British race car driver Jamie Chadwick continued her American invasion last weekend with a history-making win in the Indy NXT Series, which used to be called Indy Lights. It’s the developmental feeder series for IndyCar, and many of its graduates have gone on to solid IndyCar careers, recently including Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas, and in less recent history, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, Pato O’Ward, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Colton Herta and Tony Kaanan.

Chadwick, who drives for Andretti Global, qualified on the pole for the Grand Prix of Road America, a 20-lap race on the tough Wisconsin road course. She is only the third female driver to win in the NXT/Indy Lights series, with the first being Ana Beatriz, who won in 2008 and 2009, and Pippa Mann, who was the most recent winner in 2010. Those wins were on oval tracks, so Chadwick becomes the first female driver to win on a road course.

“I have no words,” Chadwick said after her victory on Sunday. “Honestly, I’m a bit emotional. We’ve had an unbelievable car this year and just haven’t been able to do anything about it. I’m just so happy we held on there.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by On Her Turf (@onherturf)

She beat Andretti Global teammate Louis Foster by 0.82 seconds, with Jacob Abel in third. Foster and Abel already have two wins each this season, and are the top two in the points, with Abel leading.

This is the second NXT season for Chadwick, 26, after winning three championships in the Europe-based, all-female W Series. That series was cancelled after three seasons for lack of finances, and last ran in 2022, when Chadwick returned with support from Caitlyn Jenner to win her third championship, this time for the newly-formed Jenner Racing team. The W Series was essentially replaced by the female-only, F1-backed F1 Academy in 2023. F1 Academy is on the Formula 4 level, considered a step down from the competition in the W Series.

Prior to racing in the W and NXT Series, Chadwick competed mostly in Europe, but she had several starts in the F3 Asian Championship. She has also been a development driver for the Williams F1 team, and a test driver for the NIO Formula E team. Chadwick co-drove an Aston Martin to a win in the Silverstone 24 Hours in 2015, and to fifth in class in the 2019 running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. She’s also competed in Extreme E, the electric off-road series.

Additionally, Chadwick is also the official advisor for 17-year-old Lia Block, daughter of the late stunt driver and rally racer Ken Block, as she competes for Williams in the F1 Academy series this season. After four of the scheduled 14 races, Lia is 14th in points out of 17 drivers.

Chadwick moved to the NXT series in 2023, where she had a best finish of sixth, and ended the season 12th in points. It took her a while to get acclimated to U.S. tracks and the NXT car, which is a Dallara chassis with a turbocharged 2.0-liter Mazda-AER four-cylinder, with six-speed gearbox. The series is owned by IndyCar, which means it’s owned by Roger Penske. Her best finish this season had been third on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

While Chadwick led Sunday’s race from the pole and never gave up the lead, it wasn’t easy. A crash on lap 16 caused officials to fly the red flag, stopping the race to allow for a clean-up and ensure that it wouldn’t finish under a caution flag. It was restarted with two laps to go.

“With the red flag at the end, I was like, ‘Come on!’” Chadwick said. “We started to lose the tires a little bit. I just knew I had to be aggressive. I knew they [Foster and Abel] have a championship to worry about, and I just had to get my head down. I really wanted to win today.” The victory moved Chadwick up to ninth in points.

This was the sixth race in a 13-race NXT season. Next up is a doubleheader at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on June 22-23.

***

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.

The post Jamie Chadwick Is the First Female Indy NXT Race Winner in 15 Years appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Last year, in my recap of the Indy 500, I talked about how much I loved seeing 86-year-old Roger Penske jump for joy when his team’s driver, Josef Newgarden, took the checkered flag. This year was much the same, with Penske celebrating as Newgarden again triumphed in a nail-biter of a race. Only the man known as “The Captain” is now 87. Talk about thriving in one’s golden years!

Truth is, everyone who saw the race felt excited, because it featured what every spectator wants to see: dramatic passes. Today’s IndyCars are so heavily regulated that there is little speed difference between them. The cars run in tight packs, and the drivers use the draft of the car ahead to slingshot past each other. That means lots of passing. So when Newgarden was leading in the second to last lap, I figured he was just a sitting duck because the second-place driver could swing by just before the checkered flag. And, indeed, Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward passed Newgarden during last lap. Only he did so right at the beginning, which seemed too early to me. O’Ward’s the pro, however—not me—and down the long straight leading to the final two turns, his move seemed to be the right one. He pulled to the inside of the track leading into turn three and thus blocked Newgarden’s most obvious path back into the lead.

At this point, I should note that there is a wall that lines the track and that both Newgarden and O’Ward were traveling at some 220 mph. I also need to mention that the outside of a turn is treacherously slipperier than the preferred inside line, because rubber thrown off tires over the course of the race accumulates into little rubber balls called “marbles.” Imagine driving over a bunch of mini ball bearings. That’s why you rarely see drivers pass on the right. Except Newgarden did just that, pulling off an incredibly courageous—and dangerous—pass on the outside of turn three. Announcer Leigh Diffey exclaimed, “This is mind blowing!”

After the finish, O’Ward was in tears—surely mourning his loss but also, I imagine, feeling totally gutted by how it happened. He never thought Newgarden would attempt that kamikaze move and succeed. None of us did. The Indy 500 certainly delivered drama and heroics this year. Watch that final pass here.

It was a face-saving win for a Penske team mired in a cheating scandal. On April 24, IndyCar announced that Penske drivers had illegally used a push-to-pass system (a brief burst of increased power) during the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Florida, which Newgarden had won. The infraction was considered so severe that IndyCar took the unusual step of disqualifying Newgarden and retroactively declaring the second-place driver, O’Ward, the rightful winner. In response, Penske conducted an internal review, admitted fault, and on May 7 suspended four senior team members for two races, including the Indy 500. One of those suspended was Team President Tim Cindric. They won Indy anyway.

Meanwhile, over in Monaco, Ferrari driver Charles LeClerc won a Formula 1 race that was expected to be a boring affair… and absolutely was, with the top 10 drivers finishing in the same order they started. Today’s wide F1 cars and the narrow Monaco streets leave almost no opportunity for passing. When a rare chance to make a move opens, drivers then take huge risks with often catastrophic results. That happened twice in the opening laps. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen saw a tiny lane alongside Sergio Perez, went for the pass, and caused a collision instead. Perez’s Red Bull was destroyed. Alpine driver Esteban Ocon enraged his team when he tried an optimistic move on his teammate Pierre Gasly, taking them both out of the race. The total damage cost several million dollars.

Still, can you really blame those drivers for trying? They’re athletes, born with a hunger to go for it and an unshakable confidence that they’ll succeed. That’s what got them to the pinnacle of motorsports. Sometimes it works, like it did for Newgarden. Sometimes it doesn’t.  

Fun aside: The Autopian ran a Monaco piece with this headline: The Most Exciting Part Of The Monaco Grand Prix Might Be This Out-Of-Control Boat Hitting A Yacht On ‘Billionaire’s Row’

This weekend, IndyCar heads to the streets of Detroit, which is, umm, not Monaco. Hagerty will be there, of course, covering all the action. Be sure to follow us on social if you don’t already. And if last weekend’s racing smorgasbord has you filled-up with motorsports for the moment, don’t worry, we’ve been busy off the track, as well. Below you’ll find a short list of the latest from Hagerty Media. I hope you’ll give these pieces a look and also consider supporting us by joining the Hagerty Drivers Club.

• Aussies also run their vintage hot rods on the sand.
• Hostage Ferrari part successfully freed by Rob Siegel.
• There’s a new 911 and it’s a hybrid.
• Can a Hyundai beat a Lamborghini?
• I wish I could buy this sweet MR2 that’s for sale on Hagerty Marketplace.

Have a great weekend!

Larry

P.S.: Your feedback is very welcome. Comment below!

Please share this newsletter with your car-obsessed friends and encourage them to sign up for the free weekly email. The easy-to-complete form is here. And if you’d like to support the efforts of Hagerty Media, please consider joining the Hagerty Drivers Club.

The post Never Stop Driving #101: Penske, Again appeared first on Hagerty Media.

At his first overall victory in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, car owner Roger Penske confounded the highly-favored factory Porsches by snatching a win in his Chevrolet-powered Lola T70 Mk. 3B driven by Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons. That was in 1969, 55 years ago.

On a cool, sunny Sunday, this time with Penske leading the Porsche factory effort, Porsche Penske Motorsports won a second overall victory at Daytona over the Whelen Engineering Cadillac, which was leading until 45 minutes from the end, when a caution flag flew and the GTP cars peeled off to get enough fuel to finish the race. The #7 Penske Porsche 963 beat the #31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R back onto the track, and Felipe Nasr, driving the final stint in the Porsche, never looked back.

“I’ll tell you, this goes down as one of the biggest wins we’ve had,” said Penske, who turns 87 in February. “When you think about 1969, when we won here with a Lola, things were a lot different in those days. Just to see the competitiveness now, where six- or seven-tenths of a second was the difference after 24 hours of racing, it’s unbelievable.”

Roger Penske Racing won by 30 laps, something that will never happen again at the Rolex 24, given the current level of competition. Of course, this occurred in an era when a Chevrolet Camaro entered by Randy’s Auto Body could finish 12th overall.

Yesterday, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Acura ARX-06 finished third, breaking Acura’s three-race winning streak at Daytona. Porsche 963s finished fourth, fifth and sixth. It’s a far cry from 2023, when the top Porsche, also a Penske entry, finished 14th, 34 laps off the pace.

In LMP2, the Era Motorsports Oreca/Gibson took the win—more about that victory in a moment.

In GT Daytona Pro, the Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 beat out AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R for the win. And in GTD (unlike in GTD Pro, the driver lineup of each entry in this class must include amateur drivers), Winward Racing’s Mercedes AMG GT3 won out over AF Corsa’s Ferrari 296 GT3.

In other news from the track:

Takeaway #1: The ending was confusing

Fans and drivers both were confused with the race’s finish, which seemed to come at least a lap early. The NBC broadcast said there were two laps to go, but the white flag flew almost immediately, and it seemed that the GTP cars had already begun their final lap.

Felipe Nasr, who was driving the winning #7 Porsche Penske 963, said, “I was confused, too. I don’t know if there were two white flags. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I was just focused on each corner, each braking and just clearing traffic and making sure there was no mistakes and taking the car to the end.” That’s why Nasr didn’t really begin slowing until it was clear that it was obviously time. “Yeah, you’ve got to keep on the throttle until it’s over.”

We’ve asked IMSA for an explanation, and here it is: “Due to an officiating error in race control, IMSA inadvertently announced and subsequently displayed the white flag with under three minutes remaining in the race. At the end of the lap, the race-leading No. 7 GTP car then received the checkered flag with 1 minute, 35.277 seconds still remaining, ending the race short of the planned 24 hours by effectively one lap.” According to the rules, IMSA said, the race ends when the checkered flag is displayed,  thus completing the Rolex (not quite) 24.

Takeaway #2: We never saw a proper Mustang-Corvette fight

The highly anticipated Ford vs. Chevrolet battle in GTD Pro never really materialized which, in reality, should not be surprising. Even though they have tested extensively, the Ford Mustang GT3 and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R are brand-new cars, and there is something about the Rolex 24 to make even the most tested vehicles break. Or crash. The highest-finishing Mustang of three in the race came in sixth in class and 31st overall, in a 59-car field. The top Corvette finished fifth in class and 30th overall.

Both models were fast, and ran near the front in the early stages of the race. Both of the Pratt Miller Corvettes led for extended periods, but one suffered a cracked oil tank, and the other a power steering pump. The two AWA Corvettes were sidelined with a power steering issue in one car, an electrical problem in the other. One of the Mustangs was rear-ended by a Corvette, and repairs cost the car six laps.

Takeaway #3: Lexus had bad luck

It was an unlucky outing for the two Vasser Sullivan Lexus RCF GT3 cars, one (#14) running in the GTD Pro class, the other (#12) in GTD. That car sat on the pole and led for multiple stints until it was hit by another car, damaging the rear bumper. But the car persevered and made it to the final pit stop still in contention when, leaving the pits, it burst into flames. Driver Parker Thompson got out and grabbed a fire extinguisher from a corner worker and put the fire out.

As for the #14, which is the IMSA class champion, it was leading in the first hour of the race when an LMP2 car spun and collected the Lexus. The car was repaired by was 36 laps down when it rejoined the race. “We have championship drive and we’re not going to let this race deter us from going on to achieve great things this year,” said driver Ben Barnicoat. “We’re going to get our heads down and get ready for Sebring.”

In happier Lexus news, Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson told Hagerty that Lexus will have a brand-new GT3 car, likely for 2026.

Takeaway #4: The winning LMP2 car was driven by a 17-year-old bound for NASCAR

The Era Motorsports car that won the LMP2 class had some experienced sports car racers, including Ryan Dalziel, who won the race overall in 2010, and in LMP2 in 2021. But making his first start in the Rolex 24 was Connor Zilisch, believed by some to be the Next Big Thing in stock car racing. He becomes the second-youngest driver to score a win at the Rolex 24 at 17 years and 191 days old; he’s just behind Michael de Quesada, who won the GT Daytona class in 2007 at 17 years, 63 days old. Zilisch signed a contract for this season with NASCAR’s Trackhouse Racing, and his schedule includes races in the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series races, along with starts in ARCA, the zMAX CARS Tour, Mazda MX-5 Cup series and the SCCA Trans-Am TA2 series.

“It’s been a wild last few weeks for me, and I’m not going to let my head get big. I’ve still got to put in the work. I’m only 17,” he said. “I can’t even rent a car. Dad has to do that for me.”

Takeaway #5: Brad Pitt got some filming done for his racing movie

The planned filming of the Brad Pitt racing movie, which is possibly called Apex, reportedly went well, with Pitt spending some time behind pit wall of the #120 Chip Hart Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, which was being raced by Wright Motorsports in the GTD class, finishing seventh in GTD, and 26th overall. The car carried cameras, shooting footage that is expected to be in the movie. That car had a twin in the garage; the actual film stunt car carries the names of the fictional Sonny Hayes (Pitt’s character), C. Kelso, and Patrick Long, who does actually exist.

Long, a former Porsche factory driver, doubled for Pitt in some of the filming during practice sessions, which began more than a week before the Rolex 24 and is expected to conclude on Thursday. Pitt has been spotted around Daytona Beach, and, oddly, at a laundromat in New Smyrna Beach with co-star Javier Bardem.

Takeaway #6: Attendance hit a record high

IMSA, the sanctioning body for the WeatherTech Sports Car Racing Championship, is owned by NASCAR, and they stopped giving attendance figures in 2013. But IMSA president John Doonan said that not only was there a record turnout for the Rolex 24, but also for Friday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge race and the Roar Before the Rolex.

The series is undeniably healthy, with 18 manufacturers participating, compared to two for IndyCar, three for NASCAR, with no additional manufacturers for those two series in sight.

Takeaway #7: The four-hour support race was a nail-biter

Speaking of the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, the four-hour event was held Friday afternoon, with a 45-car field. The race was a nail-biter to the end, as several of the leaders were in danger of running out of fuel before the checkered flag. In the last 10 minutes, leader after leader peeled off the track to get a splash of fuel, and at the end, the Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS was the last car standing, winning with a two-second lead over the Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 car. Windward Racing, along with driver Daniel Morad, also won the GTD class in the Rolex 24 in a different Mercedes.

The Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup also squeezed in two races, won by Nate Cicero and Gresham Wagner. The aforementioned Connor Zilisch qualified his Miata on the pole for one of the races.

Takeaway #8: Where to catch the next action

The IMSA WeatherTech series is back in action with the second-longest race in its season, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway on March 16. At that race, Lamborghini will debut its new GTP car.

***

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.

The post 2024 Rolex 24 at Daytona: Penske Won, Brad Pitt Filmed a Movie, and 6 More Takeaways appeared first on Hagerty Media.

They say notable deaths come in threes, but the motorsports community suffered four over the long weekend, including one that rocked the IndyCar world.

Winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 500, Gil de Ferran, 56, died Friday from an apparent massive heart attack while driving with his son Luke at a private event at The Concours Club racetrack near Miami. On-scene medical personnel attempted to revive de Ferran, to no avail.

That 2003 Indy win came for car owner Roger Penske, who said in a statement: “We are terribly saddened to hear about the tragic passing of Gil de Ferran. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Angela, Anna, Luke and the entire de Ferran family. Gil defined class as a driver and as a gentleman. As an IndyCar champion and an Indianapolis 500 winner, Gil accomplished so much during his career, both on and off the track.”

He won the 2000 and 2001 IndyCar championships, also driving for Penske. In 2000, his qualifying speed of 241.428 mph for the race at the California Speedway oval in Fontana, California, set the closed-course record for fastest speed, which still stands.

He retired from IndyCar racing in 2003 but returned to competition as a team owner and driver at de Ferran Motorsports, racing for Acura in the LMP2 class with the American Le Mans Series in 2008. He retired again as a driver in 2009, returning to IndyCar as co-owner of de Ferran Dragon Racing, which folded in 2011.

Born in Brazil but living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, de Ferran was working for McLaren as a consultant when he died.

In NASCAR, three-time Cup champion Cale Yarborough died in a hospice in Florence, South Carolina, on Sunday. He was 84. Yarborough won three straight championships, in 1976, 1977, and 1978, driving for team owner Junior Johnson. He also won the Daytona 500 in 1968, 1977, 1983, and 1984. His final season came in 1988 as an owner-driver. He won 83 races in all.

Yarborough was involved in one of NASCAR’s most famous moments, at the 1979 Daytona 500. Racing for the win with Donnie Allison, the two cars collided on the back straightaway and their cars skidded into the infield. Both drivers left their cars and began fighting, soon joined by Allison’s brother Bobby, as television cameras rolled. It was the first time CBS had carried the entire Daytona 500, and ratings were huge, largely due to a snowstorm that socked in much of the Midwest and Northeast.

Yarborough, who also competed in the Indianapolis 500 and 24 Hours of Le Mans, was named to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011. “Cale Yarborough was one of the toughest competitors NASCAR has ever seen,” NASCAR chairman Jim France said in a statement. “His combination of talent, grit, and determination separated Cale from his peers, both on the track and in the record book. He was respected and admired by competitors and fans alike and was as comfortable behind the wheel of a tractor as he was behind the wheel of a stock car.”

In drag racing, Roland Leong, “The Hawaiian,” died Friday. The Honolulu native began his racing career back home in Hawaii as a successful driver, but he moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s to work for the famed Dragmaster shop building race cars. He built the Top Gas car that fellow Hawaiian Danny Ongais drove to victory in the 1964 NHRA Winternationals.

Leong moved to car ownership soon after, hiring a young Don Prudhomme to drive for him. They won the 1965 U.S. Nationals, launching Prudhomme’s career, and they remained close until Leong’s death. Leong continued to field Top Fuel and Funny Cars with various drivers as a car owner, tuner, and crew chief until the late 1990s. Leong’s cars were among the most popular on the circuit, especially the “Hawaiian Punch” Funny Car.

“I guess I always wanted a little brother,” Prudhomme once said. “He was just like me. All we cared about was drag racing and cars.” Leong was 79.

Finally, sprint car racing lost one of the winningest drivers when Rick Ferkel, “The Ohio Traveler,” passed away. Ferkel was one of the founding drivers in the World of Outlaws series, winning 21 WoO races. He finished second in the standings to Steve Kinser in the WoO’s first full season, in 1978.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Joshua Shaw (@jacobs_lader)

Constantly on the road during the height of his career searching for the highest-paying events, the driver of the number 0 sprinter often ran 75 races a year. His best season came in 1978, when he won 38 times. After Ferkel retired as a driver, he continued to field cars for up-and-coming racers. He was named to the Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1995.

Ferkel, 84, died at his home in Michigan on Monday.

***

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters. 

The post Four deaths in four days sadden the motorsports world appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Live coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans starts at 9 a.m. ET Saturday on MotorTrend TV.

You can’t wait that long? Then let us suggest you check out a fascinating documentary between now and then: Racing with Giants: Porsche at Le Mans, produced by Hagerty Media and Mobil 1, and narrated by former sports car racer, Le Mans podium finisher, and current actor Patrick Dempsey.

Racing with Giants is the perfect primer for the most important sports car race in the world, especially since this year marks the return of Porsche to the top-ranked Prototype class, where they will battle for the overall win.

Porsche has been active, and successful, in the production-based GT ranks, but this year, under the direction of former racer, team owner, and owner of the IndyCar series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Roger Penske. The 86-year-old billionaire has almost every win for his teams on his resume except the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and he’d love to add that trophy to his collection.

“From our own rich history in motorsport and our long-standing relationship with Porsche, this documentary truly celebrates the unique impact that racing has on the cars that we drive every day,” said Bryce Huschka, consumer marketing manager for Mobil 1. “For 100 years, Le Mans has uniquely captured the attention and imagination of fans. Thanks to them, our partners, and fellow car lovers, we couldn’t wait to bring this exceptional story to life.”

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Mobil 1 (@mobil1)

Racing with Giants features archival footage of Le Mans races past and present, along with interviews with multiple drivers and Porsche team principals, including Allan McNish, Patrick Long, Jacky Ickx, and Nick Tandy.

The documentary can be viewed for free on YouTube.

***

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.

The post Get ready for Le Mans 2023 with this documentary appeared first on Hagerty Media.

With 16 laps to go the Indy 500 turned into a crash fest. Three different accidents, which thankfully didn’t result in injuries, prompted officials to stop the race each time so the competition wouldn’t end with drivers casually cruising behind the pace car. No one wants to see a 500-mile battle finish with a whimper, but the result was a controversial one-lap sprint where Josef Newgarden swept into the lead and won.

There’s plenty of handwringing over the ending that you can read about here. What I loved about the finish was watching 86-year-old Roger Penske jump for joy as Newgarden crossed the line in first place. In that simple spontaneous gesture Penske, the owner of Newgarden’s car, illustrated the deep passion so many of us feel for cars, motorsports, and driving. If I make it to 86, I hope to have the gumption to feel similar enthusiasm.

The following day another Penske-owned car won NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with Ryan Blaney behind the wheel. Talk about a perfect weekend.

I’ve met Penske several times and from the first handshake, there’s no mystery about his success. He’s charismatic, as you’d expect of such an accomplished leader, but kind, too, with a generous sense of humor. A friend of mine used to regularly meet with Penske. When he’d enter Penske’s motorhome at a race, Penske would gesture toward a seat and invite him to the “chair of opportunity” with a smirk. I now use that saying with my kids who naturally roll their eyes.

Penske’s affectionally known as “The Captain.” He demands—and receives—excellence via respect, praise, and encouragement rather than by being a dictator. Most of his top executives have been with him for decades. He’s got an intense drive to win yet winning without integrity is unacceptable. Perhaps Penske’s positive karma explains how a wheel, that flew over Indy’s protective fence after a scary crash, somehow missed the spectators and instead hit a parked car. The track, which Penske owns, is giving the owner a new vehicle. That’s class. The world needs more Roger Penskes.

From a single dealership purchased in 1965, Penske’s built an empire that includes more than 150 U.S. dealerships and Penske Truck Leasing (a colossus in that space). Racing, which is known to destroy fortunes and not create them, has always been a fixture of Penske’s life. A terrific peek into how he runs his race teams is available from a book published in 1975 called The Unfair Advantage by Mark Donohue.

In a few weeks, Penske will again attempt to fill a rare hole in his trophy case: A win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We interviewed him about his plans to field a Porsche 963 last fall. This year’s race has the makings of an epic with not just Porsche but Ferrari, Cadillac, Peugeot, Toyota, and Glickenhaus all vying for the overall win. Yesterday, Hagerty Media’s first documentary, which chronicles Porsche’s record 19 Le Mans wins, premiered in New York City. Hagerty Drivers Club members got an early peek at the film, but it’s now available for free. Give it a watch and let me know what you think.

There’s been so much racing news lately, I haven’t covered the ongoing automotive transformation. Ford struck a deal to use Tesla’s supercharger EV charging network and will adopt the Tesla plug, which is known as the North American Charging Standard. This move is a tacit recognition that Tesla’s chargers are superior but also means that for the foreseeable future there will be two kinds of EV plugs, the Tesla one and the standard created by the Society of Automotive Engineers, SAE J1771. Adaptors are available but it’s feeling like VHS and Betamax all over again. Perhaps that’ll be worked out in time for this electrified Caterham sports car.

Uber, the ride hailing company that was developing its own autonomous vehicles until one killed a pedestrian in 2018, is now partnering with Google’s Waymo on robotaxis. This is surprising considering that years ago Waymo sued Uber for stealing proprietary technology and received a $245 million settlement. In other AV news, the Teamsters Union used a zoning appeal to halt Waymo’s expansion in San Francisco.

Finally, I was sorry to hear of Tina Turner’s passing. I was unaware, until we published this article, that she was a car enthusiast. “It may sound silly,” Turner wrote in her autobiography, “but one of my favorite escapes, and a secret pleasure, was driving my Jaguar. I loved it because it was something I could do by myself, one of the few times I could be alone and free.”

You spoke our language, Tina. Godspeed.

Hear from Larry every Friday by subscribing to this newsletter.

***

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it.

The post Never Stop Driving #52: Penske’s sweep appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There’s no way to pretty this up: our Sale of the Week is a pile of bits. Some are rusty, some bent, quite a lot missing, but oh, what a story they tell.

Bonhams sent out a “teaser” catalog for the 2022 Goodwood Revival auction to their mailing list, a pocket-sized summary of each lot next to a photo. The picture accompanying lot 390 immediately drew my attention: Bruce McLaren smiling out from a green Cooper-Zerex Special racing car, with four bulbous fenders just about clearing the wheels, in pole position in front of the Goodwood grandstands. This was surely going to be one of the stars of the sale.

But then, when I reached the auction tent on viewing last Friday, it took me a while to realize that the same car—or at least the skeleton of it—was the lot on show, balanced on a white plinth. Two corroded rear wheels remained stuck on the back hubs, most of a seized engine with rusty cam covers squatting just in front of them. The tubular chassis, bent and battered, ran along to the front hubs, the tiny right-hand gearshift still standing proud.

And yet this twisted hunk of junk has an amazing story. First built in 1961 as a Formula 1 single-seater powered by a four-cylinder Coventry Climax engine, it was crashed by Walt Hansgen at that year’s U.S. GP, but then was modified with full bodywork and driven by Roger Penske to great success, winning at Laguna Seca, Riverside, and in the Puerto Rican Grand Prix. Modified for 1963 with Penske again behind the wheel, it then triumphed in SCCA races at Marlboro and Cumberland before traveling to Great Britain where it won the prestigious Guards Trophy event at Brands Hatch.

In 1964, the car was acquired by one Bruce McLaren, who continued the winning streak at Silverstone and Aintree, before having the car modified to use a 3.5-liter Traco-modified Oldsmobile V-8. Wins continued to come, both in Toronto and back at Brands Hatch. At the end of the season, it was sold to Texan driver Dave Morgan before changing hands around 1968 to a South American buyer. The body was finally stripped and the car left derelict until it was returned to the U.K. this summer.

There was no estimate for this lot, the catalog stating “refer to department.” This meant that even the specialists at Bonhams who consigned it didn’t know how attractive it would be to buyers. They soon found out: The winning bid was (after premium) £911,000 ($1,033,000).

A massive price tag for a mangled collection of parts. But what history those parts hold. The car is not only a proven race winner on both sides of the Atlantic in the hands of two of the most well-known drivers of their era, but it also has another story to tell: This was the very first car to wear the famous “Bruce McLaren Racing Team” badge. That makes it the ancestor to the M7C that scored points in every race it finished, the cars that won all 12 F1 driver’s championships taken by McLaren, all the American open-wheel racing and Can-Am successes, and even the F1 road car. Quite a big deal, then. Oh, and it’s being sold in the U.K., which currently has the lowest exchange rate against the dollar since the 1980s.

This was a lot of money for a chassis, but I have no doubt that it will return, very soon, re-clothed in its original green body to the Goodwood grid. Now that, I can’t wait to see.

As for the rest of the Goodwood sale, held with the always wonderful Goodwood Revival as a backdrop, initial result put the sell-through rate at 67 percent with a few notable misses but also some truly impressive sales and surprises, including the ex-McLaren Cooper above. Several of the most significant, surprising and downright interesting cars are examined in detail on the pages below.

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark us.

Via Hagerty UK

The post $1M for a pile of rusty race-car parts? Not crazy, and here’s why appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The Captain himself, Roger Penske, is due to attend this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed where his motorsports success will be celebrated.

The theme for the festival is “The Maestros—Motorsports Greatest All-Rounders” and Penske certainly fits the bill. As a driver he was named Sports Illustrated’s SCCA Driver of the Year, competed in two Formula 1 Grands Prix, and took a NASCAR victory in 1963.

However, it was on the pit wall that Penske had his greatest success. Penske Racing was formed in 1966 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and quickly established itself as a force to be reckoned with. The team first won the Indy 500 in 1972 and went to take a further 17 victories. Penske scored its first NASCAR win in 1973 and has run teams in Formula 1, CART, ALMS and Australia’s V-8 Supercars. You can’t really get more “all-round” than that.

Demonstrating Penske’s racing versatility will be a host of the team’s most famous machines such as the four-wheel-drive Lola T52 that it raced in the 1969 Indy 500, the McLaren M16B which won the same race in 1972, and winners from 1994, 20087, and 2018 as well. Penske’s own Pontiac Catalina with which he took his solo NASCAR win will be there, alongside the 2008 Daytona 500 winning car. Two Formula 1 cars, including the 1976 PC4 which won the Australian Grand Prix in the hands of John Watson will also be on display.

Penske raced at the Goodwood circuit in 1963 behind the wheel of a Ferrari 250 GTP, but it will be in a Porsche that he takes to the stately home’s famous hillclimb. Penske will drive the 2008 Porsche RS Spyder which won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2008.

“I have wonderful memories of racing at Goodwood in 1963 and am honored to be invited to return this summer,” said Penske. “I am very much looking forward to sharing in the celebrations with Goodwood’s passionate fans as they return for the 2021 Festival of Speed.”

The Goodwood Festival of Speed takes place from July 8-11 and will be livestreamed on the Goodwood YouTube channel and social media.

The post Roger Penske to be honored at the Goodwood Festival of Speed appeared first on Hagerty Media.

This story originally ran in the July/August 2020 issue of the Hagerty Drivers Club print magazine. Check out the results from the 2020 Indy 500 here.

Just before the lockdowns and the mandatory masks and the daily death counts, Roger Penske recalled to a dinner crowd at this year’s Amelia Island weekend in early March the moment that Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George suggested that Penske buy the 111-year-old track from the Hulman-George family. “My eyes were spinning,” said Penske, whose father took Roger to his first Brickyard race in 1951. Since then, Penske Racing has won Indy 17 times, and now, at 83, he owns the place. Though hardly known for being sentimental, the stony-faced mogul admitted, “I hope Dad is looking down.”

Alas, a month later and with coronavirus on the march, Penske postponed the race until August 23. “If this thing isn’t over in five months,” he said, “we’ve got bigger problems.” Yeah, bigger problems.

I hear a lot of people say that America is damaged. I try to keep some perspective. Gettysburg was bad. The Dust Bowl was bad. Almost the entire year of 1968 was a disaster. By those measures, our times are not so tough. Penske can take some comfort that his speedway predecessors had to face their own crises while striving to preserve the institution. At least he doesn’t have to worry about German submarines.

The four founders of the speedway, James Allison, Carl Fisher, Arthur Newby, and Frank Wheeler, were in business just five years before Europe collapsed into war. Interest in racing steadily waned as the world’s attention went elsewhere. Planning for the 1917 Indy 500 faced obstacles ranging from a rancorous dispute with local hotels over price gouging to concern that the ships carrying the Fiat and Sunbeam teams from Europe might get torpedoed. Then speedway management abruptly called off the race two months before the event and a month before the U.S. entered the war.

Though other tracks stayed open, Allison cited “the fact that we will need all our resources in gasoline, oil, rubber, and particularly the best of the world’s motor drivers and mechanics for a more serious purpose.” The partners offered their now-idle 400 acres free to the War Department as an aircraft repair depot, and they donated the surrounding parking areas for the harvesting of victory wheat. Speedway stars like Eddie Rickenbacker and Caleb Bragg, “the former idols of speed-mad thousands,” as the papers called them, went off to war. A few, including French Grand Prix ace Georges Boillot, who went 125 mph in a Peugeot at Indy in 1914 and was last seen tangling with five German Fokkers over the Western Front, never came back.

The war dragged on. As the Indianapolis Star bemoaned in spring 1918, “ another Memorial Day of oppressive quiet and goading inactivity” passed without a race. As today, people had ample reasons to be despondent. A catalog of the daily carnage from the trenches filled the front pages. Other war-related horrors, such as the fate of the RMS Leinster, torpedoed in 1918 in the Irish Sea with more than 500 lost, many of them women and children, only rated inside coverage. As if to seal the mood, an Army plane from the speedway on a PR run to drop baseballs for the start of a local tournament crashed just behind second base, killing the pilot and canceling the game.

Lists of the war casualties began to include an ever-growing number who succumbed to the Spanish flu. In October 1918, it claimed a pillar of the Indy racing scene, “Happy” Johnny Aitken, who had been driving and managing since 1905. He was 33 when the pandemic cut him down, as well as his 29-year-old mechanic, Edward Covington. The news made it as far as the trenches, from which Indiana doughboys deluged the Star with letters of grief.

More than a century old, Indy has seen “bigger problems,” but it has always endured because its caretakers refused to let it die. Penske may not be sentimental, but he is stubborn. Better days are surely ahead.

The post The Indy 500 has always endured appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Following a reschedule from May 24 to August 23 and a reduction to 50 (and then to 25) percent attendance, those in charge of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have decided to hold the 104th running at the Brickyard without fans entirely.

Dedicated fans of the IndyCar series will remember Roger Penske’s declaration in early June: “It’s still almost three months from now and I think we’ll be OK. But we will run it only with fans.” In the same conversation, held with Racer, IMS’ owner said that even if the Greatest Spectacle in Racing had to be delayed again, until September, the doors would remain open. Unfortunately, COVID-19 cases have spiked in Marion County, Indiana, since June 26, and, following “extensive consultation with state and city leadership,” IMS decided to keep the August race date and close the doors.

It’s the first time the Indy 500 has run without spectators, but, as 2020 has proven, a global pandemic is no respecter of precedence. The no-fans policy extends to race day and to all practice and qualifying sessions. Those who have already purchased tickets, however, will have those stubs credited towards next year’s event (held May 30, 2021) and will retain their seat selections.

“Penske Corporation made a long-term investment to be the steward of this legendary facility. While we were very excited to showcase the investments and enhancements we have made in the guest experience, we know we have reached the right decision,” the IMS release reads. “As much as Roger Penske and everyone associated with the 500 wanted to race with fans this year, we ultimately reached this conclusion in partnership with the state of Indiana and city of Indianapolis.

“Our commitment to the Speedway is unwavering and we will continue to invest in the Racing Capital of the World.”

So grab some Doritos and get comfy on your couch for the 2020 Indy 500. The first practice session starts Wednesday, August 12, and you can catch everything up to and including the race itself, which starts at 1 p.m. ET, on NBC.

The post No fans allowed at 2020 Indy 500, set for August 23 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Roger Penske has told Racer that the 2020 Indy 500 will race with fans in the stands — no matter what. This news comes on the heels of a recent announcement that the upcoming Indy/NASCAR doubleheader on July 4-5 will be a racer’s only event. That was a necessary precaution during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to protect the opportunity to run the 500 but was still not what fans wanted to hear after sitting idle during this hiatus in motorsports. “We’re on for fans in August and planning on it and we feel good,” Penske told Racer on Sunday, adding that even if the event needs to be delayed until October, they’ll run it with the doors open. “It’s still almost three months from now and I think we’ll be OK. But we will run it only with fans.”

Last Fall, the famed driver, engineer, and team owner bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), along with the IndyCar series itself. Penske is no stranger to operating a series, either — he helped create the International Race of Champions (IROC) series as well. His ownership of IMS has come with major improvements to the track’s facilities at rapid pace according to Racer, pouring new parking lots, updating restrooms and concession stands, widening roads, and installing new video boards. Within the stress and distress of 2020, the refreshed track and a welcome return of spectators is sure to bring a unique and unbeatable atmosphere to this year’s Indy 500.

The post Roger Penske on this year’s Indy 500: “Trust me, we are going to run it with fans” appeared first on Hagerty Media.