that the last face Will did for us was the 33^rd face and we know that has significance in IndyCar for the 33 drivers in the starting lineup for the Indianapolis 500,” Michelle Collins, Global Director, Marketing and Public Relations, BorgWarner told me recently. “We thought that would be a really neat tie-in to do something very special for him.

“There is nobody outside of the driver that has the love and passion for the trophy like Will does. We had the idea, pitched it to Doug Boles (Indianapolis Motor Speedway President), asked if he would be open to us weaving it into the Victory Celebration.

“He said of course, and we were able to make it happen.”

To pull off this secret, BorgWarner only a few individuals knew about it in advance. That included Collins, BorgWarner publicist Steve Shunck, Boles and BorgWarner CEO Frederic Lissalde.

Behrends and his wife, Charlotte, attend the Indianapolis 500 every year in his role with BorgWarner but had never been to the victory banquet before. This was the first year BorgWarner had a table at the Victory Awards Celebration and they invited Behrends and his wife.

Those that knew about Behrends honor were sworn to strict secrecy.

A “Baby Borg” is a miniature version of the permanent Borg-Warner Trophy has is given to the winning driver and winning car honor during a special ceremony before the next year’s Indianapolis 500.

Collins brought Behrends trophy down from BorgWarner headquarters outside Detroit, Michigan. Shunck brought the base from the engraver in North Carolina.

“The funny thing was we hid the base under the table, but we put the small trophy at our table,” Collins recalled. “I told Will it would be a fun centerpiece for people to stop by and get their picture taken with it.

“He had absolutely no idea. It was fun.”

The honoree admits he thought the “Baby Borg” on the table was a nice centerpiece for the gala event.

“I thought it was the BorgWarner table we were showing our colors with the Baby Borg,” Behrends told me. “I didn’t think anything of it. Steve Shunck had the marble base with the sterling plate and the inscription on it, in a bag that he was hiding and put it together later.”

The time to honor Behrends came just after Tony Kanaan was honored by driving in what he claims will be his final Indianapolis 500.

“I’m shocked. I’m very surprised,” Behrends said. “Everybody who had the secret did a very good job.

“It came right after the Tony Kanaan tribute. Having never been to that banquet, we were really enjoying ourselves and having a really good time. I liked how all the drivers would come up there and talk about their race in a really relaxed moment like that. It was very entertaining, the whole two hours they called each driver up. We were enjoying ourselves in that and had no clue.

“When the video came on, I was like what is this? I had no idea.

“Stunned would be the right term. In the moment, I was hoping they wouldn’t ask me to say something because I was completely unprepared for that. But I was really stunned.”

Behrends work has become part of Indianapolis 500 history. With nearly one-third of the faces on the trophy, visitors that see the permanent Borg-Warner Trophy on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum gaze at his art work as they look for their favorite driver.

Behrends road to Indianapolis 500 history began in Wisconsin. When he was in high school, his family moved to Tryon, North Carolina – a beautiful, picturesque community located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near the North Carolina/South Carolina state line.

After finishing high school in Tryon, Behrends attended North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina with the goal of becoming an architect.

After discovering that was not the career path he wanted to pursue, he went to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and got a degree after studying sculpture and fine are.

He began as a painter, but in his mid-20s he began working in three-dimension and clay.

“I was hooked. I was captivated,” he said. “This summer will mark 50 years that I’ve done this full time as a sculptor for a living. So, there we are.”

Behrends is a rarity as an artist who has been able to make a living from doing what he does best.

“When I first started doing this in 1973, I didn’t know anyone or know anyone who knew anyone who made their living by making sculpture,” he said. “It was the hubris of youth. You think you can do what nobody else can. It was taking a chance. It’s a profession where you have to work very hard, be very smart and learn how to rub two nickels together for a while.

“Old habits die hard. I’m a frugal person and try to live modestly. That’s a habit borne out of necessity from early in my career. From every year I started doing this, I’ve had someone to support from my work. I have responsibilities and I take those very seriously. I’m able to do that now, and I’m very grateful for that. I consider myself very lucky that I’ve been able to do this as a profession.”

Behrends had an interest in auto racing and was fascinated by the Indianapolis 500.

That is when the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself.

“In 1989, BorgWarner had a promotion where they were going to find a different, prominent American sculptor to do it every year,” Behrends said. “It came down to me and another person in 1989. They chose Louis Ferrone in 1989 and he did that image of Emerson Fittipaldi.

“The next year, they gave me a call and asked if I would like to do it and I was, of course I would like to do it. I went to the race.

“It was quite different than it is now. Arie Luyendyk won, and I didn’t even meet him in Indianapolis, I met with him at Nazareth, Pennsylvania and got to know him there. That was that and they gave me a call back in 1991.

“It was a while before I wondered if they were going to call next year. This is a very small part of my yearly output. I had that slot in my calendar every year to do it and I really love doing that. I never do repeat pieces, except for the larger baseball pieces for the ballparks.

“I really like the fact that in fall, I’m doing the Borg-Warner again.”

Over the 34 years that Behrends has had this important role with the Indianapolis 500, it has become more of a family than a business relationship.

“I’m still in a state of shock they did this,” Behrends admitted. “I thought, why do I have a trophy that normally goes to the winner of the race? In my profession, we work for different incentives. For a driver, they really want that for their trophy case.

“How do I have that trophy?

“This is not a symbol of having won anything, this is a symbol of my relationship with BorgWarner. It is significant to me for that very reason. I have really valued the relationship with BorgWarner over all these years and I really cherish it. They are wonderful people to work with.

“Just working with them over the years and having the satisfaction of doing that and the challenge every year of doing the driver and getting to know these guys has been reward enough. That is why I was shocked.

“This was way over the top as far as anything I could ever expect.”

His next project will be creating the lasting image of Newgarden’s face. He will be the 110^th face on the trophy that features winning drivers from 21 states in the United States.

Newgarden is the first winner from Tennessee.

“I’ve had the wheels going around with Josef Newgarden before that Monday after the race,” Behrends said. “My wife and I were fortunate to go over to the Team Penske shop in Mooresville, North Carolina for a breakfast that they had. Mr. Penske (Roger Penske) was nice enough to show us around the shop. I had a distinct memory of meeting Josef Newgarden then and had a very distinct memory of that and had his face in my memory already.

“Josef was due. He has been good for a long time, and he was a real contender this year. I had a conversation with my 9-year-old granddaughter and told her the contenders for the win this year and told her there was a young man from Tennessee who had a good chance.

“She said, ‘That’s who I’m going to root for.’”

From an artist’s perspective, the Team Penske driver makes a very good art model.

“He’s got good teeth,” Behrends said. “He’s a handsome man. He has a good smile. Nice, structured face. A lot to work with. It’s going to be enjoyable to do his image.

“He has a very winning smile.”

From a business standpoint, Newgarden’s victory is unique for BorgWarner. Although the driver is from Tennessee, Team Penske is located in Mooresville, North Carolina.

The turbochargers that are used on every IndyCar Series race engine are built by BorgWarner at its plant in Asheville, North Carolina. Behrends lives down the road in Tryon, North Carolina.

“That’s a really cool connection,” Collins said. “Detroit is the home of automotive. Always has been, always will be. I know our facility in Asheville, North Carolina takes so much pride in the turbochargers they make for the series. To have everything connected like that is really cool.”

When Newgarden first joined Team Penske after the 2016 season, he lived in Davidson, North Carolina for a few years before moving back to the Nashville, Tennessee area with his wife, Ashley.

Once the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series season is complete, He will sit in for a “live study” session at Behrend’s studio in a vital part of the lengthy process that will ultimately become the face on the trophy.

“We look forward to that sitting in the Fall with him,” Collins said.

Behrends takes tremendous pride in his art and is deeply honored that he has this unique connection to the history of the Indianapolis 500.

“I told the BorgWarner people I am so happy and privileged to do this because the Borg-Warner Trophy is a priceless piece of racing history, Indianapolis 500 history,” Behrends said. “Coming up on one-third of the images on the trophy are my work, I feel very fortunate.

“I’m very proud of it and very grateful, too.”