Roger Searle Penske (born 20 February 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and formerly a professional auto racing driver himself. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, the Penske Corporation, and other automotive-related businesses. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Roger Penske is probably best known now for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, the Penske Corporation, and other businesses. However, racing cars was an early obsession for him and he loved the sport with a passion. He started 155 races and won 53, and also finished in the top five in another 60 races.
He was a member of the school football team until a motorcycle accident shattered his ankle and doctors considered amputating his foot. Fortunately they decided to give the bones time to recover and after several months of rehabilitation, he taught himself to walk, then to run and finally returned to football.
After graduating from University, he had become very involved in automobile racing.
In 1958 driving a Corvette he entered his first official race in the Sports Car Club of America National at Marlboro Motor Raceway in Maryland. His first win came in 1959, driving an F-Modified Porsche RS, at the SCCA Regional at Lime Rock and later he bought an RSK and used it for an SCCA class title.
He won 12 races in 1960, including four on Daytona’s road course, plus raced a Porsche RS60 and then later an RS61, winning at Nassau.
In 1961 he won five races in a Birdcage Maserati, won at Nassau with a Cooper and also drove a Lotus Formula Junior in several races. That year saw him make his Formula One debut in the US GP at Watkins Glen driving a Cooper, where he finished eighth.
The next season Roger won nine races and finished second in five others. He drove a Lotus 24 in the US GP, finishing ninth, and won in his Zerex Special at Riverside. He became the SCCA National D Modified champion and was Sports Illustrated’s SCCA Driver of the Year. The New York Times named him Driver of the Year when he became the United States Auto Club champion.
In 1963 he continued to race the Zerex, winning three times, including the Guards Trophy race at Brands Hatch. He also drove a Ferrari 250GTO at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans, and made his stock car debut driving a Pontiac in two races. At the end of the year he drove a Cooper-Chevrolet at Laguna Seca and Nassau.
Among his races in 1964 he drove a Corvette Grand Sport with Jim Hall at Sebring and finished second in a Cooper-Chevrolet at Pensacola. He focused his efforts on racing the Chaparral 2 in the US Road Racing Championship. He won twice and finished second four times before dominating the end of season races at Nassau. He also drove a Corvette Grand Sport to win two GT races at Nassau. Besides the Nassau Speed Week, he also won the Los Angeles Times’ Grand Prix at Riverside Raceway in California against an international field.
He continued racing until 1965 when, to much surprise, he announced his retirement as a driver.
Among the photos, in the group shot, he is car no.6 (I think this was the Hoosier GP at Indianapolis) I’m unable to credit the photographers for the posted photos, as there were no details for them.
I’ve posted a piece about Roger Penske in the past but I recently came across an interesting interview in Motor Sport magazine with him. He always chased what he described as “the unfair advantage”, which were innovative solutions aimed at producing extra tenths of a second. During the Trans Am racing, he acid dipped the chassis of his cars, which removed the layers of paint, adhesives and sound deadening to make it lighter. He described how they found an acid tank in California which could take off 50-60-70lbs after dipping the chassis. The first few times we tried it the chassis came out more like a sock but eventually we got the right ingredients in there and we regularly shaved off 50-60lbs. Then of course the car roof would have a lot of oil in it (a term where the thin metal visibly flexes, like squeezing an oil can) so we’d put a leather cover over it-which wasn’t unusual then-so you couldn’t see the oil can and we told everybody the cover was to make the car faster, like a golf ball. We had some fun with that one. Probably the most interesting unfair advantage was when we built a 30foot fuelling rig and put the 30 gallon drum on top and we could fuel in about three seconds, and everybody else was taking 8-10 se. That lasted for about two races before we got told to tear it down and take it home.”
