LIFE WITH TEAM PENSKE

Q

You really have hit the jackpot with Roger Penske onboard. What’s it been like?

A

Well that came about for the simple reason that everything Roger has done worldwide, the way he has leveraged his businesses is through motorsport. He loves his motorsport. You have got to give the guy 10 points for the way he does things. He was a very accomplished racer himself and he started off with one Chevrolet dealership and now with all of his businesses has an annual turnover of $26 billion. He thought to come to Australia and set up a race team and call it Penske Racing, nobody would know who the hell it was. So he decided he would partner with an established team that had a reputation and fortunately we were the chosen one.

Q

He’s often back home in the US but how has it been working with him?

A

He is an absolute gentleman. For his age, he has his finger on the pulse in every single thing that happens. The way Roger does business, what he puts at the very top of the list is presentation, which is absolute key to everything he does. It is presentation, people and discipline. We had one American guy out here, Jeff Swartwout, he was the guy who became team manager for about 18 months to two years to install their procedures because they are a very structured business the way they do things. Obviously we still get instructions from over there but from a technical point, it’s all done here.