[h=2]EXCERPT: BEAST - The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Engine that Shocked the Racing World at the Indy 500[/h] Thursday, 08 May 2014




Penske’s development of the PC23B, powered by the mighty 209 cu.in. Ilmor-built Mercedes-Benz pushrod engine, was shrouded in the same secrecy as Lockheed’s creation of the A-12, which would evolve into the peerless SR-71 Blackbird. If, in 1994, Roger Penske briefly became Indy car racing’s equivalent of Kelly Johnson, so he was rewarded in similar fashion with a weapon that flew much faster than the enemy and remained far out of range.
In “BEAST”, author Jade Gurss has shone a light into the shadows of the Skunk Works-style operation from which emerged one of the greatest ever Indy cars. He’s spoken to everyone who played a part in the Penske PC23B’s one-race history, and has then threaded their anecdotes into a narrative that flows entertainingly and memorably.
In an era when spec cars and reduced funding have evicted most of the technical innovation from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this book is a nostalgic reminder of a time when a top-class team was allowed to win races with more than just slick pit work and fast drivers. Gurss is not only recalling but also celebrating Team Penske’s inspiration, preparation, inventiveness…and staggering ability to keep a secret.
And so RACER is thrilled to present you with an edited excerpt from BEAST by Jade Gurss. This chapter covers the most unlikely first test of the car – on an oval, in snow! We’re sure you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.
David Malsher, RACER editor.

[h=2]CHAPTER 18: THE FIRST TEST[/h] Most mornings, Guy Oder was the first to hit the road in his 1984 Honda Civic station wagon, a vehicle named the “Fish Bowl GT” because of its many large windows. From the Penske Racing shop in Reading, PA, Oder would take U.S. Highway 222 north toward Allentown. It was a two-lane highway frequently slowed in the early morning darkness by Amish horses and buggies or a farmer driving his tractor. What slowed Oder most often in 1994 were massive amounts of snow.
“If there were more than four inches of snow on the ground, my car would high-center and I would get stuck in the middle of the road,” said Oder, who had led Penske’s test team since 1990.
After Oder slushed past Allentown, it was a short jaunt on Pennsylvania Route 248, where the sixty-mile journey concluded at Nazareth Speedway, a small, oddly shaped oval track owned by Penske. The speedway featured a dogleg on the front stretch and mismatched turns at each end of the track. Most claim it is a one-mile oval, but officially it’s 0.91 mile in length (a distinction that becomes more important over the course of hundreds of laps). It was here, in the midst of a winter wonderland, that the pushrod engine (called the “E” in team shorthand) and the new Indy-only version of the PC23 chassis from Penske Cars would be run for the first time.
The secret engine project had been hidden from all but a handful of people at Penske Racing. After the parts and pieces were designed and manufactured by Ilmor in England, they were shipped to Reading, where the engines were being assembled and prepared in a small, nondescript garage several blocks away from the race shop to avoid detection. The space was so small and dark, they jokingly called it the Taj Mahal.
Oder remembered being informed of the top-secret engine.
“Clive [Howell] said, ‘Guy, come with me, we need to have a talk.’ He led me toward his office. I’m thinking, ‘God only knows what this is about!’ because there’s always some kind of drama. We passed the door to his office and went down an aisle that leads out of the building. I’m thinking, ‘This is interesting. Maybe we’re going over to the truck-leasing office?’ We walked into a grassy area and he turned to me and said, ‘The walls have ears . . . and you’re privy to this.’ As we went forward, anytime anybody new was brought into the loop, they were taken into his office and threatened with dismissal or bloodletting if anything got out!”
Though certain members of the race team would join the test squad occasionally, the responsibilities fell to Oder and his small band of four other men to run the tests.
The first test date was set irrevocably for Sunday, February 20, and as the day approached, team manager Chuck Sprague created a detailed handwritten note with drawings that was sent to the staff of the speedway. It explained exactly how to clear the track and pit lane. There were several feet of snow on the ground, and the snow-removal process meant walls of snow ten feet high on both sides of the asphalt.
TOP The Penske PC23B exploited to perfection the USAC rules governing the Indy 500 at the time.
BELOW The mighty 209 cu.in. Ilmor-built Mercedes 500I was only eight pounds heavier than the standard Ilmor used at all other Indy car races that year. Dan Boyd photos

Penske and his management team decided that the team’s newest driver would conduct the first test.
The 1993 season had been a good one for Marlboro Team Penske and drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy. Though they lost the CART championship to the “rookie” Nigel Mansell, Tracy tied Mansell with five victories, while Fittipaldi was second in the points with three wins, including the Indy 500. Tracy finished third in the final standings in his first full year in Indy cars. They were a good pairing, the experienced Fittipaldi alongside the wide-open Tracy.