Penske, Roger

Roger Penske

1937-

American race team owner

Following a short-lived but distinguished career as a race-car driver in the early 1960s, resulting in Sports Car Driver of the Year awards from, respectively, the periodicals Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, Roger Penske established Penske Racing. In IndyCar competition, Penske Racing has won more Indianapolis 500 races than any other team. In addition, Penske Racing has posted championships in such automotive racing circuits as Canadian-American Challenge Cup, and Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Trans-Am, as well as posting wins on the National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) and Grand Prix Formula One tours. In addition, Penske organized the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) circuit in 1978, and owns the Michigan and Nazareth (Pennsylvania) International Speedways, North Carolina Speedway, and California Speedway, as well as coordinates the Cleveland Grand Prix IndyCar race. As a businessman, Penske is no less successful: Penske Corporation employs more than 30,000 people and generates estimated annual revenues of $11 billion through such businesses as Penske Truck Leasing, Penske Automotive, Penske Capital Partners, and the automotive retailer UnitedAuto Group. Penske is estimated to be one of the top-500 wealthiest individuals in the United States.

Early Years

Roger Penske was born February 20, 1937, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland. His father was a corporate executive. In his early years, Penske bought and owned thirty-two cars over a span of ten years—cars that he raced and sold at a profit. These cars included an MG TD, MG TC, a Maserati, a Corvette, a Porsche, and a Jaguar Cooper. While he was in college at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, he entered his first race at the Akron Speedway. He entered SCCA competition in 1958 at Sebring, driving an RS Porsche. The following year, he bought a Porsche RSK from racer Bob Holbert, and battled Holbert to win an SCCA class title the same year. In 1960, he won the SCCA F Modified class title. One year later, he obtained sponsorship from Zerex, bought and modified a Maserati renamed the Telar Special, and set a speed record at Road America. Penske's deal with Zerex is often considered groundbreaking for its introduction of corporate sponsorship into the world of motorsports.

Professional Racer

Penske graduated from college in 1962, and went to work for the aluminum company Alcoa. He also abandoned his status as a semi-professional racer to turn professional. He bought a Cooper-Climax Formula One race car, which he converted into a two-seater sports car. He outfitted the car's chassis with a lightweight aluminum body, and named it the Zerex Special. He took the Special to earnings of $34,350 in 1962, which also earned him the title "Driver of the Year" in the New York Times. Penske entered the 1963 NASCAR Grand National Series in 1963, winning five races driving a Corvette Chaparral GS. In 1964, Penske set the motorsports world on fire. Competing at the Bahamas Speed Week, he drove a Corvette Grand Sport to win the Nassau Tourist Trophy. He then drove a Jim Hall Chaparral to defeat contenders Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, and A. J. Foyt for the Nassau Trophy. He retired from racing at this point, buying a Chevrolet dealership in Pennsylvania. He returned to racing briefly, entering the 1966 Sebring race in a Corvette Grand Sport.

Chronology

1937	Born February 20 in Shaker Heights, Ohio
1958	Drives first official race in the SCCA National at Marlboro Motor Raceway, Maryland
1959	Wins first race at SCCA Regional at Lime Rock, Connecticut
1963	Wins NASCAR Grand National race
1964	Wins Nassau Trophy, Nassau Tourist Trophy, and Governor's Trophy
1965	Retires from race-car driving to run dealership in Philadelphia
1966	Launches Penske Racing; debuts as team owner at Sebring
1969	Penske Racing wins 24 Hours of Daytona
1972	Penske Racing wins first Indianapolis 500
1973	Team Penske wins first NASCAR race at Riverside, California
1974	Penske Racing enters Grand Prix Formula One racing
1975	Mark Donohue, Penske's driver, dies in crash during Formula One practice; Penske Racing wins both NASCAR races at Darlington
1976	Penske Racing wins Austrian Grand Prix with driver John Watson
1976	Penske abandons Formula One to focus on IndyCar racing
1979	Penske driver Rick Mears wins pole position for every ovaltrack in IndyCar racing as well as wins Indianapolis 500
1981	Penske driver Bobby Unser wins Indianapolis 500
1984	Mears wins second Indianapolis 500 of career, fourth for Penske Racing
1985	Penske driver Danny Sullivan wins team's fifth Indianapolis 500
1987	Al Unser wins Indianapolis 500 with car chassis taken from a hotel-lobby display
1988	Mears wins Penske Racing's seventh Indianapolis 500
1991	Mears becomes one of three drivers to win four Indianapolis 500s
1993	Penske driver Emerson Fittipaldi posts team's ninth Indianapolis 500 win
1994	Al Unser, Jr., wins pole position and wins Indianapolis 500; Penske drivers post top-three finishes in five races, win twelve of sixteen races, and earn ten pole positions
2001	de Ferran wins second CART FedEx Series Championship; Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and de Ferran post top-two finishes at Indianapolis 500; Penske announces this will belast year Penske Racing will compete in CART
2002	Racing in the Indy Racing League (IRL), Castroneves wins Penske Racing's twelfth Indianapolis 500

Team Owner

In 1966, Penske bought a Lola T70 and hired Mark Donohue as his fulltime driver, inaugurating Penske Racing. Fielding Chevrolet Camaros and, later, AMC Javelins, in Trans-Am competition; Porsche 917-10 and 917-30 Turbopanzers in Canadian-American Challenge Cup competition; and the Lola in such races as the 24 Hours of Daytona, Penske Racing became a force to be reckoned with by securing championships in the USRRC series in 1967 and 1968, and SCCA Trans-Am championships in 1968, 1969, and 1971, 1972, and 1973.

In 1971, Penske Racing entered IndyCar racing. Donohue qualified for the pole at the Sears Point 150 in April that year, and scored the team's first victory at the Pocono 500 in July. The following year, Donohue won the Indianapolis 500, the first of twelve wins that Penske Racing would earn before 2003, with such drivers as Al Unser, Sr., Bobby Unser, Rick Mears , Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi , Paul Tracy, Gil de Ferran, and Helio Castroneves. By 2001, the team had amassed a staggering eleven national championships in IndyCar racing.

Penske's efforts in the international Grand Prix Formula One series were less successful. Following a crash during practice session for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix, Donohue died. Penske persevered, however, and posted a win in the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix with John Watson driving a PC4-Ford. This would be Penske Racing's only Formula One win, however, as he decided to quit the series at the end of the 1976 season. Penske Racing's win marked only the third time that a team from the United States won a Formula One event.

In the mid-1970s, Penske Racing also began fielding cars in the NASCAR circuit. Driver Bobby Allison drove an AMC Matador to two wins at Darlington Speedway in 1975. Penske Racing's streak of NASCAR successes extended into the twenty-first century with driver Rusty Wallace.

Series Co-Founder and Track Owner

One of the most successful team owners in the history of IndyCar racing, Penske co-founded Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1978 with fellow team owner U. E. "Pat" Patrick. Both founders were unhappy with the management of the IndyCar series, prompting them to start CART. By 1981, CART was offering more prize money than its competitor and became the dominant IndyCar competitive series. In 2002, Penske abandoned CART and threw his support, his drivers, and his cars into the Indy Racing League (IRL).

In addition to being a winning team owner in several motorsports series, Penske also has been adept at the business end of the sport. As owner of Michigan International Speedway, Pennsylvania International Speedway, North Carolina Speedway and Carolina Speedway, Penske has generated millions of dollars in revenues. In 1999, he merged Penske Motorsports, Inc., with International Speedway Corporation in a deal that was estimated to control more than one hundred motorsports events, 800,000 seats, and 400 suites.

Awards and Accomplishments

1961	Wins SCCA National D Modified championship and is named Sports Illustrated SCCA Driver of the Year
1962	Named New York Times Driver of the Year, wins U.S. Auto Club's road-racing championship
1967	Penske Racing wins United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC)
1968	Penske Racing won USRRC championship
1968-73	Penske Racing won SCCA Trans-Am
1981	Penske driver Rick Mears wins national CART points championship
1982	Mears wins national CART points championship
1983	Penske driver Al Unser wins national CART points championship
1988	Sullivan wins CART championship
2001	Penske driver Gil de Ferran wins second CART FedEx Series Championship

Honored for Motorsports Achievements

In 2001, Porsche honored Penske and other former Porsche drivers and team owners at a Porsche Rennesport Reunion at Connecticut's Lime Rock Park. As part of the festivities, Penske drove the Porsche 917/30 that Mark Donohue drove during the 1973 Canadian-American Championship Cup tour. In 1995, Penske was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame and Museum of America. The Hall of Fame' Web site includes the following assessment of Penske's accomplishments: "Few men have cast as large a shadow over their respective fields as Penske. Even as a privateer, he always insisted that his cars look impeccable. And nobody ever earned the Unfair Advantage as often as he did, whether it be by turning a Formula I wreck into a world-beating sports car, building special refueling rigs for lightning-fast Trans-Am pit stops, introducing turbocharging to the Can-Am series, or developing an entirely new engine to win a single race, the 1994 Indy 500."

FURTHER INFORMATION

Other

"Grand Prix Drivers: Roger Penske." Grand Prix.com. http://www.grandprix.com (January 18, 2003).

"Roger Penske." International Motorsports Hall of Fame. http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/halloffame/1998/Roger_Penske_main.htm (January 18, 2003).

"Roger Penske." Motorsports Hall of Fame and Museum of America. http://www.mshf.com/index.htm?/hof/penske_roger.htm (January 18, 2003).

Sketch by Bruce Walker