9 replies to this topic

[Herbert]

Was Peter Revson really supposed to join Penske Racing for their F1 campaign in 1974?
As we all know he did sign for Shadow and then had his terrible accident in Kyalami. I read somewhere that the fact that Revson died before joining Penske was one of the reasons (apart from being bored with his team managing role at Penske) why Mark Donohue made a racing comeback in F1 in late 1974.

[f1steveuk]

I'm miles from my copy of Revson's bio, so I'm going from memory (usual disclaimers here) but I'm sure he was signed for two years at Shadow, 74 and 75.

[szautke]

Peter was suppose to drive for Penske in the three USAC "500" mile (FIA) races. The races were Indianapolis, Ontario and Pocono. He was going to drive the #68 Norton Spirit McLaren M16C-Offy. After his death, Mike Hiss was hired to drive the car.

[COUGAR508]

I have read stories which linked Revson to Ferrari in 1973/74.

Presumably the fact that Peter had signed for Shadow for '74 would have led Penske to look elsewhere for his F1 driver anyway? Was the Penske always scheduled to make its GP debut in late '74? Maybe Penske had spoken to Revson during 1973.

[Dave Ware]

I don't recall any mention, in his autobiography, of Revson going to Penske for F1. Here is something I entered on an earlier post:


According to his biography, Revson considered Ferrari, Shadow, Eagle, and the Yardley-sponsored McLaren for his 1974 F1 efforts. He was offered a contract for Ferrari, but the retainer was $100,000 for both F1 and sports cars, and it excluded him from driving anything other than a Ferrari.

From page 200: "All of a sudden I was not going to be paid very well. If Ferrari had upped the ante to $150,000, it would have made some sense. But in this business, exclusivity is pretty sticky. I sent Ferrari a specific Telex and again they wouldn't answer. So I postponed my trip to Italy indefinitely."


I might be able to look at my copy of "Speed With Style" later today. I'll post if I find anything.

Dave

[COUGAR508]

Revson was not the first nor the last driver to experience this type of difficulty in negotiating with Ferrari.

Do we take it that Peter decided against taking the Yardley McLaren seat for fear of being marginalised following the arrival of Fittipaldi?

[Herbert]

Well, my source was the new Penske Racing book by Alan Hummel. He writes on page 104 that "Penske's initial intention was to hire American Peter Revson to pilot the new (F1) car. Revson had driven for Penske Racing during the 1970 Trans-Am program and he already had two years of F1 experience with Team McLaren. Unfortunately, that plan ended tragically when Revson was killed".

So that made me wondering, because I never heard this before.

[m.tanney]

How is the Hummel book? Would you recommend it?

IIRC, Revson was not convinced by Teddy Mayer's assurances that the Yardley McLaren would receive the full works treatment. He certainly wouldn't have sat out the 1974 season waiting for Penske to enter F1. The Shadow deal allowed him to do Indy for Penske and to drive for Shadow in the Can-Am series. Shadow won the Can-Am that year and its F1 car showed a lot of promise. It's hard to imagine Revson jumping from Shadow to a brand new team after only one year. Does anyone know the length of his Shadow contract?

Mike

[RA Historian]

Originally posted by m.tanney
How is the Hummel book? Would you recommend it?

On the whole an interesting book, but exasperating in the number of silly errors. The usual date and race mixups, but just too many. Every few pages there is a real kicker, such as the paragraph explaining turbocharging which tells us that turbochargers are powered by an engine's exhaust, while superchargers are powered by electric motors...........

[Herbert]

It gives a good summery about the teams successful history. There are some useful background infos especially about the NASCAR program about which I more less didn't know anything. Not so much new info about Can-Am, Trans-Am and early IndyCar-programs that you could'nt find in Mark Donohue's book.