Penske Racing president Tim Cindric is trackside at this weekend’s Sydney 500 as Roger Penske considers an involvement in the V8 Supercars Championship.
Cindric was taken through the internal operations of Ford Performance Racing at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday, as well as enjoying a hot lap of the circuit with Dick Johnson Racing’s Chaz Mostert.
Ford’s global motorsport manager Jamie Allison is also a guest of FPR this weekend, triggering speculation that Penske is assessing an expansion of its racing programs.
Cindric, however, stressed that Penske’s interests in the class are currently in the realm of sponsorship.
Cindric’s visit follows the recent addition of an Australasian distribution arm of Western Star trucks to Penske’s multi-billion dollar business empire.
Penske is a long-time trucking magnate in the United States through his Penske Truck Leasing and Penske Corporation businesses.
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The trucking firms operate alongside Penske’s car retailing business, the Penske Automotive Group, and his highly successful IndyCar and NASCAR teams.
“Roger (Penske) has basically asked if we should get involved from a sponsorship point of view,” Cindric told Speedcafe.com.
“He’s not going to get involved overnight or maybe at all. He asked if I could come across from the US and give him my perspective of the series. So I’m just here as an observer.
“Obviously with our NASCAR affiliation with Ford it was an opportunity to come across and spend some time with some of the Ford teams, and FPR and DJR were nice enough to show me around.
“The initial thing is how to utilise it to build his business and whatever the best way to do that is.
“Whether it is through the series or through (sponsoring) a team… part of the mission is to understand that.
“I’m here observing and trying to understand. It’s a different world for me. I’m not used to being the guest!”
Penske’s most recent exposure to V8 Supercars occured when it won the last IndyCar race on the Gold Coast with Australian Ryan Briscoe in 2008.
The team competed in the majority of the CART, Champcar and IndyCar races at Surfers Paradise, starting with the inaugural 1991 event.
“We clinched the championship at the Gold Coast with Gil de Ferran in 2001 and the year before we thought we could win it at the Gold Coast but Montoya and de Ferran got together on the first turn of the first lap,” Cindric recalled.
“That was a long ride home. But we have many fond memories of the Gold Coast and watching the V8 action from the pitlane.”
