Roger Penske – Pulpaddict

PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7

Pizazz, performance & provenance at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7.

How do you know if a niche motorsports event is successful? Well for one, it’s 6 AM and you’re seeing cars parked all over the hills that surround the event location – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey County, California. And then you begin to see signs along the entry roads stating “General Admission and Paddock SOLD OUT.” After reading that I stared down at the media pass and parking permit sitting at-the-ready on my passenger seat and took a deep breath. “I’m good” I thought, and 15 minutes later I was walking through a corridor of super-sized and super-cool Porsche graphics that adorned the walls of the entry paths and the new Start/Finish bridge at Laguna Seca.

Porsche agreed to hold its PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7 and 75^th Year Heritage Celebration at Laguna Seca under the conditions that major improvements be made at the track. And WeatherTech complied: Not only is there the new Start/Finish bridge that can now accommodate carts and pedestrians, but the famous 2.238-mile track has been completely repaved. When I photographed tall Malcolm Ross who was the Rennsport 7 driver of the famous Rothmans ’85 Porsche 962c-003 pictured above, he smiled broadly and gave me a “Thumb’s Up” after I asked him how the repaved track feels. Malcolm’s family owns Ross Racing and an impressive collection of iconic race cars, including the Rothmans Racing car No. 1.Porsche’s heralded racing history may make it difficult for us to think about Porsche as a gilded luxury brand, but the many TAG Heuer Porsche, cross-promotion efforts that were on display under the ‘TAG Heuer Heritage Experience’ exhibition tent in the paddock were unapologetic in their messages of racing and refinement. This sexy and svelte ‘TAG Heuer x Porsche – Legends of Panamericana’ Sonderwunsch project car is a one-of-two, specially prepared 718 Cayman GT4 RS’s that will be participating in the upcoming Carrera Panamericana race this October 13^th -19^th. Look for Patrick Dempsey to be behind the wheel of Sonderwunsch cars in media promotions for these two luxury brands and in the fabled Mexican endurance race.There was a heavy mist and at times rain showers on Saturday, Day 3 of the 4-day PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7 – but that did not dampen spirits or stop the activities at Laguna Seca. While some attendees ducked under tents and umbrellas, I waddled around the paddock seeking photo ops, now that fewer people were surrounding celebrated cars like the race-winning Penske 963 Porsche Car No. 7 featured here. This icon helped secure a one-two victory for Penske, finishing 2^nd at the recent IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Porsche colleagues Matt Campbell from Australia and Felipe Nasr from Brazil were the drivers.Dreams do come true. Thirty years ago, Porsche collector Cameron Healy discovered a little red Porsche Gmünd roadster at the Monterey Historics. His interest in the car became an obsession and when the previous owner died in 2009, Cameron acquired the car. It turned out to be one of the three examples Porsche entered in the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans – and the aluminum body car that took First Place in the 1100-cc class. Healy would then oversee a long and exacting restoration bringing the Gmünd back to its original coupe body configuration and 1951 Le Mans specifications. What a thrill to meet Cameron and photograph the historic Porsche 356/SL Gmünd Coupe at Rennsport!The PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7 broke records, attracting close to 100,000 attendees who traveled from all corners of the globe to participate in the Porsche Heritage fun and excitement. Of course, there was lots of racing; Rennsport is German for racing. There were more than 300 racecar entries – like Bob Campbell’s shiny and speedy Porsche ‘Special’, captured here bombing into turn 5 early Sunday morning. Over the course of 4 days racers competed across seven different classes on the repaved WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca circuit.Prayers and Praise. One of the more eye-catching racecars at Rennsport, and frankly any event it’s raced or displayed at, is the famous American Le Mans winning, DHL supported Porsche RS Spyder Type 9R6 car No. 5. The 9R6 was designed by Porsche in conjunction with Penske to compete in Le Mans Prototype Class 2 (LMP2) racing. It debuted in the 2005 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Laguna Seca, winning its class. When I reviewed my photos of the car when it was parked on pit lane for the Concours display, I discovered its caretaker in a reverent kneeling pose, and a photographer seemingly floating like an angel above its rear wing.One of the longer and lower Porsche racing history icons on display in the TAG Heuer sponsored Heritage Display Tent was the ‘68 Porsche Type 907 LH (Langheck). Chassis 907-005 is one of just eight Langhecks (longtails) built, and is the first Porsche ever to win a 24-hour endurance race. It was a four-time entry at Le Mans, winning its class in 1971, and a top five competitor at Sebring and Monza. Engines: In 1967, a 2.0 L Flat-Six; In 1968, a 2.2 L Flat-Eight.What classic is in your carguy garage? Now wouldn’t it be cool if we all had the money and the means to put a significant piece of racing technology and racing lore in our garages? I think I’d like to pull this Porsche 919 Hybrid into mine. It’s a jaw-dropping Le Mans Prototype 1 racecar entered by Porsche in the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship seasons. In this configuration, power comes from a Porsche 9R9 2.0 L direct-injected, turbocharged V4 engine with a lithium-ion battery for energy recovery – and is delivered via a 7-speed gearbox to a 4WD system.There was a lot of excitement and eye-candy at the Saturday evening Pit Lane Concours at PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7. More often than not a car’s provenance delivers a proportional amount of pizazz – as is the case with this goosebumps-delivering ’97 Porsche 993 GT2. Acquired new by Larry Schumacher in 1997 it is a 1997 GTS-2 and 1998 GT2 Champion out of the Schumacher Racing stable. Yeah, it’s pretty, but its turbocharged 3,600-cc Flat Six engine produces over 600 horsepower. This awesome Porsche was sold at a Gooding & Company auction in 2021 for $460,000.Know in racing circles as the “Jager Bomb” this Porsche 962c chassis 117 has been wowing motorsports crowds since its debut in 1985. Swiss racing team Brun Motorsports competed with the car as a privateer team. Car No. 17 has a rich racing history having raced in the World Sports Prototype Championship from 1986 to 1989. It finished 2nd in its class at La Mans, was victorious at Spain’s Circuito Permanente de Jerez, and achieved an overall win at Belgium’s 1000-km Spa-Francorchamps in 1986. What a thrill to see it wow the crowds at Rennsport 7!Jim McCann’s silver Porsche 911 GT3 Cup racecar charges into turn 5 at Laguna Seca Sunday morning, midway through the Porsche Carrera Cup North America Race 1. The Carrera Cup is a racing series that ran in conjunction with the PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7 at Laguna Seca. Sunday’s two Carrera Cup races represented rounds 13 and 14 of the 2023 North America series. Jim’s car No. 83 is out of the McCann Racing team and automotive performance shop of Akron, Ohio. From 1990 to the end of 2019, Porsche produced and prepared a total of 4,251 GT3 Cup racecars.Its beverage is known as The Champagne of Beer, but its Miller 962 was known as the fastest 962 in the world back in 1989. With wins at the Daytona 24 Hours, the Porsche Cup and the Palm Beach GP, Porsche 962-108C is the chassis that racing historians consider the fastest 962 ever produced. So, it was no surprise that I had to press my way through a wall of excited fans to grab a photo of this iconic machine. During its winning season, Derek Bell, Bob Wollek and John Andretti piloted the Miller Livery 962-108C.True Confession: I do not know who the driver of this Porsche 550 Spyder is, but I do know he is one lucky guy to be sitting behind the wheel of the car that helped write Porsche’s early racing history. The hand-built 550 was introduced at the Paris Salon Car Show in 1953. Over the years some well-known names have driven 550 Spyders, including racing legends Jack McAfee, Ken Miles and Wolfgang Seidel. And, of course the 550 legend would explode internationally when the Spyder known as the Little Bastard crashed on September 30th of 1955, killing owner/driver James Dean.Girls just want to have fun! The Ginther Racing E-Production 914-4 makes its way onto the Pit Lane Concours display on September 30^th. This high-visibility Teener has a number of unique features, perhaps the most obvious, its racing windshield from the Aircraft Windshield Company. Another pertinent fact is that the current owners at Frank Racing always bring a spare motor to track events – which turned out to be a good idea when they blew engine No. 1 at Rennsport. Undaunted, the girls and the team replaced the motor in the paddock and everyone got back to having fun!The Fast & The Luxurious. In 1958, when news of the Porsche 356A Carrera’s ability to hit 200 km/h (124.27 mph) spread to the general public, non-racers started to place orders. To placate the racing crowd, Porsche divided the series into De Luxe GS (with the luxury of a heater) and Gran Turismo (a stripped and lightened GT for racers). Further performance choices were offered such as a lighter Speedster model – like the ’58 356A Carrera GT Speedster featured here, competition axel and compression ratios, aluminum hoods and decklids, and of course, a full-race 1600-cc RS-60 engine option.The bold and beautiful, blue and gold livery on this ’76 Porsche 934 is one of my favorites. It’s easily recognizable from the spectator seats yet still understated by today’s anything-goes paradigm. Bosch-supported Car 14 was number 22 of 31 934s built by Porsche. It was raced in the 1976 Trans-Am Series, 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring – racking-up four podium finishes. Power is from a 3.0 Liter, single turbo Flat-Six. This car underwent a full ground-up restoration that was completed in 2020.The Porsche 910 racecar was produced from 1966 to 1967. Its design was based on the Porsche 906. Only 29 were produced and its racing history was limited to one year due to the fact that its racing rivals – the Ferrari Dino 206 and the powerful Ford GT40 – were simply better and faster. This 1967 example on display at PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7 is chassis 910-018. It was raced across Europe with Hans-Dieter Blatzheim and later acquired by the Hollywood Cigarettes racing team in Brazil.If we had to pick our favorite vehicle at the PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7 simply based on the total number of scale models produced in its likeness, then the smile-inducing VW T1 Rennstall Bunker transporter would have to be the winner. This one-off, extended wheelbase T1 was fabricated in the mid-1950s for Art’s Sports and Utility Motors of Kansas City, MO. It’s my understanding that the original was lost but this carefully-crafted replica tours tracks and shows today with its vintage Porsche Spyder on-board.If you’re not a Porsche zealot you may be surprised to learn that when Ferdinand Porsche founded his pre-war engineering and automotive company in Stuttgart in 1931, a good deal of the work was related to tractor designs featuring both gas and diesel powerplants. Post-war manufacturing restrictions hampered much of what Porsche was trying to accomplish, but ultimately the company did manufacture technologically-advanced tractors between 1956 and 1963 – with more than 125,000 examples produced. So of course, no true Porsche Reunion could be complete without a Porsche Tractor Race. I grabbed this Staging Lane shot as the tractors were lining-up for Tractor Race No. 1 on Saturday.The PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7 was a really big deal. From the record-breaking crowds to the races and racing legends in attendance – plus special events like the Doobie Brothers concert in the paddock, the global debut of the Porsche 911 GT3 R, kid-friendly activities, arcade games, tractor races, TAG-Heuer/Porsche Heritage displays, a coloring wall of Porsche cars, autograph sessions, and the coming-together of the global Porsche community, and, along with the screening of the new Transformers movie Rise of the Beasts, a presence in the paddock of building-size replicas of the movie’s principal characters – like this Big Guy here who apparently had to wait in line like us humans to grab an autograph from his favorite Porsche legend!

Words & Photos ©Jim Palam, https://www.jimpalamphotos.com/

For more information about PORSCHE RENNSPORT REUNION 7, please visit https://www.porscherennsportreunion.com

Check out upcoming events @ https://www.co.monterey.ca.us/government/government-links/weathertech-raceway

TRIBUTE: PENSKE’S DAYTONA-WINNING L88 CORVETTE

George Haddad’s Fabulous Restorations creates a picture-perfect TRIBUTE: PENSKE’S DAYTONA-WINNING L88 CORVETTE Sting Ray, GT-Class winner of the 1966 24-Hour Continental.

Thanks to Fabulous Restorations, a mouth-watering recreation of Penske Racing’s first race car, the L88 Corvette that scored The Captain’s first win as a team owner in its debut in the 1966 Daytona 24 Hour Continental – now the Rolex 24 At Daytona. It’s now on display at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Daytona Beach.

This is the famous “flashlight” car, which would give motorsports fans one of the earliest glimpses of the preparedness and race craft that would make MSHFA Class of 1995 inductee Roger Penske one of the top field generals in the sport’s history.

“Although the original chassis exists today, it’s been restored to a later configuration and livery,” said MSHFA President George Levy. “No one has seen this version of this incredibly historic machine, the first Penske Racing car, in over a half-century. Its arrival now is especially fitting in light of Mr. Penske’s announcement that he intends to return to endurance racing in 2023 to seek victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, perhaps the last major prize missing from his blue-chip 60 year resume.”

A lot was riding on the Corvette’s success in the 1966 event. It was the first year the Daytona Continental would run a full 24 hours. The first race for Penske Racing, Roger having retired from a successful driving career a year earlier. It was also the racing debut of MSHFA Class of 2023 inductee Zora Arkus-Duntov’s new 427 cubic inch L88 Corvette. In fact, Penske’s was the first L88 off the assembly line in St. Louis, an early preview of the upcoming 1967 production model. And it was the beginning of what would become a hugely successful 16-year relationship between Penske and Sunoco.

In addition to its aluminum-head 427 cubic inch engine, Penske’s L88 featured the factory competition package which included special brakes, suspension and exhaust, an M-22 transmission feeding a prototype 2:73 Positraction rear axle, and jumbo 36-gallon fuel tank. The most distinctive visual cues were the “off-road” side exhaust and a prototype cowl-induction hood.

Driver Dick Guldstrand picked up the Rally Red Corvette in St. Louis on January 14, 1966 and drove the heater-less car in frigid temperatures to the Penske shop in Newtown Square, PA for race-prep. In addition to special rectangular high-intensity Marchal headlights and a pair of Lucas Flamethrower fog lights, the team installed fender flares to cover the extra-wide racing tires.

Once at Daytona, the scrutineers nixed the flares, so the team removed them and riveted small aluminum lips to cover the tops of the tires. No matter. The L88 still was the fastest qualifier of all the GT cars, made even stronger by the substitution of a Traco-prepared L88 engine for the factory unit. In the race, the front end of the car was shorn off in an accident. One headlight was gone completely, the other knocked out of commission. The radiator, too, had suffered terminal damage.

To fix the radiator problem, the team loaded it with Stop Leak to buy enough time to borrow a replacement from a spectator’s Corvette that Roger had pre-arranged to serve as a donor car if spare parts were needed. Freezing overnight temperatures in Daytona that February 5-6 likely aided the cause.

The headlights required a little bit bigger improvisation. The officials refused to allow the Corvette to return to the track without headlights. But the rules, Penske determined with lightning speed, didn’t specify what kind of headlights or how bright they had to be. So, Roger being Roger, he instructed the crew to duct-tape two flashlights to what was left of the front fenders and return to the fray.

The officials might not have been thrilled, but the flashlights met the letter of the law, and any lingering debate became moot after the sun came up. Until then, the drivers were careful to follow close behind cars whose path forward was being lit by more powerful light sources.

More Roger-ness: to make sure the Corvette’s roughly-every-two-hours pit stops were as short as possible, he’d hired stock car legend Red Vogt’s crew to handle the tire changes.

In the end, the battle-scarred L88 Corvette, driven by Guldstrand, George Wintersteen and Ben Moore, finished 12th overall and first in the GT category — Penske Racing’s first victory. Ken Miles (MSHFA Class of 2001) and Lloyd Ruby (MSHFA Class of 2015) took overall honors in a Carroll Shelby (MSHFA Class of 1992) Ford Mark II (GT40). The 1966 race was the first leg in endurance racing’s new “Triple Crown” captured in Ford v Ferrari.

Shortly after the Daytona race, the car was repaired and repainted Sunoco Blue with yellow accents — what would become Penske Racing’s signature livery in the Trans-Am, Indy, early Can-Am and 24 Hours of Le Mans. It won its class at Sebring where it finished ninth overall and survives in that livery today.

We asked George Haddad, President of Fabulous Restorations in Fort Lauderdale, FL, a shop known for meticulously accurate restorations of street and competition cars, why they chose to recreate this one.

“Because the car doesn’t exist any longer (in this original form) and because it’s a car that Gib Hufstader was mainly involved in and we wanted to do a tribute to Gib,” Haddad said.

Hufstader is a legend in Corvette circles. The retired Chevrolet engineer and longtime amateur racer worked closely with Zora Arkus-Duntov on Corvette programs in the 1960s and 1970s, including exploration of a mid-engine 4WD variant. It was Duntov who sent Hufstader to Daytona to assist with the Penske effort in an “unofficial” capacity. General Motors policy forbade direct involvement in motorsports, so engineers who went to races in situations like this did so while “on vacation.”

The lengths to which Haddad went to replicate the Penske car are mindboggling. The headlights, for example, were obscure Marchal units from the 1960s, almost impossible to find today. Haddad noticed how similar they looked to the ones Peter Brock (MSHFA Class of 2022) had selected for his late 1960s Triumph TR250K concept car. Gayle Brock referred Haddad to Tony Garmey, who had restored the Triumph at his Horizon Racing & Performance shop in Maple Valley, WA.

“So, I contacted Garmey,” Haddad said. “We discovered the Triumph headlights were very close but not correct. But he connected me with a gentleman who finds and sells antique headlights. It took him about six months, and he found the headlights brand new in a box in somebody’s garage in France.”

Haddad even exactly replicated the holes on each fender drilled for the disallowed fender extensions and fabricated the aluminum lip flares the scrutineers looked more favorably upon. The smaller flares wouldn’t cover the wider rear tires Roger wanted to run, so the car began and ended the race on the narrower rubber. What tires the car ran between those two stints is the stuff Penske legends are made of!

One of the most satisfying moments for Haddad came when he shared the TRIBUTE: PENSKE’S DAYTONA-WINNING L88 CORVETTE with Hufstader, Sunoco’s Bill Preston, who doubled as a pit crew member for the race, and Wintersteen at DIS in 2020, 54 years after the original car’s historic victory there.

“They had all anticipated completion of the car. I had been sending pictures on and off to everybody so they could see the progress,” said Haddad. “When they showed up at Daytona, Gib had the hugest smile on his face and Bill Preston as well. It was a really terrific day.”

“I thought George had done a terrific job of recreating the car,” the now 92-year-old Hufstader told us. “He had researched it enough to know the things he did were factual. I was impressed with it.”

For Preston, too, it was like time-traveling back to that February weekend in 1966.

“I watched George roll it off the trailer and fire it up for the first time,” said Preston, now 91, “and, of course, the memories come flooding back to you. Then I looked it over and Gib had told me it was going to be as accurate as he and the other guys could possibly make it. In my memory it was exactly like the (original) car.”

“When you compare period photographs of the original to the Fabulous Restorations version, it’s hard to tell them apart,” added Levy, “even down to the hand-painted ‘Roger Penske Chevrolet’ script on the fenders. “We think the thousands of guests who visit the Hall of Fame each week will appreciate the opportunity to see this historic ‘missing link’ Corvette for the very first time.”

The TRIBUTE: PENSKE’S DAYTONA-WINNING L88 CORVETTE is expected to stay at the Hall of Fame through the 35th Annual Induction Ceremonies on March 6 – 7, 2023. A large gathering of racing Corvettes with Daytona history is being planned during the ceremonies in honor of new inductee Zora Arkus-Duntov. A limited number of tickets will be available to the public.

The MSHFA is housed in Daytona International Speedway’s Ticket and Tours Building, located in front of the famed 2.5-mile DIS tri-oval. Access to the MSFHA museum is included with every Daytona International Speedway tour, which run throughout each day, or as a museum-only ticket. The museum is open daily 10-5 nearly year-round except major holidays.

Photos of the recreated L88, including the one of Gib Hufstader (l) next to Fabulous Restorations’ George Haddad (r), courtesy of Walt Thurn. Photos from the 1966 Rolex 24 at Daytona, including Roger Penske leaning to talk to driver Wintersteen, and Roger standing next to Sunoco’s Bill “Scotty” Scott who Preston believes was the first man to call Penske “The Captain,” courtesy of the NASCAR Archives & Research Center

For more information about the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, please visit https://www.mshf.com/

To learn more about George Haddad’s Fabulous Restorations, check out https://www.fabulousrestorations.com/

LEGENDS OF LAGUNA SECA

As WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca celebrates its 65th racing season, we take a look back at some of the LEGENDS OF LAGUNA SECA, the iconic characters who helped mold the mystique of the now world-renowned race track.

In 1960, Laguna Seca had three years of racing under its belt and started to form into an elite racing venue. Its competitions often attracted not only the best drivers in the U.S., but around the world. Beginning that October, the Pacific Grand Prix implemented an innovative way to race. The competition was divided into two 200-mile heats, with a 30-minute break in between. This time was used for repairs on the cars which struggled in the first heat, and to tune up the ones that finished. Let’s focus some of the LEGENDS OF LAGUNA SECA:

Enter Sir Stirling Moss – a London native who was downshifting into the twilight of his International Motorsports Hall of Fame career in the early 1960s. Moss won 212 races between 1948-1962, including 16 Formula One Grand Prix events. Two of those 212 wins came in the 1960 and 1961 Pacific Grand Prix, where he went back-to-back. Moss would return to Laguna Seca later in his life to take part in the Rolex Motorsports Reunion.

As Moss took the trophy home during the 1960 Pacific Grand Prix, the man who finished second to Moss in the overall results was taking his final competitive laps.

Carroll Shelby navigated the Laguna Seca course in car No. 98, a bright red Maserati Tipo 61, in the final race of his legendary career, which was cut short due to heart problems. Shelby finished fifth in the first heat and fourth in the second to place only behind Moss as the two icons went one-two in the final standings.

Shelby became notorious for popping nitroglycerin tablets to ease chest pains from a chronic heart condition. After finishing second to Moss, Shelby complained to the press that he would have won the damned thing had he not had to slow down to take his heart medications while driving.

Footage of that race can be seen @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/smuckatelli/4929779422?mc_cid=24ef720990&mc_eid=ef6f751cd9

The most famous drive of the 1961 season didn’t happen on the Laguna Seca pavement – but rather at the Mark Thomas Inn hotel pool. Yes, you read that right. Augie Pabst, fueled by adult beverages and a bet from Roger Penske and Walt Hansgen, drove his Hertz rental car into the hotel pool.

“I said, ‘Augie, you’ve had a really bad day. I bet you $100 that you won’t drive your rental car into the swimming pool,’” Penske later recalled. “So, sure enough, Augie stripped down to his undershorts, got in his rental car and drove right down between the diving board and into the pool. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!”

The car was totally submerged, and unfortunately for Hansgen, he had forgotten to take his camera out of the trunk first. The following day the car was removed from the pool, and both Hertz and the Mark Thomas Inn – which is now the Hyatt Regency – received more publicity than they ever could’ve dreamed of as a result of the prank. When the group returned to the hotel the following year, the staff had placed a floating “NO PARKING” sign in the pool. The late 1960s saw high-powered muscle cars take over at Laguna Seca, as the Trans Am series roared into Monterey in 1969.

Mark Donohue became a fixture on the podium at Laguna Seca, as he captured the final USRRC race ever held in Monterey in 1968 behind the wheel of Roger Penske’s McLaren M6A. Donohue would go on to clinch the 1968 USRRC title, which was his second in a row.

The always popular Donohue also found great success in the Trans Am series. Behind the wheel of a Camaro Z/28, he won the inaugural Over 2000-cc race at Laguna Seca in 1969, which also clinched his second consecutive Trans Am series championship.

For more about the LEGENDS OF LAGUNA SECA and all eight 2022 premier events at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, please visit https://www.co.monterey.ca.us/government/government-links/weathertech-raceway