This car was run by a French team in the 1940 Indianapolis 500. Its bright blue livery, featuring French and American flags, indicates the team’s mission: to encourage US support for French war efforts against Nazi Germany. Also on the car is the name of the team’s owner, L. O’R. Schell.
Lucy O’Reilly Schell, a Paris-based American heiress, enjoyed success as a rally driver before founding a Grands Prix-winning race team. In 1939, she purchased two works 8CTF cars as a mid-season upgrade. War, however, soon halted racing in Europe. Schell decided to put France in Indy’s spotlight with a plan supported by the French press and approved by the French military. She sent both Maseratis along with drivers René Dreyfus and René Le Bègue and mechanic/reserve driver Luigi Chinetti.
But Schell’s team almost didn’t make it to the starting line. Indy’s rules were lost in translation and one car, chassis 3031, failed to qualify before they realized their mistake. Dreyfus then jumped in this car, chassis 3030, and posted a faster speed. However, he threw a connecting rod in the process. The team swapped 3031’s engine into 3030 for the race.
Despite the rain—and another miscommunication over rules—Dreyfus and Le Bègue brought this car to a tenth-place finish. The winner, incidentally, was a sister 8CTF: “Umbrella” Mike Boyle of Chicago bought chassis 3032, which Wilbur Shaw drove to back-to-back victories at Indy.
As Americans cheered at the Brickyard, the Germans marched on Paris. Schell herself decamped to Monaco and instructed Chinetti to sell the cars after the race. Chassis 3030, which still has 3031’s engine, was campaigned at Indy by privateers for many years; it was one of the few Indy competitors of the era that never received an Offy engine. In 1949, Louis Unser drove this car to second place in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.