Indycar at Goodwood FOS - Penske P22/1 Chevrolet

The stunning Penske PC22/1 Chevrolet (1993) of historic racer Jeremy Smith @fosgoodwood 2017. Jeremy finished second in the Shoot Out – a time of 46.22s - narrowly missing out on top spot by just 0.09s to Justin Law in a Jaguar XJR12D (one of the American cars in Bud Light livery) who took FTD with 46.13s.

This car was chassis 1 of 8 cars built. Designed by Nigel Bennett and built in Poole, Dorset at the Penske factory before being shipped to America for the 1993 Indy Car World Series. Chassis 1 was used as the test and development car and driven by Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy.

The PC22 raced in all 16 rounds winning 8 times – 3 wins to Emerson Fittipaldi and 5 wins to Paul Tracy. Incredibly, this only secured Emmo runner-up spot with 183 points, Paul Tracy finished third with 157 points. And the winner? Well it was of course Nigel Mansell, the 1992 F1 World Champion. He was driving for Newman/Haas Racing in a Lola T93/00 and in his rookie year, won the title with 191 points.

Having completed its test and development duties, chassis 1 was sold to Bettenhausen Racing and driven by ex Ferrari F1 driver Stefan Johansson to 11th place in the ‘93 Indy 500.

The car resided in America until purchased by Anthony “Taff” Smith, who together with his son Jeremy, specialise in restoring and racing historic cars. For a few seasons they raced the unique 6 wheeler March 2-4-0 – a car that they built up from “a bag of bits”. That car was sold to a collector and the Penske PC22 was the next project. The rolling chassis had been owned by actor Anthony Edwards – ER and “Goose” in Top Gun. He had it on display in his lounge for 20 years.

A 2.65 Litre Ilmor Chevy V8 was sourced. The original engine used a Garrett turbo, but it was decided a Borg & Warner turbo as used on current Indy Cars would be a better proposition. The engine develops 790bhp – good for 100mph in 1st gear - running on methanol, with a big thirst – 2 gallons per mile! Methanol generates enormous heat with the engine and rear bodywork having to be covered in wet towels after each run to prevent the car igniting. In all, restoration of the car took 18 months.

Jeremy reported that the car generated enormous grip and was relatively docile to drive. He crossed the Goodwood finish line doing 150mph and conceded that he could have probably pushed the car a bit more. He was miffed to have missed out on the Shoot Out top spot by such a small margin. However, the car is still new to him, and he is still learning its limits.

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