Racing Stripe

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The original racing stripes were stripes applied to the Cunningham team of racing cars to identify them in the field during races. Another purpose is to make it easier for a driver to align a spun out car with the circuit. The first racing stripes were applied to high-performance prototype automobiles built as racecars by Briggs Cunningham and placed into competition as his motorsport team, beginning in 1951. Cunningham racecars usually carried two parallel blue stripes running from front to rear in the center of the white body so that spectators could identify the team's automobiles readily during races. The stripes often were called "Le Mans stripes" because of the repeated efforts of Cunningham to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, where the French had a great affection for him. His tradition was soon adopted by other racing teams in many venues. Thereafter, the use of racing stripes soon became common in the 1960s and early 70s for both race and road cars.