The Penske PC-26 was designed by Nigel Bennett and manufactured by Penske Cars in Poole, Dorset, for the 1997 CART Championship. [1] Whilst a development of the PC-25, the PC-26 was designed to address the twitchy nature of the previous year's car. [2]
Five chassis were produced and driven by Al Unser Jr and Paul Tracy. The Ilmor-produced 850 bhp Mercedes-Benz IC108D engine served as the powerplant, driving through an Xtrac gearbox within a Penske housing. Aerodynamic changes from the previous year's car included revised sidepod inlets and a longer, sharper nose. The Delco Gen V electronics package was carried over from 1996 and remained a Penske-exclusive system. [3]
The PC26 proved to be a formidable short oval car, Paul Tracy recorded three victories in Rio, Nazareth and Gateway. [1] The victory at Gateway marked the 99th for the team and the final victory for a Penske Cars-produced chassis. Penske Racing would have to wait three years to gain its 100th victory. [1] The latter part of the season saw a variety of problems including an eye problem for Tracy as well as a lack of raw pace.
(key) (Results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Engine | Tyres | Driver | No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Points | D.C. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1997 | Marlboro Team Penske | Mercedes-Benz IC108D V8 t | G | MIA | SUR | LBH | NAZ | RIO | GAT | MIL | DET | POR | CLE | TOR | MIC | MDO | ROA | VAN | LAG | FON | ||||
Al Unser Jr. | 2 | 27 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 18 | 20 | 8 | 25 | 4 | 20 | 20 | 22 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 22 | 67 | 13th | ||||
Paul Tracy | 3 | 2 | 19* | 7 | 1* | 1 | 1 | 6 | Wth | 7 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 26 | 26 | 121 | 5th |
Team Penske is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the organization has also competed in various other types of professional racing such as Formula One, Can-Am, Trans Am, IMSA and Australian Supercars. Altogether, Team Penske has earned over 500 victories and over 40 championships in all of auto racing. Team Penske is a division of Penske Corporation, and is owned and chaired by Roger Penske. The team president is Tim Cindric.
Patrick Racing was an auto racing team in both Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. Patrick Racing was started by Pat Patrick in the 1970s. The team is best known for winning the Indianapolis 500 on three occasions, and the Indy car title twice. Patrick Racing has 45 IndyCar wins.
The 78th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 29, 1994. The race was sanctioned by United States Auto Club (USAC), and was included as race number 4 of 16 of the 1994 PPG IndyCar World Series. For the second year in a row, weather was nary a factor during the month. Only one practice day was lost to rain, and pole day was only partially halted due to scattered showers. Warm, sunny skies greeted race day.
Mark Smith is a former American racing driver who competed in the CART IndyCar Series. Smith won the 1989 United States Formula Super Vee Championship and was the 1991 Indy Lights National Championship runner-up.
The Mercedes-Benz W154 was a Grand Prix racing car designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut. The W154 competed in the 1938 and 1939 Grand Prix seasons and was used by Rudolf Caracciola to win the 1938 European Championship.
Newman/Haas Racing was an auto racing team that competed in the CART and the IndyCar Series from 1983 to 2011. The team operations were based in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Newman/Haas Racing was formed as a partnership between actor, automotive enthusiast and semi-professional racer Paul Newman and long-time auto racing owner/driver Carl Haas. The duo were competitors in sports car racing during the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1983, they joined forces to enter the ranks of Indy car racing. Newman/Haas was one of the most successful teams in Indy car racing during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The team won 105 CART/Champ Car races and eight season championships.
The 1994 PPG Indy Car World Series season was the 16th national championship season of American open wheel racing sanctioned by CART under the name "IndyCar". The season consisted of 16 races. Al Unser Jr. was the national champion, his second CART title, and the rookie of the year was Jacques Villeneuve. The 1994 Indianapolis 500 was sanctioned by USAC, but counted towards the CART points championship. Al Unser Jr. won the Indy 500 from the pole position, his second career victory in that event.
The Penske PC-22 was a CART Penske Racing car which competed in the 1993 season. It raced in all sixteen events, scoring eight wins, three with Emerson Fittipaldi and five with Paul Tracy. The most remarkable success of the PC-22 was the 1993 Indianapolis 500 win by Fittipaldi, placed 2nd at the end of the season, missing the championship by only 8 points. The car was designed by Nigel Bennett as a radical departure from the basic concept of the previous Penske cars.
The Penske PC-23 was a highly successful CART racing car that competed in the 1994 IndyCar season with Penske Racing, and in the 1995 IndyCar season with Bettenhausen Motorsports. It was designed by Nigel Bennett, who based its design on the 1993 car, the PC-22, which was a radical departure from the basic concept of the previous Penske cars. The PC-23 was one of the most dominant open-wheel race cars ever developed. It won both the 1994 CART season, and the 1994 Indianapolis 500 with Al Unser Jr., together with Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy scoring 12 wins out of 16 in total, collecting 10 pole positions and 28 podium finishes, in a season that saw Penske also take the Constructor's Cup, and the Manufacturer's Cup with the Ilmor-Mercedes-Benz engine. Nevertheless, the car is mostly known for the controversial pushrod Mercedes-Benz 500I engine, designed and developed for the single race of Indianapolis, exploiting a loophole in different technical rules between the Indy 500 and CART sanctioning bodies at that time.
The Penske PC-20 was a CART Penske Racing car which competed in the 1991 and 1992 seasons. In 1991, it raced in all seventeen events, scoring 3 wins, two with Rick Mears, and one with Emerson Fittipaldi, placed 4th and 5th at the season's end respectively. The most remarkable success of the PC-20 was the 1991 Indianapolis 500 win by Mears, his 4th win at the Brickyard. The car was designed by Nigel Bennett, his 4th for Penske Racing. In 1992, it also raced alongside the Penske PC-21.
The Penske PC-17 was a CART Penske Racing car which was constructed for competition in the 1988 season. The car was designed by Nigel Bennett. The chassis swept the front row at the 1988 Indianapolis 500 with Rick Mears winning the pole position, Danny Sullivan qualifying second and Al Unser, Sr. third. Mears went on to win the Indy 500 and Sullivan the season championship.
The Penske PC-16 was a CART open-wheel race car, designed by Penske Racing, which was constructed for competition in the 1987 season. The chassis debuted with poor results at the season-opening races, and struggled mightily to get up to speed at Indianapolis. Midway through the first week of practice, the Penske team parked the PC-16 in favor of their backup cars, a contingent of March 86C chassis.
The Penske PC4 was a Formula One car used by Team Penske during the 1976 and was driven to victory in that year's Austrian Grand Prix by John Watson, scoring the last win for an American-licensed constructor in a F1 race. It was used for most of the following season by ATS Racing and Interscope Racing also used the PC4 for two races that year.
The Penske PC-25 was an open-wheel CART racing car that competed in the 1996 IndyCar season with Marlboro Team Penske and Hogan Penske Racing. It was designed by Nigel Bennett.
The Penske PC-10 is a CART open-wheel race car, designed by Penske Racing, which was constructed for competition in the 1982 season. Designed by Geoff Ferris, it is considered possibly the most dominant Penske race car design ever and that from a team that typically dominated. Rick Mears has been quoted as acknowledging this was his favorite racecar chassis ever. Twelve total were made (1-12), six raced by Penske (1-6), with four confirmed destroyed. They were manufactured at Penske Cars, Ltd. in Poole, England during 1982, and delivered to Penske Racing, Inc., in Reading, Pennsylvania. So outstanding was the PC-10's design, it won the prestigious Louis Schwitzer Award for innovation and engineering excellence in the field of race car design at the Indianapolis 500 in 1982. The PC-10s were active in the years 1982–1984. In fact, the PC-10 was ultimately much better than the following year PC-11, so Roger Penske bought back one of the PC-10s he had sold to another team for the 1983 season, and which then won another race for his team.
The Reynard 94I is an open-wheel racing car designed and built by Reynard Racing Cars that competed in the 1994 and 1995 IndyCar seasons, notable for winning the first CART race it entered. The car continued to be raced in the 1996 and 1996-97 Indy Racing League seasons, and holds the unofficial and official lap records at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Mercedes-Benz 500I engine is a highly powerful, turbocharged, 3.4-liter, Indy car racing V-8 engine, designed, developed, and built by Ilmor, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz, specifically to compete in the 1994 Indianapolis 500.
The Mercedes-Benz IC108 engine is a powerful, turbocharged, 2.65-liter, Indy car racing V-8 engine, specially designed, developed, and built by Ilmor, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz, to compete in the CART series; between 1995 and 2000.
The Penske PC-20 was a CART Penske Racing car which competed in the 1992 IndyCar season, alongside the older PC-20 chassis. In 1992, it scored 5 race wins, all with Emerson Fittipaldi, including the season-opening round in Australia, and the special Marlboro Challenge at Nazareth, eventually placing 4th at the season's end respectively. The car was designed by Nigel Bennett, his 3rd for Penske Racing. It was powered by the Ilmor-Chevrolet 265-A turbo engine.
The Penske PC-24 was a open-wheel CART racing car that competed in the 1995 IndyCar season with Marlboro Team Penske and Hogan Penske Racing. It was designed by Nigel Bennett. It scored a total of 5 wins that season; 4 wins for Al Unser, Jr., and 1 win for Emerson Fittipaldi. It was powered by the 2.65 L (162 cu in), 800 hp (600 kW), Ilmor-designed and developed Mercedes-Benz IC108 engine.
Media related to Penske PC-26 at Wikimedia Commons