| "What
you will find in this extremely well written and illustrated book is a
fascinating and often inside look at the saga of racing, racing
business, team building and fascinating people. Buy it, read it, share
it with your non-racing friends!"
VICTORY LANE Magazine, September 2007
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Hardcover 272 pages Over 200 Color and B/W Photographs Foreword by Tom Sneva, two-time USAC National Champion and winner of the 1983 Indianapolis 500. |
From its modest beginnings behind a Philadelphia-area watchmaker’s shop some 40 years ago, the Penske Racing Team, more than any other organization, has influenced the development, growth and direction of auto racing in the United States as both a sport and a business. Led by former race driver turned ‘Fortune 500’ business mogul Roger Penske, this team has won more than 250 major auto races around the world and captured 20 national championships, including 12 Indy-Car titles. Penske has produced and showcased many of racing’s superstars over the last two generations. His drivers have won the Indianapolis 500 fourteen times, nearly triple the number of victories attributed to any other team in the history of the world’s greatest race. And they have enjoyed success in all forms of racing—Indy-Cars, sports cars, Formula-1, endurance racing and NASCAR. By any credible definition of the term, Penske Racing is an American sports dynasty. As they celebrated their 40th season of competition in 2006, this team remained the standard of excellence against which all challengers are measured and judged. Despite this unparalleled record of success, there has never before been a book devoted to the accomplishments of this extraordinary team. Penske Racing: 40 Years of Excellence documents the fascinating history of this unique organization, focusing on the talented drivers and innovative engineering that have been responsible for the team’s spectacular and enduring success. It also highlights the key events that have defined American motorsports during this timeframe; including the rise and fall of U.S. sports car racing in the 1960s and 1970s; the politics of the USAC-CART split in the late 1970s; the CART-IRL battle that unfolded 20 years later; and the phenomenal transformation of NASCAR from its moonshine roots into the mainstream commercial phenomenon that it is today. Because of the broad scope of the Penske team’s participation in the sport throughout its history, there is something of interest in this story for every American racing fan. |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alan Hummel grew up near Media, Pennsylvania, within a few miles of Penske Racing’s original shop in the Philadelphia suburb of Newtown Square. His father had a 42-year career with the Sun Oil Company, Roger Penske’s primary financial backer during the team’s formative years of the late 1960’s and early ‘70s. Because of these associations, Alan and his dad became devoted fans just after the Penske team was launched. They attended their first race in 1969, and within a couple of years, were traveling up and down the east coast to six or eight events each season as Penske and Mark Donohue competed in the Trans-Am, Can-Am, Indy-cars, NASCAR, endurance racing and Formula-1. Alan was present for Penske Racing’s very first Indy-Car victory, the 1971 Pocono 500, and has attended 35 Indianapolis 500s, including all but the first of the team’s record 15 wins at the Brickyard. Alan now resides near Pensacola Florida with his wife Diana and their children, Mark and Michelle. He spends most of his free time acting as team manager and crew chief for Michelle’s budding kart racing career. |
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