![]() With the RS Porsche (and, later in the season, an RSK bought from Bernie Viehl) the 1959 season was a fair-to-middlin' year for Penske. Roger had really come out of "retirement." In two events Windridge's superior horsepower enabled him to beat Penske to the flag, but in both races his only real competition came from the little Porsche with its novice driver. In particular, he found ex-teacher Fred Windridge, who was now ensconced in a black Lister-Corvette. The event was a local affair, or about as local as any event at the popular circuit can be, but in it Penske again faced most of the competition he had started with some seven months before. When an opportunity came to buy Bob Holbert's Porsche RS he snapped it up and then reappeared at Malboro. He couldn't make the retirement stick and after 3 months was ready to have at it again. But, actually, I drove only a couple of races with the Corvette before I sold it."įour months after he took his schooling at Marlboro, he not only sold the Corvette but, briefly, retired to finish college, get married and get a job. If you intend to drive fast cars don't start with a slow one! It's a good way to pick up bad habits. I think it's rather pointless to start with an MG, move up to a Healey, then a Jag, say. "Why did I start with a Corvette? Well, the way I look at it, if you want to learn how to drive fast, start with a fast car. ![]() In his den, Penske and I spent a winter's afternoon discussing his attitude toward racing. Penske, his wife Lissa, and their young son Roger, Jr., now live in the small town of Gladwyne, Pa., which is located slightly northwest of Philadelphia. Immediately after his twenty first birthday he joined the SCCA, and the Marlboro Drivers School soon followed. It was here that he met Ben Moore, who ultimately convinced him that the 1957 Corvette should be his next car. That was racing on dirt track ovals, which was not only fun but a good way to get a lot of experience fast."īy now Penske had moved up to a XK-120-M and was well on his way through Lehigh University. Then I joined the Ohio Valley Sports Car Club and the Left Turn Club. I got my first trophy with it in a field trial. ![]() Next was another MG, this time a TC which I ran in a hill climb-I was beaten, badly! Then I rebuilt and souped up a 120 Jaguar. ![]() "Let's see, first was the TD, then a couple of American cars, and some drag racing. This left him with some broken ribs, a fractured leg, a slight concussion, and minus a motorcycle.īut fate being what it is, the accident led to a part-time job in a garage and an enviable succession of used cars. After several street TTs, he and the motorcycle parted company rather abruptly-on the way to school one day, at an undisclosed rate of speed, he met a car. In junior high he had a motor bike, which was soon displaced by a 500-cc Norton motorcycle when he reached high school. Penske was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Cleveland's answer to Beverly Hills or Westchester. How did Penske do it? It began something like this: At 25 that isn't easy-especially when you have also gotten married, finished college and are holding down a responsible job in industry. In four short years, then, Penske has risen from virtual obscurity to national prominence in the tight little competitive world of racing. Closing the season at Nassau, he came in second behind Dan Gurney and won additional honors for being named "U.S. And, facing Europe's best in three of the North American Racing Season events, he consistently placed ahead of his amateur compatriots, with the exception of Jim Hall at the Riverside race. In 1961 he captured his second SCCA National Point Championship in a row. Today Penske needs no introduction to those who follow sports car racing in America-his ability is a matter of record. For 13 laps of the 20-lap event he tailed the leading Windridge-driven Corvette, only to be forced into the pits with over-heating. Three weeks later Penske returned to Marlboro for the National races and, in the fourth event of the day, proceeded to put his schooling to good use. "He was a good driver," Thompson said recently, "but the only other thing I remember about him is that he came to the school with fabric brakes on the Corvette and I got him to switch to the metal type." Despite this lack of a lasting impression, Penske and Bob Davis, now a top mechanic, graduated from the school with the two competition licenses given out at that session. Penske drew as his instructors Dick Thompson, Bark Henry and Fred Windridge. A tall, dark-haired, intense young man, he chose to take his instruction in a hot fuel-injected Corvette. The name on his brand new SCCA membership card was Roger Penske. HE TURNED TURNED UP at the Drivers School at Marlboro, Md., in the early spring of 1958. ![]()
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