Roger Penske
ROGER PENSKE IS, QUITE SIMPLY, a giant of the sport, a restless and extreme achiever in a fiercely competitive business. He started out as a driver before moving from the cockpit to the pitwall and is now a multiple team owner with over 500 race victories. His business interests and investments include car and truck dealerships and racing series right around the world. His most recent acquisitions, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar series, make him one of the most influential and powerful people in motor sport while his new partnership with Porsche takes Penske to Le Mans with a shot at victory.
Team Penske has won 18 Indy 500s and shows no sign of being toppled from its pinnacle despite the ever-changing landscape. A man who has eyes only for the future, and who does not dwell on past glories, has never been keen to talk about himself. Motor Sport, however, was shoehorned into his diary for an audience with ‘The Captain’ ahead of the 2021 Indy 500.
Motor Sport: Can we go back in time to 1963 when you were a driver and raced at Goodwood, where this year you will be a guest of honour at the Festival of Speed?
“Sure, I raced a Ferrari GTO for Colonel Hoare’s team although I don’t honestly remember the circuit in any detail. What I do recall is that Colonel Hoare owned Maranello Concessionaires, the Ferrari distributors, which is ironic because we now own the Ferrari store in Egham and we are the worldwide distributors for all the Ferrari classic parts. I certainly never realised, racing at Goodwood, what my future was going to be in the UK, the whole automotive business we’ve built over there. Colonel Hoare took me out to
