LIZARD’S LAW: The Story of ‘Sparklefarts’

I’ve been involved in racing since I was 11 years old when I started racing karts, and in those years I’ve seen a lot of interesting team and car names.

When I first joined Flying Lizard Motorsports in 2004 as a driver, I knew founder Seth Neiman was building something special. He surrounded himself with an amazing group of people and together they grew the Flying Lizard brand to stand apart from the competition and make their own unique brand in sports car racing.

We continue to pride ourselves on the professionalism of our team and our brand. When Tommy Sadler, Thomas Blam, and I took ownership of the team in late 2014, I knew we wanted to continue that as we entered a new phase of “customer racing.”

After building a relationship the past few years with Lamborghini Squadra Course, we created a three-car team with our customers Slade Stewart, Tom Tait, Brett Jacobson and Joel Miller to compete in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo program.

As a customer racing team, our customers choose the liveries for their cars. Because the Lizard brand is so strong, many of our customers will follow fan demand and choose a traditional Lizard livery. And other times, they run with their own design. Hence the inception of “SparkleFarts.”

For Slade Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2, choosing the livery is a family affair.

With each new car he drives, he asks his children to choose the liveries for his race cars.

And this year, it was his daughter’s turn to pick the livery. The result was a bright pink base, design elements resembling sparkles, and a smiling unicorn complete with a flowing, purple mane.

Don’t worry, the Lizard head still appears on the car, only slightly overshadowed by the unicorn.

This was something new for Flying Lizards. I’ll be the first to admit, I was worried how this car would turn out and what our fans would think.

In early spring we presented 2D renderings and at our pre-season April test, we shared the first photos and videos of Slade and his car (which he’d named Sparklefarts) on track.

Despite the serious, professional brand we’d established for so long, Sparklefarts proved to be an instant fan and crew, favorite.

The social media posts went out and our fans ate it up. Sharing the story of the father/daughter created livery, along with the attention getting look and name, brought new followers to our fan base.

The reaction was overwhelming in the best way possible. Our new Sparklefarts apparel on our online store sold out immediately and we found ourselves scrambling to meet the merchandise demand.

We have always been an all ages, fan-friendly team so it’s been really fun to see so many young kids come by our garage, specifically to see Sparklefarts.

Grown men, many racing dads, are proud to wear the bright pink unicorn shirts, absolutely loving the unique, bold livery.

This process was a good reminder to not take yourself too seriously in racing.

I’m grateful to Slade Stewart for the reminder, and for bringing this lighthearted year to our team.

As Slade and Sparklefarts continue to win in Lamborghini Super Trofeo and lead the LB Cup points championships, it means you’ll keep hearing the name a lot more. And going forward, we will continue to honor the requests of our customers (and their families).