Hi I am realy having hard time to figure this one out. Penske didnt qualify for indy500 in 1995 due to the lack of pace, yet they nearly won michigan 500 that same year.
both speedways. was there some big mid season improvement, or is there some fundamental diferenc between two superspeedways that affected penskes performance
It seems like there's still a lot of misunderstanding about what happened with Team Penske in 1995 at the Speedway. A current Penske team member disclosed what transpired on the Autosport forums 2 years ago:
http://forums.autosport.com/index.ph...c=107828&st=40
Originally Posted by Nigel Beresford
start here:
http://8w.forix.com/penske-mercedes-pc23.html
Part 18 may be of particular interest to you:
http://8w.forix.com/penske-mercedes-pc23-1995.html
Great read, again, Thanks for sharing
Straightup
basically all they had to do is to sofen up a bit front anti roll bar and they would qualify!?
its always small bits that gets giants, nothing fundamental, just a small glitch. incredible
This isn't really an answer to the original question, but the story I remember was that the Lolas from Rahal and the Reynard from Pagan were given to Penske essentially ready to run fast enough to make the race. Penske being Penske, they wanted to do their own thing and so they stripped the cars down and reassembled them their way, and the speed was marginal.
Perhaps they were putting the stiffer front shocks on those cars as well?
My cousin works for penske south and basically said the same thing. Rahal did a shake down of the car and ran 227-228 and then gave it to Penske.
well I do not want to open a new thread so I will post here
What went wrong in 1998 for Penske -why was that car so bad? Also Riberiro was never a Penske material anyway, just like that Roscoe guy isnt -yet captain hired them -how come? And Roscoe guy still hasnt been sacked at the time of writing
But more importantly I want to know what went wrong with 1998 chassis, because after that they halted their own chassis production. also 1999 was bad
It is a shame they dont do their own cars anymore
Well, perhaps on paper. But both Emerson and Al were mentally drained by then.
Emmo actually "qualified" on Saturday, but RP waved off the run on the final lap, thinking it wasn't fast enough. (we know now it probably would have held up). Then he came back Sunday for his 3rd and final run (which he had to take) and it was slower. Thus Emmo got bumped.
Al, even in the new car, never had a single run that was even close to fast enough.
quote:
well I do not want to open a new thread so I will post here
What went wrong in 1998 for Penske -why was that car so bad? Also Riberiro was never a Penske material anyway, just like that Roscoe guy isnt -yet captain hired them -how come? And Roscoe guy still hasnt been sacked at the time of writing
But more importantly I want to know what went wrong with 1998 chassis, because after that they halted their own chassis production. also 1999 was bad
It is a shame they dont do their own cars anymore
end quote
Current rules forbid own chassis, No-one who wants it and can afford it can. Only aero packages to be used on the standard chassis (Dallara) and the engine of choise among the permitted ones (Honda & Chevy, I don't think that thee third option deserves the honourable name of engine)
I vaguely remember something like it being written down somewhere that the last of the Penskes were quite good on billiard table flat ovals but entirely useless elsewhere. Not designed all round enough anymore.
They still built their own cars too in 1999. Once you meet Gonzalo Rodrigues you can hear some stories about that car.....
It was indeed something else to see how Ribeiro did fairly well with Tasman and sunk like the Titanic at Penske. I can't imagine this all being car related only.
Indyote
Perhap you meant " Once you meet Gonzalo Rodrigues you can hear some stories about that car....."
in past tense.
Gonzalo "Gonchi" Rodríguez (born January 22, 1972 in Montevideo, Uruguay; died September 11, 1999) was a racing driver. He showed promise in Formula 3000 for three seasons, taking two wins in 1998 at Spa-Francorchamps and Nürburgring, winning the following season in Monaco and finishing third in both championships. Following a rotation of drivers as team mates to Al Unser Jr. in CART Penske Racing's second car, he was given his opportunity at the Detroit Grand Prix in 1999 and scored a point in his only race.
At the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca raceway during the practice session for his second CART race, he was fatally injured in a crash. A stuck open throttle caused his car to overshoot the braking point, going off the track at more than 140 mph and slammed into a concrete barrier at the notorious Corkscrew corner. The impact caused his car to flip over the barrier and land upside down on the other side of the wall. Gonzalo was killed instantly by a basilar skull fracture caused by the impact with the wall (which was lined by only a small layer of tires). Because of the incident, runoff was installed at the end of the straight.
I was sarcastic with my comment, i know Gonzalo was killed in a '99 Penske. From what I can recall the only time ever that a factory penske driver was killed in a Penske PC## car. Tjhe only other driver I can think of that Roger lost was Mark Donohue in 1975 but that was in F1 and in a March. No names of drivers killed in a privately owned Penske comes to my mind, I don't think there is one?
From what I konw of Roger, he probably dislikes the 1995 type PC24 because of the Indy DNQ fiasco but if there is one other car he had built that he might hate even more then that PC24 then it must be the 1999 car because of the fatality.
indyote
The fortunes of all the Merc teams dipped post-97, and Penske being on Goodyears probably clouded the issue.
The last Eagles and Penskes I'd have liked to at least seen run on Firestones.
Penske had abandoned the PC27 for a Lola by that point in the season.
OMG, I believe you are indeed right.
I stand corrected.
Thanks for pointing this out.
By the way, that makes it even more remarkable that, using Lolas in '99, he went to Reynards from 2000 on. At lest, the cars started out as Reynards but Penske modified them to some extend into what was jokingly called Peynards or Renskes.
Definitely not Penske's year drivers wise, 1995, losing Rodriquez and then signing up Greg Moore who was killed before he could join the team....
Indyote
And for Emmo's efforts - he was relegated to Hogan for 1996 and retired after the terrible crash at Michigan. Emmo qualified 2nd I think at Nazareth and was still very, very good. If anyone remembers the live radio interview - I think Emerson stepped on Roger's toes that day. The interview went something like "We were in the show and Roger waves off the run... I don't understand!" I think he basically implied Roger was trying harder to get Al in the show than Emmo and Emmo was still out-running Al. It was a mess, but at least I knew Emmo "cared". He was passionate and being interviewed all weekend. Angry, lashing out, trying everything. Al (for as much as I like him) seemed to be wilting into a corner in the garage and hiding.
Emmo was a real racer though, still one of my favorites, all-time. Miss him at the track.
Every race I run in is in preparation for the Indianapolis 500. Indy is the most important thing in my life. It is what I live for. - Al Unser Jr.
Everything I ever wanted in my life, I found inside the walls of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. - Eddie Sachs.
From what Paul Tracy said, that was not necessarily Emmo being "relegated," but more part of a much larger plan to shift some money around and reorganize a spot for PT back at Penske....while making sure Fittipaldi (who was going to retire eventually soon) still had a decent ride.
Tracy got shuffled to Newman-Haas for 1995 (taking the place of Nigel), but the plan all along was to get PT back to Penske asap. Emmo (Indycar's "Marlboro Man" since 1986) shifted his sponsorship to the Latin American branch of Phillip Morris, and took it over to Hogan-Penske for '96. IIRC, Hogan was operating as a subsidiary to Penske, and got to use Penske chassis. That allowed the regular Penske team to have two (U.S.) Marlboro cars and opened up the seat for PT to re-join Penske.
After the 95 season Paul Tracy came back to the team after his one year with NHR and tested the 1995 car at Indy in Novermber and ran 232 but the car was more refined aero wise and mechanically different.
Interesting Emerson story: Remember the photo of Emerson the day after his IMS win when they piled a lot of money around the car? I believe he was the first to win $1,000,000. Emerson said that a local bank was supposed to bring that sum to display. Evidently they didn't think it was enough (in volume), so they actually brough something like $1,700,000. Would have been nice to have been there to catch the overflow...
And for Emmo's efforts - he was relegated to Hogan for 1996 and retired after the terrible crash at Michigan. Emmo qualified 2nd I think at Nazareth and was still very, very good. If anyone remembers the live radio interview - I think Emerson stepped on Roger's toes that day. The interview went something like "We were in the show and Roger waves off the run... I don't understand!" I think he basically implied Roger was trying harder to get Al in the show than Emmo and Emmo was still out-running Al. It was a mess, but at least I knew Emmo "cared". He was passionate and being interviewed all weekend. Angry, lashing out, trying everything. Al (for as much as I like him) seemed to be wilting into a corner in the garage and hiding.
Emmo was a real racer though, still one of my favorites, all-time. Miss him at the track.
In fact, 1995 was the second time in 5 years that `the Captain` waived off an attempt by Emmo. Emmo was one of the victims of the bizarre Pole day of 1991.
In 1991, qualifying was ended abruptly due to a sudden downpoor rushing in. Mears was on the pole at that time but speeds had been kept lower then anticipated because of a awful heat. Penske held Emmo back in case the Menard-Buicks (Cogan & Bettenhausen) and Luyendyk would surpass Rick later in the afternoon. Emmo was on the track and when sitting in the grandstand you could see the bad weather rushing to the track. A friend of mine who was there that day told me that it ws obvious to see that whoever still coul make a run better take the speed to be a first day qualifier. But Penske waived Emmo in and a few minutes later the downpoor happened and all activities for the day were over. !2 cars had made the field but the qualifying line had ended so Rick had the pole.
As a result of good conditions the following day: Bettenhausen, Fittipaldi and Luyendijk qualified the next day on row 5 but on average that row was faster then Row One.
But unlike 1995, Fitti was at least in the field that year....
Indyote
why couldnt they just ran 3 (U.S.) Marlboro cars like they did in 1994
or was it because running 3 wasnt allowed after 1994??? -I used to think they scaled back to two because they found running only 2 much more convenient. but why was that exactly. I would like to know. thank you
That's Paul point-of-view though, in Emmo's mind he still went from Marlboro/Penske to Mobil 1/Hogan. No matter what, that team was going to be a little off of the Penske lead cars.
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