Photos: Linux penguin to race in the Indy 500

The Tux 500 effort was organized by Bob Moore and Ken Starks. Moore, who has been a Linux user and IT administrator for a decade, grew up in the Indianapolis area and became a fan of the 500. He read an article by Starks about the need for the Linux community to market itself to non-technical people and saw a drawing of a Firefox logo on a race car by Mike Peters. Pulling this together, they decided to launch Tux 500.

Their original fundraising goal of $350,000 for a full sponsorship of the car appears to be out of reach. As of Thursday morning, they have collected over $16,300 with two days to go. Moore says that the Linux logo will stay on the car, its size and prominence will be determined by the amount of money collected.

The Linux community have expressed some concerns over the use of PayPal for the fundraising effort but Moore notes that the money is being collected by Acceleration Marketing, an Indiana-based marketing firm. Moore claims no affiliation with Acceleration Marketing.