Roger penske car collection9/1/2023 ![]() ![]() Penske's first professional win was at Vineland, New Jersey, in a Maserati nicknamed the "Telar Special." He also set a race speed record with his win at Road America. In 1961 he bought a Cooper and a Maserati, rebuilt a Cooper-Climax with an aluminum body, persuaded Zerex to sponsor him, and started to race professionally. Continuing his racing career, Penske won the F Modified in 1960. In the same year as his first racing win, Penske also graduated from Lehigh University with a business degree (industrial management) and went to work as a sales engineer for Alcoa Aluminum. Unwilling to stay with a proven but older car, Penske bought an RSK and used it later for an SCCA class title. His first win came in 1959 when, driving an F-Modified Porsche RS, he beat the competition at the SCCA Regional at Lime Rock, Connecticut. ![]() ![]() After consistently running behind the leader, his car eventually overheated, and Penske had to withdraw from the race. In 1958 he entered his first official race in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National at Marlboro Motor Raceway in Maryland. RACE-CAR LEGENDĪlmost from the start, racing cars was an obsession for Penske, who first drove at the Akron (Ohio) Speedway. Finding early in life what he liked to do, Penske was able to seize on opportunities that led him to legendary status as a race-car driver and, later, helped him accumulate a transportation empire, record setting racing teams, and a successful truck-leasing company. The experiences learned from these early ventures became the hallmark for Penske's later successes in the automobile world, both as a race-car driver and as a transportation businessman. Over the next 10 years, Penske raced and sold 32 cars, among them a Chevrolet, Corvette, Jaguar Cooper, Maserati, MG TD, MG TC, Olds mobile, Porsche, and the Zerex Special. As a teenager in the 1950s, he would buy "junker" cars, make repairs on them, and sell them at a profit from his parents' home in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. A KNACK WITH CARSĮven from an early age, Penske had a knack for fixing auto mobiles. After retiring from driving, Penske became one of the most successful and best-known car and track owners in the history of motor sports. Basing his achievement on his stringent guidelines for setting goals, Penske made race-car driving an obsession that eventually earned him a driving record held by only a few talented drivers. Penske discovered his niche in life early, when, as a teenager, he began refurbishing and racing cars and selling them for profit. Penske was the chairman of the board and chief executive officer (CEO) of Penske Corporation, which he founded in 1969. ■ In 2004 the transportation executive and auto-racing legend Roger S. This was despite brakes problems that meant Penske has to use the stoppers as sparingly as possible.Chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Penske Corporation and its subsidiary, United Auto Groupīorn: February 20, 1937, in Shaker Heights, Ohio.įamily: Son of Jay (vice president of metal fabrication company) and Martha (housewife and community volunteer) married Kathryn children: five.Ĭareer: Alcoa Aluminum, 1959 –1963, sales engineer George McKean Chevrolet, 1963 –1965, general manager and, later, owner 1965 –1969, owner of several automobile dealerships, a truck-leasing operation, and two racing-tire distributors Penske Corporation, 1969 –, president and CEO United Auto Group, 1999 –, chairman and CEO.Īwards: Named SCCA Driver of the Year, Sports Illustrated, 1961 named Driver of the Year, New York Times, 1962.Īddress: Penske Corporation, 8801 North Haggarty Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107 United Auto Group, 2555 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48302-0954. There was less than a second between them as they crossed the line, and they were a full half-minute ahead of the chasing pack. Pit stops cost Dieringer the lead in Penske’s favour, and they battled for the win for the last 13 laps. He did just that, battling his way back into contention. Speaking to the LA Times after the race, Penske said: "I just waited on that hill till everyone had gone by before I tried to get back into the race.” An unavoidable tangle with a spinning Mercury Darel Dieringer saw him off the circuit. He qualified 12 th on the grid but, by the end of lap one, was down to dead last. He still had a day job at the time, so was only able to spend two days at the circuit which limited his time to practice. Penske didn’t disappoint, bringing plenty of excitement to the 250-mile race. The pre-retirement performance was enough to make Riverside promoter Les Richter very keen to have them at the California circuit. They’d led the Indianapolis race for 53 laps before a mechanical failure took them out of the race. The Catalina that Penske raced was owned by Chicago Pontiac dealer Ray Nichels. ![]()
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