A contemporary Supercar is set to be a centrepiece at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed celebrating Roger Penske.
Originally built as a Ford FG Falcon, the car was shipped to the United States in 2015 as part of plans to begin building cars off-shore.
Rule changes for 2016 ultimately prevented that from happening, requiring cars be built in Australia.
After going into storage briefly, the car reemerged in 2019 sporting the Ford Mustang body in which it served as a show car for Team Penske.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, will drive the Mustang up the 1.86km long Goodwood hill while Penske will pilot the 12 Hours of Sebring winning Porsche RS Spyder from 2008.
This year’s theme for the Goodwood Festival of Speed is dubbed ‘The Maestros – Motorsport’s Great All-Rounders’, which will recognise the feats of the motorsport’s greats.
It will be the first time since 1963 that ‘The Captain’ has attended the festival when he raced a Ferrari 250 GTO.
In the years that followed, Penske hung up his helmet to focus on his endeavours as a businessman and team owner, creating what would become a motor racing dynasty.
“I have wonderful memories of racing at Goodwood in 1963 and am honoured to be invited to return this summer,” said Penske.
“I am very much looking forward to sharing in the celebrations with Goodwood’s passionate fans as they return for the 2021 Festival of Speed.”
The Team Penske name has featured in Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, and the numerous sports car championships in North America since the 1960s.
In that time, the team has amassed 23 titles in IndyCar through its various guises and 18 wins in the Indianapolis 500.
Team Penske’s first Indianapolis 500 entry from 1969, the four-wheel-drive Lola T152, will be a centrepiece of this year’s festival.
The team’s first Indianapolis 500 McLaren M16B from 1972, the Penske PC-23 which dominated the 1994 race, as well as the 2006 Dallara IR-05 and the 2018 Dallara IR-18 will also feature.
The team’s endeavours in NASCAR will also be represented with a Pontiac Catalina honouring the car that Penske took to victory at Riverside in 1963 and Ryan Newman’s 2008 Daytona 500 winning Dodge.
The 1975 Penske PC1, the first UK-manufactured Formula 1 vehicle by Penske Cars, will attend as will the PC4 that John Watson won the Austrian Grand Prix with in 1976.
More recently, Team Penske found success in its brief stint in Supercars, winning three drivers’ championships with Scott McLaughlin and three teams’ championships.
“We are incredibly excited that Roger is able to join us at the Festival of Speed this year as we celebrate Motorsport’s Great All-Rounders, among whom he undoubtedly numbers,” said the Duke of Richmond, Charles Gordon-Lennox.
“We are very much looking forward to seeing both the hugely successful cars which have been assembled, as well as Roger himself take to the Hill over the course of the weekend.”
This year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed takes place across July 8-11.
