Penske PC23 by CART

Penske PC23

Roger Penske was one of the creators of the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) category, now called Champ Car and less splendor than in the 1990s. Penske starred as a team owner for having won 9 championships in the category and not just buying his cars from the manufacturer, but always worked on the further development of the vehicles to achieve the highest level.

The 1994 Penske PC23 used a small V8 engine, developed and developed by Ilmor. The Ilmor V8 had 2,650 cm3 engine capacity, double overhead camshaft and was supercharged with a turbo, allowing it to reach a power of 740 hp.

But for the 1994 Indianapolis race, the wise Penske took advantage of a regulatory option that earned him a great advantage. In that stroke, single-shaft engines could have a larger engine capacity, up to 3,400 cm3.

Then Ilmor developed a special engine for the 500 miles of Indianapolis. The result was as expected: the three cars of the Penske team dominated the race. The winning driver was Al Unser Jr.

The 1994 season of CART was dominated by Penske, his cars won 11 races. Seven victories came from champion Al Unser Jr., three from Canadian Paul Tracy and one from Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi. Drivers Al Unser Jr., Fittipaldi and Tracy finished in that order in the first three positions of the 1994 championship. Another year of Penske dominance.

© Adrián Blanco 2006 — Prohibited the total or partial reproduction of text and/or images without explicit written consent of the author. —

por Adrian Blanco