Fall 2001

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Tim Cindric’s road to Victory Circle at this year’s Indianapolis 500 was paved by more than left turns, quick pit stops and normally aspirated engines. It took a coordinated effort filled with transatlantic corporate flights, long hours of vehicle testing and a well-crafted race strategy.

With Cindric boldly calling the right moves. In his two years as president of Penske Racing, the 1990 mechanical engineering graduate has played a key role in recapturing Roger Penske’s once-proud racing fortunes in the Championship Auto Racing Teams’ Fed-Ex Championship Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Team Penske won the 2000 CART championship, with driver Gil de Ferran; has been the dominant two-car team this year; and posted an impressive 1-2 finish at the Greatest Spectacle in Auto Racing, led by driver Helio Castroneves’ fence-climbing victory.

"Tim came on board and really pulled the team together. He doesn’t get the credit he deserves," admits Penske, an 11-time Indy 500 winner. "He put the Indy program together, and he’s the guy who kept everything in cadence."

Modestly, Cindric shrugs off such praise, calling attention to the contributions of Penske Racing’s 65-member team of engineers, mechanics, specialists and drivers. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that he was one of them as a design engineer for TruePower Inc. and TrueSports Racing.

"At the end of the day everybody looks at it as a team, not any one particular red suit or black suit (Marlboro team uniform). That’s what makes us proud," said Cindric, who knows the importance of teamwork as a former all-conference basketball player at Rose-Hulman. "Racing is a team sport. The guys on the team are here every day doing the nuts and bolts, making sure all the T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted. And, we don’t sacrifice anything in any place. That’s very difficult to do."

Penske Racing's latest Indy 500 triumph culminated a whirlwind spring of red-eye flights, team equipment exchanges near the Mexican border and emergency helicopter rides to obtain replacements parts for a $20-million operation striving for perfection in two contrasting racing circuits.

The Indianapolis 500, the crown jewel of the Indy Racing League, utilizes a different equipment package than CART's series.  For that reason, Cindric joined other Penske team members at the 2000 Indy 500, assisting Jason Leffler in a race effort for Treadway Racing.

"It gave me the opportunity to see firsthand what the (Indy) game was and how it had changed," Cindric said.  "From the first conversation I had with Roger, Indianapolis was always on the radar screen.  We wanted to have our own team in the 2000 race, even going so far as to purchase an IRL chassis package.  However, it never got out of the bubble wrap (packaging) . . . We had a lot of work to do."

Secretly, during the summer of 2000, Castroneves made his initial vehicle tests at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  By the fall, both Penske drivers were becoming familiar with the famed 2 1/2-mile oval. Cindric officially confirmed in mid-January that Penske’s familiar red and black colors would be returning to IMS.

Two months later, Penske Racing made its IRL debut in the Pennzoil Copper World Indy 200 at Phoenix International Raceway - a week after CART’s season-opening race in Monterrey, Mexico. It was another learning experience: Castroneves placed 18th after suffering an engine failure, while an accident put de Ferran in 24th.

"We still weren’t ready for Indianapolis. We needed to work out the fine details," Cindric admits. "We knew we had the equipment (Oldsmobile’s powerful 3.5-liter engine), the team and the drivers to get the job done. We were doing very well in the CART series. We just had to put everything together prior to Indianapolis."

The pace intensified even more in May with Indy 500 festivities surrounding CART’s Firehawk 500 in Motegi, Japan. Minutes after Castroneves’ second-place finish, Cindric had the Penske team on its way back to Indianapolis to take advantage of the final open track day.

A week later, Castroneves and de Ferran finished first and second at the famed brickyard, wiping away the biggest disappointment of Roger Penske’s 40-year racing career — failing to qualify for the 1995 Indy 500.

"We knew nothing could be taken for granted this year," stated Penske. "We came here, we had good cars all month, and we tried to do our job. The pit stops were the best I’ve ever seen, and I think our strategy was right."

The victory was especially significant to Cindric, who had literally grown up in and around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ironically, his father, Carl, once built engines for Penske.

"It was unbelievable to finish 1-2, let alone winning the race . . . It was a dream come true. Racing is the only thing I’ve ever known. As a kid, my summers were spent at the track or playing basketball. I’m truly an Indiana boy. I remember watching Roger Penske from afar. I admired his professionalism and his attention to detail. I hoped to someday work for him," said Cindric, also crediting the late Herb Porter, a respected engine builder, for being a mentor. "The victory was especially gratifying knowing that my father, mother (Janice) and sister were in the stands. So were many of my close friends, going back to my days at Rose-Hulman. The victory was as much for them as for me. They made it all possible."

So did Penske, whose racing operation was marred in a four-year slump when he made a late-night recruiting call to Cindric in October 1999 to assume a management role in the open-wheel racing program that involves being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He also oversees Penske Cars Ltd., the design and manufacturing facility located in Poole, England, and Racing Experience Inc., the performance driving experience program for Marlboro brand of Philip Morris U.S.A. Penske had admired Cindric’s leadership as team manager for CART rival Bobby Rahal’s Team Rahal.

"He’s a highly motivated guy," said Penske in describing Cindric, who at age 33 is one of the youngest leaders in open wheel racing. "The team has just jelled under Tim’s leadership. He brought discipline and experience. He is cool under fire and has a knack for making the right call on the track."

On race day, Cindric communicates with driver Castroneves on the radio, being a calming influence on the highly charged Brazilian. Penske does the same for de Ferran. Penske and Cindric also talk to each other about race strategy. "There’s nobody who sets a better example than Roger does. He motivates us every day and makes us believe that everything is possible," said Cindric, who now lives near Penske’s stateof-the-art race shop in Reading, Pa., with his wife Megan (the daughter of former race car owner Jim Trueman) and sons, Tanner, 5, and Austin, 3. "Roger and I have a pretty good understanding of where the line’s drawn. When I feel like I need to consult him on certain issues, I’ll find him anywhere in the world. And, I think he has the confidence that when somebody’s got to make a call, the call’s going to be made, and he’ll support it."

All the way to the Winner’s Circle.

PHANTOM PLACES 8TH IN SOLAR CHALLENGE

Rose-Hulman’s Solar Phantom VI solar-powered car survived the harsh July heat of the Mohave Desert, congested traffic in Chicago and Los Angeles, and interstate highways to complete the 2,300-mile American Solar Challenge. The team placed eighth out of 30 teams in the 11-day adventure that traveled along historic Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Rose-Hulman finished ahead of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford (two entries), Texas A&M and Northwestern. The University of Michigan won the race and will represent the U.S. in the World Solar Challenge across Australia in November.

The American Solar Challenge was the longest solar car race completed in the world. "Just getting to the finish line was a victory for us in a competition of this magnitude," stated Team Leader Brad Berron, a senior chemical engineering major.

Solar Phantom team members received honors for sportsmanship and strategy at the post-race awards ceremony. The team also helped promote Rose-Hulman through interviews on WGN-TV and WGN-Radio (Chicago), the Chicago Sun-Times, the Los Angeles Times and National Geographic Television, which will broadcast a documentary about the race.