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Penske Racing
"He's the mastermind...works harder...sets the standard. Roger's very good at the long-range while many of us concerned with the everyday tend to over-engineer." (Mark Donohue, 1972) Fourteen years is a long time in this sport. Thirty-five years of age is about typical. Roger Penske is both, and the typical stops. With his dazzling annual announcements of new racing ambitions, Penske is leaping toward a legend. Impossibly, he's been a retired race driver longer then he raced. Eight and six. In the six years he raced Penske was four times an SCCA national champion, winner of the Los Angeles Times GP, the Puerto Rican GP, the Nassau Trophy, and twice the Pacific GP. He quit in 1964 at the top, driving a Chaparral. It's been much the same in business. At the top. Today, the seven units of Roger Penske Enterprises gross $50-million annually and employ 321 people. The conglomerate includes Prosche+Audi dealership in Pennsylvania, Chevrolet dealerships in Michigan and Pennsylvania, Goodyear racing tire distributorships for the Midwest, East and Eastern Canada, and Hertz car and truck rental franchises. But it is "Roger Penske Racing Enterprises, Newton Square, PA., 16 employees" in this focus. Let Penske tell it: "Basically, we're a racing company and we decide on a financial basis. Major racing isn't done by wealthy people. It's done by people who are commerically involved. Other than the big Indianapolis-type races and the Daytona 500, the Can-Am winnings per race at $18-20,000 are probably the best. A lot of people, I guess, just don't realize that." Realistic, the big picture, the long-range view — and the unfair advantage. The latter became the Penske's trademark during his driving career. Superior preparation, attention to detail, and mechanical innovations often gave him the advantage over the competition. Penske called it the unfair advantage. It's the same now with months of testing and meticulous preparation crunching the other guys. Then come the technical zongers, whether the wedge shape at Indianapolis, the Trans-Am refueling rig, or turbocharging. But the advantage of Porsche? Penske: "Look at the other operations. McLaren wouldn't be successful if they didn't have Chevrolet and Reynolds. Al Unser wouldn't be successful if he didn't have Ford. Prosche came to us and asked if we would take our expertise and their championship endurance car and engine capability. One cannot take credit. It's a joint effort. We are just trying to be the number one race team in the world." The only way Penske knows how to do it is with perfection. In testing mileage, the L&M Prosche+Audi was driven the equivalent of several Can-Am seasons before it ever raced. "Remember," says Penske, "you don't begin a race with a lap lead. You win a race on Sunday and everybody lines up the following Sunday and goes all over again. You must prepare. Testing is the whole secret of winning. When we go to a race, we want to know we're guicker than the preceding year's record lap time." Penske is gifted at gaining adequate sponsorship and then melding the interests of gaint corporations to make the Penske racing team. Sears, Roebuck, American Motors, Sunoco, and Goodyear adjust slickly to the annual Penske model changes. This year, two new sponsors. "We will use a lot of components Porsche has proven," Penske says. "Their factory effort in connection with ours will make a competitive package. The association with L&M as our prime sponsor is a great thing. We hope we can show them they've picked the right team. They've been successfully involved with Can-Am for three years but haven't won the series. Our job is to win it." John (Woody) Woodard is the chief mechanic on the L&M Prosche+Audi. He worked on the Sunoco Camero in its triumphant 1969 Trans-Am season and Donohue says, "Woody is the guy who did it." Then he helped develop the Javelin into a race winner. Last year, he concentrated on the Ferrari in manufacturers' championship races. The second mechanic is Greg Syfert. New with the Penske organization, he came from the 1971 Owens, Corning team of Mustangs. Heinz Hofer, a former ski instructor of Penske's, is the third mechanic. He worked on Donohue's Indianapolis McLaren last year and brings the great gift of speaking German, making him an ideal liaison man between the Prosche people and the race team. Backing up the three-man crew is Don Cox, the teams's engineer, and Chuck Cantwell, race shop manager.
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