Roger Penske reunited with his lost 1958 trophy

Mike Teske
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emailBy Mark Glendenning | June 3, 2023 6:30 PM ET

As a team owner, Roger Penske left the Indianapolis 500 with a claim to a special piece of silverware: his 19th Baby Borg. But as a driver, he didn’t fly out of Indianapolis empty-handed either. In this case though, it was a trophy he’d won 65 years earlier.

Penske the driver first got his feet wet in amateur road races, but in 1958 he decided to up the stakes and acquire a used Porsche RS for SCCA events. The payoff was immediate – he won the 1500cc class in the SCCA National at Marlboro Raceway in Maryland – and he received an elegant silver cup for his efforts.

He continued to have success in sports cars for the next few years, including wins at the Riverside California Grand Prix and the Pacific Grand Prix in 1962, and the Nassau Tourist Trophy in 1964. But in 1965 he hung up his helmet to focus on his rapidly expanding business interests, and over the years that followed, that first trophy from 1958 became lost.

Fast-forward several decades, and Tennessean motorsports history enthusiast Mike Teske was browsing through an antique shop in central California’s San Joaquin Valley when something caught his eye.
The original Penske victory hardware, once lost, now found. Mike Teske

“I actually have a couple of NASCARs and I was searching for trophies, and I found a couple that were for cars that I had,” Teske told RACER. “So I’ve always kept an eye out for them, and when I saw this one… I didn’t even really know about Marlboro Raceway, so it piqued my interest. The guy in the antique store didn’t know what it was, so I had to do a little research.”

Research is Teske’s forte: he’s one of the world’s top authorities on the Ford GT40. But it still took some digging and cross-referencing for him to work out that he’d acquired the trophy from Penske’s 1958 win. Having established that, Teske decided to return the trophy to its original owner: a mission that took some time (“Roger Penske’s not an easy guy to get in touch with,” he said) but which finally came to pass this year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the eve of the 500.

“Honestly, I have to believe it has been decades since I last saw that trophy,” Penske told RACER. “What a terrific surprise from Mike Teske while we were in Indianapolis. On top of Josef’s win in the 500, it made it a special week.”

The circumstances that led to the trophy falling out of Penske’s possession and making its way across the country to an antique store in California’s agricultural heartland have been lost to the mists of time.

“Since my driving days we have moved shops a few times, from Newtown Square, PA to Reading, PA to Mooresville, NC,” Penske said. “It is likely not the only thing that got misplaced in those moves. Very happy to have it back.

“It brought back some great memories of my driving days. We had a lot of fun and I’m proud of our success in those days. It is amazing that Mike was able to find it and give it back to me. I greatly appreciate it.”

For Teske, whose own house is a self-described “mini-museum” of GT40-related artifacts, there was almost as much pleasure in seeing the trophy return “home.”

“Roger’s done a lot, so to see his eyes light up was special” he said. “He said, ‘I like everything nice and bright and shiny’ – which this is not; it has aged – ‘and I’m going to get this cleaned up and I’m going to put it in my office in Detroit.’

“I think it’s hard to impress him with all he’s gone through and achieved in life, so it was very special for me to be able to give it to him.”

 

When Car Racing Was Cool 1970 Trans Am at Watkins Glen

Youtube cranks the sound down so you will pay for premium services.


Dale's Hot Rod Shop
1.23K subscribers
623 views 6 months ago
When car racing was cool, the big boys raced in big cars. In this video, we take a look at some of the most popular car racing series from the 1970s.
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The Trans-Am Championship (1970) | Full Documentary Archive Footage

Choppertown
133K subscribers
12K views 1 year ago #Ford #Choppertown
The 1970 Trans-Am Championship was the fifth series in SCCA's sports car racing championship, founded in 1966 by President John Bishop. Better sound on this one...
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Team Penske, A.J. Foyt Racing form technical alliance

Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | August 22, 2023 5:08 PM ET

Team Penske and A.J. Foyt Racing have forged a new technical alliance that should benefit both NTT IndyCar Series teams in the short- and long-term.

On the more immediate front, the two-car Foyt team is making use of dampers and technical support provided by Team Penske during the final races of the season, but the arrangement goes much deeper than go-fast parts and assistance with chassis builds and setups.

The relationship, which will expand in the coming years, will see Penske place younger crew and engineering staff within the Foyt team to gain IndyCar experience, and in time, when some of Penske’s Force Indy drivers are ready to graduate from Indy NXT, the Foyt team will be ready and capable of running a development driver on Penske’s behalf in IndyCar.

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“We had seen those relationships happen in IndyCar whether it was Shank and Andretti, or we obviously have our relationship similar to that concept in NASCAR with the Wood Brothers,” Team Penske president Tim Cindric told RACER. “And we’ve used it as a training ground for people, whether it’s drivers or crew or engineers or whatever else, as long as we can control the IP or kind of have some direction on where it all goes, but still have a good relationship.”

The concept of a Penske-Foyt alliance was established by former Foyt leader Scott Harner in 2022, but with his departure for Andretti Autosport, the topic was parked until a recent outreach was made by Larry Foyt.

“I’ve known Larry and A.J. Foyt forever,” Cindric said. “And just before Iowa, Larry called me up and said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you’ve open to revisiting it, but would you be interested in trying to try to help us in some way and maybe working together in a way that you and Scott had talked about?’

“I said, ‘I’m glad you called because, I’ve been thinking about something like this, and maybe not this year or next year, but at some point in time, if we’re helping guys like Myles Rowe, as an example, who we’re helping to come up the ladder system, and if they win the Indy NXT championship, what are we going to do with them?’”
While the Foyt team will welcome Penske’s technical support, Penske will benefit from being able to place young crew members, engineers and possibly even drivers at Foyt to gain experience. Michael L. Levitt/Motorsport Imagesz

Penske’s approach to hiring IndyCar talent tends to involve the signing of proven veterans, rather than young rookies fresh off the open-wheel ladder. And with the likes of Rowe and Ernie Francis Jr, who are supported by Penske through his Force Indy program, the need to establish a satellite IndyCar operation where a talent like Rowe and the personnel who would learn to work in IndyCar with an affiliate team​, stood out to Cindric as a worthwhile bridge to build.

“We’re not really the team to put a rookie into one of our cars right away, but you want to have some connection to them,” he said. “So if I’ve got two or three engineers that are ready to be race engineers, I don’t want to lose them to our competitors, but they’ve got to grow too, so this would be an opportunity for that to happen with Foyt. And then even some of these kids that are part of the Force Indy program that are looking to move up from NXT, we may or may not have a spot for them, so how do we keep them in the fold?

“And if Myles or Ernie or somebody else we’re invested in becomes ready for IndyCar and the financing is right, we like the idea of being able to work with a Foyt team we’re​ already involved in, so it made more and more sense to look at something like this​ where we can place good people with them.

​”I told Larry, ‘Why don’t we try and help you the best we can, and we don’t have to do a big formal thing. Short-term, let’s keep working on this and build it out to where it benefits both organizations.’ So in the last few weeks, we’ve started helping those guys and we’ll continue mapping this thing out for where it will go down the road.”

Through the link to Penske, the Foyt team has a newfound attraction that should draw interest from a wider range of drivers and commercial partners. RACER has already heard about the Penske-Foyt alliance from a number of quality drivers who’ve expressed a desire to join the Foyt team as a result of Penske’s involvement.

“We think it’ll help them attract the right people, the right sponsors, and the right drivers, and we feel we’ll be able to get some benefit from it on our end,” Cindric said.

“It’s already evolved to where I think we have a really good understanding of how it will continue to develop.”

 

Four hands on the Wheel restored documentary Mark Donohue and Roger Penske campaign the Lola T70

CAR FILMS
1.4K subscribers
31K views 1 year ago

Mark Neary Donohue Jr. (March 18, 1937 – August 19, 1975), nicknamed "Captain Nice,"[1][2] and later "Dark Monohue,"[2] was an American race car driver and engineer known for his ability to set up his own race car as well as driving it to victories.[3][4][5][6] …

 

IndyCar team owner group unites, takes concerns to Penske Entertainment

Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | March 9, 2024 9:27 AM ET

Roger Penske has faced the first big test of his leadership within the NTT IndyCar Series.

Citing their shared frustrations, a powerful faction of IndyCar team owners banded together in February to discuss their issues with the series Penske purchased entering the 2020 season under the Penske Entertainment banner.

It was the first privately organized meeting of its kind by IndyCar team owners in decades, and spanned a wide array of grievances, including the overall direction of the series, escalating costs to compete as IndyCar heads towards hybridization, and the steep year-to-year rise in administrative and operational prices charged by Penske Entertainment.

Originally scheduled for 30 minutes, the Feb. 8 call prepared through Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing lasted 90 minutes and included Andretti Global, Arrow McLaren, Chip Ganassi Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing and Meyer Shank Racing, according to four teams who confirmed their participation to RACER.

A.J. Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing and Team Penske were not included in the meeting.

With the six teams’ complaints aired behind closed doors, which included raising the question of whether Liberty Media would be interested in buying the series, the team owners left the call with the intent to engage Penske Entertainment on their unified issues.

A summation of the meeting was written and the owners decided how Penske, whose wrath is easily drawn, should be approached in a manner that would be non-confrontational. Despite Penske being unaware most of IndyCar’s team owners had banded together out of concern and care for a series where all have made heavy investments, it was hoped he would receive the owners’ outreach in a positive manner.

Twenty days later on Feb. 28, a call by the group, which was expanded to represent all of the 10 full-time teams, was held with Penske and other members of his executive leadership, including Bud Denker and Mark Miles.

“It was expressing thoughts, expressing concerns,” Rahal told RACER. “To me, everybody walked away feeling good about the meeting. It was not at all contentious.”

Asked to share their views of the conference call with Penske, multiple team owners echoed Rahal’s sentiments and characterized the call as one where a new bridge was built with Penske Entertainment where their issues with the series and willingness to be a part of finding solutions to those problems were well received.

Another important development in the call came in how it ended, with Penske Entertainment expressing a shared desire to hold more talks with the owners and develop a closer working relationship. Rather than schedule all future meetings with the entire group, a decision was made to define a smaller group of owners — representing the various sizes and economic statures — in the series and have those leaders speak for all teams in follow-up calls.

“We had a really positive meeting,” Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told RACER. “We shared several ongoing efforts to grow the series and also some important plans for the future. There was a lot of alignment and helpful dialogue. We agreed to keep talking on a regular basis moving forward.”

RACER understands Andretti Global team owner Michael Andretti and his partner Dan Towriss were not on the Feb. 28 call and were represented by COO Rob Edwards.

Andretti spoke with the media on Friday at St. Petersburg and offered some bold takes on Penske’s leadership, which included a suggestion Penske should sell the series if he’s unwilling to make sizable investments to realize its full potential. For the owners’ group, the comments come at an inopportune time.

With the others wanting to maintain a peaceful accord with Penske, multiple team owners told RACER on Friday night that they hope the public criticisms from Andretti do not burn the newly-built bridge with Penske. Although some said they share Andretti’s sentiments, a wider concern was held over the potential damage they might have caused.

 

I will be the proudest guy in the stands...

Roger Penske Speaks on Indy 500 Qualifying Violations & Team Penske Employee Dismissals | EXCLUSIVE.

When those planes fly over I will be the proudest guy in the stands...

INDYCAR On FOX
178K subscribers

May 21, 2025 #INDYCARonFOX #INDYCAR #indy500

EXCLUSIVE: Roger Penske, Chairman of Penske Corp, sits down with Jamie Little to address the Indy 500 qualifying rules violations that led to the dismissal of three Team Penske employees.

 

Cindric explains Penske Indy qualifying infractions
and then gets fired.....

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9460302

 

Paul Hurley/IMS Photo

By Marshall Pruett - Jun 2, 2025, 5:01 PM EDT

In other news, Ferrucci penalized after Detroit; keeps second place

and a set of lead bull testicles attached to the back of his car.(UPDATED)

"if there is no rule, then it ain't cheating.".

For the second race in a row, If we count the battery car Indy 500 as a race.... illegalities have been found via the IndyCar Series’ technical inspection process. The latest to run afoul of post-race tech is AJ Foyt Racing with the No. 14 Chevy driven to a career-best second-place in Detroit on Sunday by Santino (FU) Ferrucci.

Unlike the post-race penalties at the Indianapolis 500 where Kyle Kirkwood, Marcus Ericsson, and Callum Ilott were moved to the bottom of the results, Ferrucci will retain his position.

“The No. 14 will be allowed to keep the second-place finish; however, the entry has been fined $25,000 and will forfeit 25 championship driver and entrant points,” the series wrote. “The bonus point for leading a lap also is not awarded. The No. 14 also is ineligible for engine points and prize money associated with the race.

“During post-race inspection of car No. 14, IndyCar discovered the driver ballast needed to bring the combined weight of the driver and driver ballast to 185 pounds was underweight and not within the driver ballast weight tolerance of 0.00 to + 1.00 pounds.

“However, also during inspection, the series found the weight of car No. 14 itself was 10 pounds over the minimum weight for road and street circuits of 1,785 pounds and competed over the minimum weight requirement on-track.

“A.J. Foyt Enterprises was in violation of: Rule 14.4.2. Driver Equivalency Weight. Rule 14.4.2.2. Driver Equivalency Weight must bring the combined weight of the Driver and Driver ballast to 185 pounds. Rule 14.4.2.5. The Driver ballast weight tolerance is 0.00 to + 1.00 pounds. The Driver Equivalency Weight must be installed and secured in the designed location forward of the seatback. This location may only be used for Driver ballast and not for storing small empty nitrous bottles or extra batteries.

“This rule is in place to equalize the weight of varying-sized drivers so there is no advantage based on the weight of the driver. Post-race weight determination, as implemented by INDYCAR, is a common practice after every event and in nearly all forms of motorsports to ensure an equal playing field.”

Known colloquially as the 'Danica Patrick Rule', IndyCar changed its minimum weight regulations after the diminutive driver arrived in the series in the mid-2000s when no policies were in place to balance the differing weights between drivers. It allowed teams with lighter drivers to compete with cars than ran at a lower weight, which provided a performance advantage that penalized heavier drivers.

In response, the driver weight equivalency rules were written to mandate that an entry with a smaller, lighter driver with big boobs would be required to add equivalency ballast, which took the combined vehicle and driver weight into account, and for heavier drivers, little to no ballast might be required. IndyCar requires drivers, in full driving gear, to present themselves within 15 minutes of the end of each event's first practice session to be weighed; a driver could lose or gain weight between races, and the process delivers each entry the exact driver ballast weight figure to install, although lead jock straps and small NOS bottles have been found in nearby trash cans during the allowed 15 minutes.

In the case of Ferrucci, who rates among the smallest and lightest IndyCar drivers, the violation is centered on an insufficient amount of driver ballast being affixed in the required location, and not the running of the car below the minimum permissible weight. As presented by IndyCar, which noted the No. 14 car was 10 pounds over the minimum weight, the violation appears to be of a procedural nature
and attention was brought by spectators leaning against the fence shaking their fists and chanting: "No balls, no balls, F.U.". When it was noticed that F.U. had removed his testicles and accidentally
stored them in another part of the car. F.U. argued that if he wanted to hang over-sized lead bull testicles on the back of his car that he should be allowed to.and "if there is no rule, then it ain't cheating.".

The loss of second-place points demotes Ferrucci from 10th in the Drivers’ championship to 14th.

"We acknowledge and accept the penalty issued for being 1.8 lbs. under the required driver ballast weight," read a statement issued by the team which F.U. refused to sign.

"This was an unintentional oversight, and we take full responsibility for the mistake. Our car was, in fact, 10 lbs. over the minimum total weight, and the discrepancy in ballast was not intended to gain a competitive advantage.

"However, we recognize that compliance with every rule is critical to ensuring fairness in this sport, no matter how minor the deviation may seem. We are working closely with our technical team to strengthen our processes and ensure this does not happen again.

"We’re grateful for the passion and integrity of IndyCar, and while this situation is disappointing, we respect the rules that keep our competition honest and safe. Most importantly, we remain committed to racing the right way — for our fans, our partners, and our sport..........BS!."

 

Tying some racing history together

Tying some racing history togetherTying some racing history together
See last post in thread:
See it before it goes away.
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Inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame*********************

NASCAR Hall of Fame Tour 2013************************


NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum Tour... Charlotte, NC

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9441920

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Abandoned tracks in Florida area and other places (updated)
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...s-fl-area.html

Bonneville History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...e-history.html

Daytona History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...a-history.html

Drag Racing History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/dr...ml#post9366328

This link has some historic drag racing pics.

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/dr...pics-ever.html


Local historic drag racing track Twin City Oldsmar

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...florida-4.html


Indianapolis History

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9373490

24 Hours of Lemans history

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...s-history.html


Lemans

Lime Rock Park history

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/au...rock-park.html


Pikes Peak racing history
Is Pikes Peak a road Race?

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9362624

History of Race Cars

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9370578

Road Racing History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/g...g-history.html

Sebring history

The way to part 2 "A brief History of Sebring Raceway" is here:
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/g...-40-posts.html
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This was the original brief history of Sebring part 1
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/general-car-chat/816701-sebring-raceway-brief-history-part-1-has-now-exceeded-40-posts-115-posts.html
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A bit of stock car racing history

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9362625

There are Old School Stock Car Pictures here:
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/e...-pictures.html

Tying some Tampa Racing history together with links: Tampa International Raceway (Fair Grounds)

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...l-raceway.html