Roger Penske, 'Mr Motorsport'

Thanks James, for the Penske Cooper-Chevy article, I believe that was from Sports Car Graphic May '63 ?  Didn't that car become Bruce McLaren's "Jolly Green Giant" for '64 ?

 

Michael

Thanks James, for the Penske Cooper-Chevy article, I believe that was from Sports Car Graphic May '63 ?  Didn't that car become Bruce McLaren's "Jolly Green Giant" for '64 ?

 

Michael

The Cooper-Oldsmobile, Jolly Green Giant was based on the original single seater Penske Cooper Xerox Special purchased from John Mecom, the car that began life as a Cooper F1 car. Heavily modified the Cooper-Oldsmoblie won the Players 200 in June 64.

This Cooper-Chevrolet would be a different car, built from a modified  Monaco chassis.

Edited by D28, 28 July 2018 - 21:49.

I was lucky enough to be in the DJR Penske corporate space for last weekend's Newcastle Supercars event and got to meet Roger Penske.  What an amazing man. 16 of us had a tour through the garage and he shook every one of our hands and thanked each of us for our support. He was happy to take photos and made each of us feel important. Then after the race on Sunday, after they clinched the Supercars driver's title with Scott McLaughlin, I was out the front of their garage in pitlane and watched him go around the corner from their garage by himself and shake hands with a group of volunteer event officials who had finished their duties and thank each one of them for their efforts. He could not have made a bigger impression on me on what sort of person he is. 

 

Mark

Teddy Mayer once said to me "Roger Penske is the only guy I know who still struts when he's sitting down...".  I think he'd picked up that line from someone else - but Teddy could certainly strut, too.

 

I first saw Roger Penske when he won the 1963 Guards Trophy at Brands Hatch in Mecom's Zerex Special.  I've had great respect for him ever since - and that's now - blimey! - 55 years ago...

 

DCN

The Cooper-Oldsmobile, Jolly Green Giant was based on the original single seater Penske Cooper Xerox Special purchased from John Mecom, the car that began life as a Cooper F1 car. Heavily modified the Cooper-Oldsmoblie won the Players 200 in June 64.

This Cooper-Chevrolet would be a different car, built from a modified  Monaco chassis.

I've just been reading Howden Ganley's delightful autobiography "The Road to Monaco" which covers the formation of the McLaren team including the Zerex/Jolly Green Giant history.  The Jolly Green Giant was Penske's car after they cut the front and rear off the original Zerex car and replaced it with a stiffer center section designed by Bruce and the team--what you could consider was a prototype of the subsequent all McLaren M1A chassis.  This is when the 3.5L Olds replaced the 2.7L Climax Penske (and Bruce initially) used.  Eoin Young's "McLaren!  The Man, the Cars & the Team" gives a fair amount of detail on the evolution of the design.

Edited by Sisyphus, 29 November 2018 - 22:32.

I've just been reading Howden Ganley's delightful autobiography "The Road to Monaco" which covers the formation of the McLaren team including the Zerex/Jolly Green Giant history.  The Jolly Green Giant was Penske's car after they cut the front and rear off the original Zerex car and replaced it with a stiffer center section designed by Bruce and the team--what you could consider was a prototype of the subsequent all McLaren M1A chassis.  This is when the 3.5L Olds replaced the 2.7L Climax Penske (and Bruce initially) used.  Eoin Young's "McLaren!  The Man, the Cars & the Team" gives a fair amount of detail on the evolution of the design.

Yes part of the source for my post. The current issue of Vintage Motorsport has a short feature on a recreation of the original Xerox Special, now running in US vintage racing circles. Apparently the old centre chassis section, cut out by the McLaren lads, the one with the rigidity of a dishrag, was sourced in England and mated with a different Cooper frame, the source of front and rear suspension. A new body has been built. Which engine is in the car is unstated. The recreation was aided by two of the original mechanics.

The car looks the part and appeared in June at the Pacific Northwest Historics. I was surprised to see the article, just assumed that the original was cut up and disappeared 54 years ago.

Edited by D28, 30 November 2018 - 00:41.

The current issue of Vintage Motorsport has a short feature on a recreation of the original Xerox Special,

To have a slip of the fingers on the keyboard and type "Xerox" instead of the correct 'Zerex' is quite appropriate since we are talking about a replica....

 

Tom

To have a slip of the fingers on the keyboard and type "Xerox" instead of the correct 'Zerex' is quite appropriate since we are talking about a replica....

 

Tom

More a slip of the mind, I'm afraid. I saw Bruce win with the Cooper-Olds 54 years ago and that time line seems to be catching up.  That was Bruce's first race in Canada and he got off to a fine start, always went well here.

D28

As Tom has told you.

The Vintage Motorsport article on what is claimed to be the Zerex Special is full of errors and omissions.

It is obviously a replica [aka as a fake], since the original Zerex is still with us Previous owner Dave Morgan of Tulsa, Oklahoma, sold it to Venezuela in 1967, where it still resides.

It was Penske and his crew who replaced the center section of the car [winter of 1962/63] from center steering to right-hand steering, not McLaren as claimed in the article. It is possible that McLaren may have replaced that part again, though, to make the chassis stronger for Old V8 engine use.

But it makes one wonder [if the car was the real one] why a legitimate two-seat, right-hand-drive car is suddenly turned into a center steering car again. All that based on a right-hand drive center section claimed to have been found in England, that is now converted to center steering. The whole story is very fishy, even if “the car looks the part.”



All research: Willem Oosthoek

D28

As Tom has told you.

The Vintage Motorsport article on what is claimed to be the Zerex Special is full of errors and omissions.

It is obviously a replica [aka as a fake], since the original Zerex is still with us Previous owner Dave Morgan of Tulsa, Oklahoma, sold it to Venezuela in 1967, where it still resides.

It was Penske and his crew who replaced the center section of the car [winter of 1962/63] from center steering to right-hand steering, not McLaren as claimed in the article. It is possible that McLaren may have replaced that part again, though, to make the chassis stronger for Old V8 engine use.

But it makes one wonder [if the car was the real one] why a legitimate two-seat, right-hand-drive car is suddenly turned into a center steering car again. All that based on a right-hand drive center section claimed to have been found in England, that is now converted to center steering. The whole story is very fishy, even if “the car looks the part.”



All research: Willem Oosthoek

Yes I agree with most of that. Still the article doesn't claim to be the original Zerex special, simply a recreation, though it doesn't use that word. I was very surprised to even see mention of the name as I thought from a couple of sources the original had disappeared; and I was not implying the car had many original parts.

I was careful to document the modifications to the centre section by McLaren, mostly from  McLaren Memories Eoin Young, also   described in Cooper Cars  Doug Nye.

 

I was in no way suggesting the car was authentic, quite the opposite in fact, but the livery and new body caused me to say it looks the part. I'm a bit puzzled by the whole story really and the amount of effort someone put in to create this replica. I was looking to create some discussion on the problem of replica vintage racers.

Edited by D28, 30 November 2018 - 22:19.

I also read the story in Vintage Motorsport about the resurrection of the "Zerex-Cooper" and since I am quite familiar with the car and its history, I would like to add the following points regarding the car and the replica:

- The Cooper-Olds that Bruce McLaren partially built and drove successfully was, as Jerry Entin points out, the former "Zerex Spl." built from the ex Briggs Cunningham T53 crashed by Walt Hansgen in the 1960 USGP.
Roger had Roy Gane and others repair the bent chassis, add some body mounting tubing extensions and they built an aluminum body for it with the infamous (but legal) side seat, suitable for a small monkey.
The engine came from Hap Sharp's Cooper T61M with which Jack Brabham had won the 1961 Times Grand Prix at Riverside. That engine was before that, the "practice and qualifying" engine for the Cooper-Climax T54 Indy car that Jack had successfully driven a few months before at the "500".

- After Penske won the 1962 Times Grand Prix with the car (now, it was a second win in that race for the engine!), the SCCA changed its rules and mandated that the driver and passenger seats of "sports cars" should be located at equal distance from the center of the car. Roger and his crew cut PART of the center section of the chassis (namely the top tubes, while the lower tubes remaining untouched) and widened it using curved tubing mated to both ends of the frame. A rather ineffective "roll bar" was added, but even then, Roger stuck out of the car looking like if he were Dan Gurney himself.

- The car won more races and finished a creditable 2nd place at the '63 Times Grand Prix, then ran the early races in 1964 until sold to Bruce McLaren, without engine but still with its Cooper-Knight "C5S" transmission and a brand new Olds 3.5-liter massaged by TraCo, affixed on a pallet.
Bruce took the lot back to the UK and installed the second Climax 2.8-liter "Indy" engine (retained by the Cooper works after the "Indy 500" and raced by Bruce in the works T61M at the end of 1961, then by Bruce in his Tasman series Cooper T53) and raced it at least once, but the engine blew. This is when the car was seriously rebuilt and the TraCo Olds engine fitted. The car was never modified between the time Roger widened the top tubes and the time McLaren reinforced the chassis to receive the Olds engine.

- As the new McLaren Mk1 was completed, the ex-Zerex was sold to Mr. Morgan, who painted it red, modified its nose with a "Mako Shark" look and raced the car in the south east of the USA until 1967, when he sold it to Venezuelian Leo Barbosa. No other modifications were made.
Barbosa raced the car as it was, later painted the car white, raced it for a long time and eventually parked it.
The engine was sold, the body rotted and disappeared and so did much of the car. The remains are still in the family's estate as far as we know, but it is unlikely that it would be salvageable.

- The replica erroneously described in Vintage Motorsport is just that. It CLAIMS to use some tubing from the original car, and at the time the project started, the "restorer" showed pictures of those tubing bits. I copied these pictures just in case, because I already knew that the claim was false. I compared what was shown by the person, with clear pictures of the car as being modified by Roger Penske and his crew, and sorry, but the "surviving" bits were never part of the car. The story also claims that the chassis is a genuine Cooper chassis, (F2-8-60) a car that curiously does not exist in the Cooper chassis register. Whatever, it is irrelevant here.
Hence the car is a replica, 100%, and any claim to any "surviving bits" is just that in my opinion, just a claim.
I have on file all the evidence to prove it to anyone, if the question ever arose.
This is reminding me of a certain "ex-Cunningham" Maserati Tipo 61 that was also claimed to be "real" until Maserati specialists demolished the carefully woven story the owner was peddling.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a replica, especially when the real thing is simply either no more, or beyond salvation. But a bit of honesty representing what the car truly is, would be nice. Is it the story writer making it up, or is it what he was told?

 

Edited by T54, 23 February 2019 - 00:48.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a replica, especially when the real thing is simply either no more, or beyond salvation. But a bit of honesty representing what the car truly is, would be nice. Is it the story writer making it up, or is it what he was told?

 

That is the telling question, Perhaps the owner and individuals mentioned in the article would like to comment here, if they are aware of the conversation. No letters, comments appeared yet in VM  but there has been but one issue since the story appeared.

Bruce took the lot back to the UK and installed the second Climax 2.8-liter "Indy" engine (retained by the Cooper works after the "Indy 500" and raced by Bruce in the works T61M at the end of 1961, then by Bruce in his Tasman series Cooper T53) and raced it at least once, but the engine blew. 

 

 

The following may seem pedantic to those brought up in Northern Hemisphere but Bruce McLaren used a 2.8 litre engine in the 1962 international races in NZ and Australia. These were Tasman Cup (official name) races only in the sense that the 1962 Times GP was a CanAm race. The Tasman Cup was held between 1964 and1969 with a maximum engine capacity of 2.5 litres, then for F5000 until 1975. Before 1964 there was no international championship in Australasia.    

That is the telling question, Perhaps the owner and individuals mentioned in the article would like to comment here, if they are aware of the conversation. No letters, comments appeared yet in VM  but there has been but one issue since the story appeared.

Willem Oosthoeck did send Vintage Motorsport magazine a lengthy letter detailing that the "Zerex Special" featured in the magazine was in all respects not the real thing, but a replica despite the car's owner and the article's author making statements to the contrary. For whatever reason, the magazine did not have a letters column in the issue following the article. Let's hope that the current issue (out, but not received by me as yet) does contain a letters page and does run Willem's letter which debunks the false claim.

 

Tom

Got that right, Tim. :-)

Willem Oosthoeck did send Vintage Motorsport magazine a lengthy letter detailing that the "Zerex Special" featured in the magazine was in all respects not the real thing, but a replica despite the car's owner and the article's author making statements to the contrary. For whatever reason, the magazine did not have a letters column in the issue following the article. Let's hope that the current issue (out, but not received by me as yet) does contain a letters page and does run Willem's letter which debunks the false claim.

 

Tom

Thanks so much, I am looking forward to that, I anticipate it will be in the current issue, that should set the record straight.

Considering personal past history with Vintage Motorsport, I'm not expecting much, although "nuts & bolts" type things might warrant a bit more. As an aside, there seems to be quite a few eye-rolling errors when it comes to oval racing stories in VM. That, along with errors like identifying Stardust as Riverside.

This is how the real Zerex Special looked like in 1965, in a photo taken by David Seibert at Hammond, Louisiana.
It still looks like this today, a two-seater with a converted nose section.
The following is from Willem Oosthoek:
The March/April issue of Vintage Motorsport has arrived. Although this one contains a Letter Box, Willem Oosthoek’s letter on the fake Zerex Special was not published. It is unlikely that editor is willing to handle this hot potato. Attached a photo taken by David Seibert of the car when last raced on US soil by David Morgan in the mid sixties. Today the real Zerex still carries the same body style in Venezuela. Nuf said.



photo: David Seibert

Edited by Jerry Entin, 26 February 2019 - 22:12.

The real Zerex Special
This is in Venezuela where it has been since 1967.

The real Zerex Special
This is in Venezuela where it has been since 1967.

What is there seems to be enough to restore. Though currently a little hard to retrieve with the political situation.

Roger Penske interview in two parts on the ACO website.

First part :

 

https://www.lemans.o...-and-1971/51002

 

 

 

 

Edited by Louism, 28 February 2019 - 06:36.

Interesting. Roger isn’t given at all to reminiscence but one of the few memories he repeated to us in the team once as we were waiting for a practice session to start was the story of having a tyre failure on the Mulsanne in that Ferrari he shared with Rodriguez in 1963. It was obviously a pretty scary episode.

I always felt that RP classified NASCAR as business, Indycar as pleasure but sports car racing as passion. As I have said before, he would get as excited for an ALMS race at Lime Rock as he would for an Indy 500. Roger loves Le Mans. Me and the team manager from the Penske Porsche ALMS team were sent to the race for a recce in 2007, in order to find out about what it would take to do the 24 hours with an RS Spyder, but in the end Porsche weren’t enthusiastic about us running against their customers and Roger really wants an overall win too so the idea faded away.

There is no reason at all to think that Penske Racing couldn’t win that race. There is no iimit to the strength in depth of that team.

Has any individual in history ever been as immersed in automobile racing for as long, in as many series, at as many venues, as both driver and owner, with as much success, and having gained as much respect, as Roger Penske? I think not. And he achieved all of that while building a business empire. It's difficult to imagine that his achievements and longevity in motorsport will ever be surpassed.

Second part of the interview :

 

https://www.lemans.o...challenge/51011

 

Has any individual in history ever been as immersed in automobile racing for as long, in as many series, at as many venues, as both driver and owner, with as much success, and having gained as much respect, as Roger Penske? I think not. And he achieved all of that while building a business empire. It's difficult to imagine that his achievements and longevity in motorsport will ever be surpassed.

 

Enzo Ferrari ????

Enzo Ferrari ????

No, not even him, and I thought long and hard about it before I posted. And I'm a long time and multiple Ferrari owner. Ferrari has only one thing going in terms of "legend" that Penske does not: since The Captain won't have a surviving marque to carry his name forward his legacy will fade over time while Ferrari's will not. Plus, subjectively, Penske has not promoted a mythology around himself in the way Ferrari did.

No, not even him, and I thought long and hard about it before I posted. And I'm a long time and multiple Ferrari owner. Ferrari has only one thing going in terms of "legend" that Penske does not: since The Captain won't have a surviving marque to carry his name forward his legacy will fade over time while Ferrari's will not. Plus, subjectively, Penske has not promoted a mythology around himself in the way Ferrari did.

 

 

I see where you come from and effectively, it is exactly for the same reasons as you describe that I still put Ferrari up.

Also for the fact that he started way earlier than Penske did and by the time Penske started Ferrari already had a name and a legend that was difficult to surpass.

 

I would say, both men are not directly comparable, each is a legend is it own with his own merits and own achievements that will stand forever.

Pretty much like two students in the same class that stand out above their others class mates but each because of having other strongest points.that buts him apart form the others and his best `opponent` in class.

I would put Roger Penske way above Ferrari as a manager of people and someone who builds an empire that now emplys thousands of people all over the world and recently had a turnover as large as Pepsico!  Ferrari was a great agitator of men and great at creating a legend but the longer I am around the Ferrari world (and I've been around it 20+ years) the less I am impressed with him as a person and the legacy he has left behind.  To have achieved what Penske has just in business would be an impressive full time career, but the fact that he's also been so successful in so many areas in the motorsport arena at the same time is unmatched I feel.

Edited by Andrew Stevens, 28 February 2019 - 22:19.

Much of Ferrari's legend comes from his road cars, obviously none of Penske's does. Taken as a whole for the reasons I mentioned initially, I believe Penske's racing achievements outstrip Ferrari's, at least those that the scuderia attained during Ferrari's lifetime, as to the diversity of series, types of cars, venues, etc. Penske won not only with his own cars but also but with cars manufactured by others. To Ferrari's credit, other teams won in cars that he built.

I suppose it's a meaningless exercise, but I think it's unarguable that Ferrari's legend is bigger than the man, and Penske's impact on the sport is underrated, probably because most of his record was established in the U.S. Some personal characteristics they have in common aside from the obvious drive and determination: The ability to recognize talent and get the most out of it, and to seize "the unfair advantage."

Does anyone know if the two men ever met?

Does anyone know if the two men ever met?

 

Almost certainly not, unless Roger went to Maranello. Enzo never once flew, and hardly ever left Italy except as a young man, I think he only ever went to a very small number of European races in his early Alfa years. I'm currently working my way through Luca dal Monte's epic work Enzo Ferrari, only about another 200 pages of the almost 1,000 to go. I suspect that an awful lot of Enzo's early achievements are little known or understood outside Italy, and much of his greatest work occurred before WW2. The book is about Enzo the man rather than Ferrari cars, and although he seems to have been not the easiest man to like, he did have many admirable qualities. It is of course almost impossible to compare Enzo and Roger, though certainly the Ferrari name and achievements are going to long outlive any of Roger's, both great, but very different men and very different achievements. For me, Enzo trumps Roger by quite some distance, though for some of course, Penske achievements might be deemed greater, certainly in the USA.

 

It's undeniable though that Ferrari is outscored by Penske in one very significant area. Enzo never established a major country-wide trucking empire.

When Penske ran the third-party Ferrari they might have...

But I think it was Mark who went to Italy for the bits for that car.

When Penske ran the third-party Ferrari they might have...But I think it was Mark who went to Italy for the bits for that car.

I believe that's correct, Ray. I thought there might have been a chance Penske went to Maranello when he was running his F1 team, but I could find no reference to such a meeting, including in dal Monte's book.

I listened to his interview on the Motorsport podcast this morning - he's quite happy with his current crop of Aussies!!

When Penske ran the third-party Ferrari they might have...

But I think it was Mark who went to Italy for the bits for that car.

 

Almost certainly not, unless Roger went to Maranello.

 

Both Argetsinger's book and The Unfair Advantage mention that Roger was with Mark on their initial trip to Maranello (with Roger ordering a new Daytona road car while at the factory.)

Willem Oosthoeck did send Vintage Motorsport magazine a lengthy letter detailing that the "Zerex Special" featured in the magazine was in all respects not the real thing, but a replica despite the car's owner and the article's author making statements to the contrary. For whatever reason, the magazine did not have a letters column in the issue following the article. Let's hope that the current issue (out, but not received by me as yet) does contain a letters page and does run Willem's letter which debunks the false claim.

Tom

Thanks so much, I am looking forward to that, I anticipate it will be in the current issue, that should set the record straight.

Since the magazine editor is a good friend and a co-conspirator in both our former motorcycle racing life, I took the time to ask him. At the time, the magazine was owned by a different party (it is now part of Racer Communications, a property of Paul Pfanner), and when that was published, they took the claims by the owner, Mr. Heacock, to be God's truth. After being shown their mistake, the publisher decided to put the subject asleep to avoid "possible legal action".

As far as the rather outrageous and misleading (to say the very least) MotorSport multiple-page story, I sent a rather stern letter to "the Editor" (Joe Dunn), and never got a reply from him, but got one from a long-time writer for the magazine, whom I met years ago personally, and who told me that when he saw the copy prior to printing, he begged to rewrite the story to correct the inaccuracies (I am more direct and call them what they are, patented lies). He was denied.

After email conversations with a good friend in NZ who knows everything that happened to the "discarded center section" of the car when stiffened for the 3.5-liter Olds engine, I put together a documentation clearly proving that the images shown in these very pages years ago by the person who was seeking help to recreate the car from these miraculously discovered bits, were never at any time, part of the car in any of its 3 forms.
I then proceeded to write a short letter, that is being sent to many relevant parties (racing and Concours organizers as well as a Mr. Brown, currently running the show in Woking), to warn them about the true nature of that replica, and offer to you, the text of it below. This bull crap must stop.

"In reference to the recently published stories about the Roger Penske “Zerex Duralite Special” in American and British media

To whom it may concern.
Gentlemen,
Many vintage racing cars today are replicas of cars that have long disappeared. Most are correctly represented by their owners and by the extensive documentation gathered by enthusiasts and published in books or online.

For quite a while now, a replica of the Cooper-Zerex Special, originally a Cooper T53 successively owned and modified by Briggs Cunningham, Roger Penske and Bruce McLaren, has been fraudulently represented as using “discarded parts” of the original car when owned and modified by Bruce McLaren, to justify some form of authenticity.
The pretenders began this fairy tale that allowed them to benefit from ample exposure in various magazines and entries in distinguished racing venues. This fraud began about 15 years ago, first on the Autosport “Nostalgia” forum.

This car is of course of high importance, especially to the McLaren company since it is often considered as the first McLaren car. Unfortunately, the truth is that there is not a single part of the real car in any of its three forms on that replica. Not a bolt, not a nut, not a washer. The entire misrepresentation is nothing but a fairy tale. This is basic fraud, and at least two reputable publications, one willingly, contributed to that fraud.

As the person who is quite familiar with the history of that car and the fate of its original engine, I will, upon request, provide solid, documented and illustrated evidence clearly establishing the truth, plus the testimonies in writing of two of the very people who modified the car from its Roger Penske/Roy Gane form into the Bruce McLaren Cooper-Oldsmobile, who are today scoffing at the bogus stories concocted by the car’s owner and its builder as described in the published material.
The actual car still exists in exactly the same form as it last raced in Venezuela, and has remained in that troubled country since 1967.
Now, to be clear, I have no problem with fine replicas of cars that are no longer with us, as long as they are clearly represented as such. This is not the case here, with reputable publications being the accomplices of that fraud.

While you are free to make your own decisions regarding the entry in competition or display of that misrepresented vehicle, please consider this letter as my duty of making you aware of the facts.
Please feel free to ask me for clear, graphic proof of their fraud for your own enlightenment."
(Name and address enclosed)

I hesitate to comment, having no relevant knowledge or expertise. All I would say is that any organisation receiving a letter containing the word "fraud" is likely to be advised by its lawyers to send no reply and make no comment. This could explain the lack of response from Motor Sport and others.

Sterzo,
fraud it is. However, honest journalists would reply and inquire, at least in private.

Joe Dunn never bothered, while the editor of Vintage Motorsport, who obviously has larger cojones, did.
Fraud is fraud, any way one spells it.
And this is 100% fraud.

Meantime, 'Mr Motorsport' had a nice weekend in Australia...

His team dominated the Bathurst 1000 with his lead driver fastest in each practice session and winning the race. He's also leading the Australian V8Supercar Championship by a huge points margin and has won more races this year than anyone ever has in past years (as I understand it).

Meantime, back in the US of A Penske in 2019 has won:

Last weekend won the US Sports Car Championship

Finished 1st, 2nd and 5th in the Indy Car Championship

Has his two drivers in the 10 for the NASCAR Playoffs

Not bad one could say

I may be wrong but it is there, or has there ever been an official biography of the Captain???     If not, why not????   That would be some good reading....

Yes we lost Michael way too early...  and I would have LOVED him to write the book.      (as an aside,  I found myself pitted next to Michael at Blackhawk Farms several years ago and we raced each in other in a spec Miata.  When he introduced himself, and I heard his last name I almost did a double take!!   As a retired radiologist, it was interesting to find out his wife was also a radiologist.  Small world.)

I'm a bit late to the party, but given the earlier discussion I think it's a fine bit of irony that several years ago (10, 20, or longer?) Roger Penske was apparently the largest Ferrari retailer in the world.  He owned part or all of seven dealerships, in the US, the UK, and Germany.

This will appear in the program for the Ferrari Club of America annual meet in Scottsdale,Arizona, in November 2019:

 

“Roger Penske is the founder and Chairman of Penske Corporation, a closely-held diversified on-highway transportation services company whose subordinates operate In a variety of industry segments, including retail automotive, truck leasing, transportation logistics and professional motorsports.  Penske Corporation manages businesses with consolidated revenues of more than $31 billion, operating in over 3,660 locations and employing more than 63,000 people worldwide.”

 

Roger Penske essentially built this business from scratch.

 

The article goes on to say “Competing in a variety of disciplines, cars owned and prepared by Team Penske have produced 527 major race wins, 597 pole positions, and 14 championships.  In its 53-year history the team has also earned 18 Indianapolis 500 victories, 2 Daytona 500 Championships, a Formula 1 win and overall victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.”

Does anyone know if the two men ever met?

From the Brock Yates book (via Google Books), page 350:




There is also this description of Penske's trip to Maranello from Kirk F. White:

http://www.dontwashm.../Chapter15.html

From the Brock Yates book (via Google Books), page 350:There is also this description of Penske's trip to Maranello from Kirk F. White:http://www.dontwashm.../Chapter15.html

Thanks for that. I don’t doubt Yates’s and White’s general accounts that Penske and Ferrari never met. Penske has never seemed the type to change a schedule or a plan unless there were some advantage in it. A chat with Ing. Ferrari probably would have served no real purpose and Penske was probably miffed, understandably, that no concessions on prices were available. That’s quite a contrast with Penske’s relationship with Porsche.

Done properly, the auto/biography of Roger Penske would be one of the most fascinating of any sports or business figure I can imagine.

DJR Penske are in the headlines for slowing cars down on a nanny car with all sorts of cries of DQ the winning Scott McLaughlin car. Will be defenitly embarassing for them

Ah! So the Penske rental trucks are connected to Roger Penske. There's video of quite a few of them (and other rental trucks) being trashed at a notorious low rail underpass.The video is called "The Definitive 11'8" Bridge Crash Compilation", and the video has 7 million hits.

Ah! So the Penske rental trucks are connected to Roger Penske. There's video of quite a few of them (and other rental trucks) being trashed at a notorious low rail underpass.The video is called "The Definitive 11'8" Bridge Crash Compilation", and the video has 7 million hits.

Most of those hits are Penske trucks,, but 7 million. Probably not.

The video has 7 million hits, not the trucks....

DJR Penske are in the headlines for slowing cars down on a nanny car with all sorts of cries of DQ the winning Scott McLaughlin car. Will be defenitly embarassing for them

What does that mean?