Roger was aware of the advertising work our in-house agency, Pfanner Communications, had done for the No Fear apparel company and he liked RACER's recent CART PPG Indy Car World Series Fan Guide. So, at the end of the conversation he asked if we would be interested in helping Penske Motorsports launch the new speedway in our home market. Naturally, I was intrigued and agreed to meet the new track's president, Roger's son, Greg Penske and the track's young marketing director, Bill Miller at the building site for the new California Speedway.


The meeting soon took place in a maze of construction trailers placed in a dusty corner of a vast area of frantic building activity. Greg was brimming with energy and intention and introduced me to Rich Peters, the president of Penske Motorsports, Inc. and young Bill Miller, the track's first marketing director.
Greg Penske, like his father, was and is a force of nature and I quickly learned that he viewed almost everything through the eyes of the customer. Creating high expectations and great experiences for California Speedway's "guests" was the central focus of almost everything we worked on together.
Peters struck me as stunningly bright and creative. He was the investment banker who'd helped build the Penske empire and he possessed an uncanny ability to find the optimum commercial proposition in just about anything we discussed but also had remarkable instincts about balancing a transaction from a buyer's and seller's point of view.
Miller had been with Penske for some time, having started his racing career at Michigan Speedway. Bill and his young #2, Craig Rust, along with promotions manager Kelly Clancy and PR director Jay Lucas, who came from the L.A. Dodgers, would soon become close collaborators and friends. This great team was intent on upping racing's game in one of America's toughest markets and it was truly exciting being part of something so big and so challenging.
As I was leaving that first meeting, I stopped by the office of someone I'd know since the dawn of my days working in racing. That someone was the late Les Richter, a legendary ex-L.A. Rams player who had run Riverside International Raceway during its glory years from 1963-'84. From the start, Richter was one of the key men behind bringing California Speedway to life and everyone called him "Coach." He was an imposing but friendly figure with a big heart. He'd recently successfully run the operations side of NASCAR and been involved in launching and sustaining the International Race of Champions with Roger Penske and Jay Signore initiated by the vision of former Ontario Motor Speedway's founding president, David Lockton. "Coach" was full of humor, wisdom and passion and was the authentic soul of Penske's new speedway.
I brought with me the race program from the original 1970 California 500 at Ontario Motor Speeday and some of images of the ads and billboards from the first two seasons of the long-gone track. It proved to be good context and starting point for the conversation. Those relics from a quarter century earlier resonated with everyone and helped establish the value of building a brand for the new speedway.
All those I met with that day were inspiring in their intellect, can-do spirit and commitment and I was thrilled that the Pfanner Communications team was hired to explore redesigning the track's logo but there was a caveat. We only had the upcoming weekend to make the entire design process happen.
After an exhausting 48 hours working with a design team comprised of RACER's art directors Keith May and Paul Laguette along with No Fear (action sports apparel) designer, Erik Casillas we presented our concepts to Roger, Greg and the Penske Motorsports leadership team. Our favored design was quickly chosen and it featured what we called the "turn 4 swoosh" icon (pictured above). To my astonishment, Roger adopted that same icon and logo style for Michigan Speedway, Nazareth Speedway and North Carolina Speedway, Penske Motorsports and even Penske Racing.
Next we began work on the color palette studies for the grandstands, then came the ticket sales collateral, tickets, race programs, print ads, radio spots and a TV spot that was directed by RACER's co-founder Jeff Zwart (watch video below). Oh, and we even executed the credential designs.
All along the way, I worked very closely with Greg, Rich and Bill and came to respect each for their intellect and laser focus on elevating the quality of fan experience. I'm certain I learned far more from them than any of them ever learned from me.