Penske Racing

Penske Racing is a racing team that competes in the Indy Racing League (team based in Reading, Pennsylvania) and NASCAR (team based in Mooresville, North Carolina). They also previously competed in road racing, Formula One and CART. Penske Racing is a division of Penske Corporation, and is headed by Roger Penske.

Formula One

Penske entered the Formula One World Championship from 1974 to 1976. Penske first sponsored the second McLaren entry in the 1971 Canadian and US GP, entering Mark Donohue, who took the car to a third place. The team returned three years later, in the 1975 Canadian GP, with their own chassis, the PC1 (a standard tub built around a Cosworth DFV engine and a Hewland gearbox) driven by Donohue, who took the car to 12th place on its debut. In 1975, Roger Penske mounted a full season attack with the PC1, Donohue managing to score a fifth place in the Swedish GP. However, the car was retired after the French GP and Penske entered a March 751 for the next three races, scoring another fifth in the British GP. However, Donohue fatally crashed the car in the Austrian GP at Zeltweg and Penske missed the Italian race, returning only for the US GP, this time back with the PC1 and British driver John Watson as a driver.

Related Topics:
Formula One - 1974 - 1976 - Mark Donohue - Cosworth - Hewland - March 751 - Zeltweg - John Watson

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For 1976, Penske signed a sponsorship deal with Citibank and entered a brand new PC3 for Watson. In spite of a fifth place scored at the South African GP at Kyalami, the PC3 was evolved into the PC4, which was much more competitive, allowing Watson to score two podiums in France and Britain. Then, in the Austrian GP, the team scored their only F1 win, "forcing" John Watson to shave his trademark beard. Still, Roger Penske was tired of Europe and at the end of the year decided to concentrate solely on Indycar racing, selling the remains of his European operations to Gunther Schmid. For 1977, the car was painted in yellow and entered by Auto Technisches Zubehor, Schmid's ATS Wheels business. The ATS-Penske PC4 debuted in the 1977 US West GP with Jean-Pierre Jarier at the wheel, where the Frenchman scored the team's single point of the season. A second PC4 was eventually entered for Hans Heyer and Hans Binder but the team's fortunes sunk and Schmid quit after the Italian GP, before returning in 1978 with his own chassis. The PC4 ended up in the hands of Interscope Racing, who entered the car for US East and Canada, driven by American Danny Ongais, with no results, and Penske cars were not seen in F1 after the end of 1977 season.

Related Topics:
Citibank - Kyalami - Gunther Schmid - Auto Technisches Zubehor - Jean-Pierre Jarier - Hans Heyer - Hans Binder - Interscope Racing - Danny Ongais

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~