The ex-Penske Racing
1982 Penske PC10 Indy Car
Chassis no. 001
Having amassed an outstanding tally of individual race wins and national championships in US domestic racing, Roger Penske’s team turned to the ultimate challenge in 1974: Formula 1. The transition to Formula 1 marked Penske’s elevation to the status of race-car builder, the team having relied on proprietary chassis hitherto. Penske’s F1 designs progressed thru types PC1 to PC4; the latter proving the most successful, John Watson winning the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix for the team, its solitary F1 victory.
Returning to America and the USAC series, Penske continued to build its own chassis (at Poole in Dorset, England) the first to score a USAC race victory being Rick Mears’ PC6 in July 1978 at Milwaukee. Mears had been drafted into the team as stand-in for Mario Andretti who had Formula 1 commitments, and by the season’s end had added USAC series wins at Atlanta and Brands Hatch. The team’s only full-time driver, Tom Sneva, walked away with the USAC Championship.
A regular Penske driver for 1979, Mears was the man to beat, winning his first Indianapolis 500 on his way to the inaugural Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) national title that had effectively replaced the USAC series. Mears had used a Penske PC6 and PC7 chassis for the ’79 season, but the team, and everyone else, was outclassed the following year by Johnny Rutherford’s ground-effect Chaparral. Penske responded immediately with the PC9, which proved effective enough in developed PC9B form to bring Mears his 2nd CART title in 1981. He repeated this success the following year at the wheel of a PC10-Cosworth and narrowly missed out on a 2nd Indianapolis 500 win - by 0.16 seconds - in a photo finish with Gordon Johncock.
In 1983 the new PC11 chassis would prove somewhat less successful for Penske, which also used modified PC10Bs that year, but consistency rather than speed brought yet another CART title for the team courtesy of Al Unser Sr. Although Unser secured Penske’s 4th CART championship in 1985, it would be at the wheel of a March 85C-Cosworth, and another three years would pass before a Penske-built Indy car lifted the title again.
Offered in ‘rolling chassis’ form with a mock-up engine, this PC10 dates from Penske Racing’s successful CART championship-winning seasons of 1982 and 1983, and is finished in the livery of Al Unser’s Hertz-sponsored entry.
Saleroom notices
- Lot 482, a 1982 Penske PC10 Indy Car, is listed as the catalog as being offered as a 'rolling chassis' without and engine. There is, in fact, a mock-up engine installed with a working turbocharger.
