Penske Racing Museum

While working at Firebird in Phoenix, I was able to visit the Penske Racing Museum in Scottsdale. The museum is amongst several high end car dealerships that Penske owns, but surprisingly, the collection is view to view.

It is heavily biased towards the team's Indy 500 success, with all but two of the team's 500 winners on display. Mark Donohue's '72 McLaren is in the IMS Museum, and Rick Mears' '88 Pennzoil PC-17 was elsewhere at the time. Also, Bobby Unser's '81 winner is a replica. the original chassis is owned by a private collector (I saw it at Indy Carb Day.)

There are a pair of Wallace cars on display, and a Newman car upstairs near the gift shop. Also, a replica of a Pontiac that Roger himself drove to a NASCAR victory at Riverside.

If you're ever in the area, visiting or for a race at PIR, I highly recommend taking the time to visit. can't beat the price!

All my pics are uploaded at: Pics

I am gradually getting them captioned with details...

EDIT: The above car is a Penske PC-1 F1 car from '75, the first car built by Penske Cars. Also, failed to mention that all cars in the collection are kept in running condition per Roger's wishes. They also have all the matching pace cars for the Indy 500 winners as well. The '72 and '06 cars were on-display when I was there.

• 1 Comment
• Penske Racing, Roger Penske, Rick Mears, Mark Donohue, Phoenix, Arizona, CART, IRL, Indy 500

Great Quote

"There's loose, there's sideways, and then there's Tim Richmond..."

Awesome quote from Mike Joy

• 0 Comments
• Mike Joy, Tim Richmond

Collectible Microfiber Towels...Sounds Like the Early '90's Again

I've been seeing the Shell ads featuring the collectible microfiber towels featuring Harvick's visage. Really brings to mind the early '90's when NASCAR was gaining more widespread popularity. This lead to a huge growth in NASCAR memorabilia (term applied very liberally to any manner of consumer packaging) beyond the traditional die-cast and trading card markets. Everything from coffee cans to jugs of barbecue sauce were touted as limited editions worthy of shelf space in any fan's collection.

• 0 Comments
• collectibles, harvick, RCR

Oh, the Things You'll See

As mentioned in a previous blog, I am working at Moroso Motorsports Park near West Palm Beach, FL through late March.

Anyway, as we were putting the finishing touches on loading up before traveling home for a week's break, a shifter kart went out onto the kart track. The helmet immediately puzzled me, it looked strangely familiar...kinda like Gil de Ferran's helmet scheme from his years with Team Penske. Then, a friend noticed a plethora of Honda logos on the otherwise plain white suit.

Anyway, without any definite proof, I'm guessing he was knocking the rust off before joining the ALMS at Long Beach.

• 0 Comments
• alms, Penske, gil de ferran

Outbraking at Daytona?

As a road racer, watching Shrub pass three trucks under braking entering the pits for the final stops with 15 to go in the CTS race was way cool.

• 0 Comments
• cts, road racing, Kyle Busch

DIY NASCAR Collection

If you'd like NASCAR models to display without paying die-cast prices...build your own!

http://www.extazaweb.sk/nascarpapermodels/index.htm

This site has 15 2006 cars, including all the Chase contenders, as well as 5 2005 rides. All are 1:24 scale, and .pdf downloads to print on your own printer on cardstock.

There is also a 1:18 version of Johnson's 2006 car with higher detail with a Nextel Cup Champion display.

I believe the same group are working on some older NASCAR rides (like a '90's Lumina) as well.

Paper modeling appears to be more popular in Eastern Europe and Japan. Yamaha offers some great motorcycle kits, and Epson has several models based on the Japanese GT/Super GT team they sponsor. There's also a lot of great F1 models available for free on the web.

• 3 Comments
• NASCAR, model, die-cast

Loren Wallace Returns!

Saw a new commercial with Mike and "Loren" Wallace this morning while catching up with some reairs on SPEED.

Good to see the one Wallace I like getting more air time, that little go-kart driving fiend! :-P

• 2 Comments
• speed, Wallace, Geico, Nationwide

Getting Back in the Groove...

My disappearance from the Rowdy Nation is finally coming to an end! I had a grandfather pass away in early December, which had me making several trips back and forth from Cinci to WV to help my grandmother.

After the holidays, I worked as a driver on the initial training program for the new Infiniti EX crossover. Now it's a week home, then off to Moroso Motorsports Park (then Firebird in AZ and Miller Motorsports Park in UT in April) to start a program for Subaru working with the new WRX.

With the Rolex 24 and NHRA openers in the book, I'm ready for the rest of Speedweeks!

• 6 Comments

Bobby Allison Book Deal

For those in the general vicinity of a Half-Price Books store, the Dayton, OH store had several copies of Peter Golenbock's recent bio on Bobby Allison and the Alabama Gang for $9.95, as of last week.  Granted, that is basically Amazon's price.

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Hat Trick

Woo hoo. Yesterday was my third trip to the Big 4.

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