George Follmer and Peter Revson
March 16, 2016
Team Penske will be celebrating our 50th anniversary in motorsports in 2016. To bring you some of the terrific stories of our five-decade run of excellence, Team Penske is running weekly online features highlighting some of our drivers and our key events. We hope you enjoy this memorable time in our history.
Over the years, Team Penske has earned a reputation has having some of the greatest drivers to ever race compete for them. Looking at the team’s 86 drivers over the last 50 years, plenty of Hall of Famers dot the list.
Two of them were stars in the 1970s. One of them only sparingly competed for Team Penske, while the other added his name to the list of 28 National Championships.
George Follmer was – and still is – considered one of the top road racers of his generation. He actually began his career running SCCA events around the country and won the USRRC title in 1965.
Follmer made his Team Penske debut in 1967, running in six Can-Am races and one Trans-Am race as a teammate to Mark Donohue. In those seven events, Follmer earned three third-place finishes.
The Phoenix-born driver then continued to compete in a number of other series around the country with great success, including an INDYCAR win at Phoenix in 1969.
Follmer returned to Team Penske in 1972, substituting for the injured Donohue in the Can-Am Series driving the No. 6 Porsche 917/10. In his first four races back with the team, Follmer visited Victory Lane three times. When Donohue was ready to come back, Team Penske entered two cars for the remainder of the year with Follmer winning two more races and earning the 1972 Can-Am Championship. He would earn the Trans-Am Series tittle that same year while driving for another team, making his the first driver to win both the Can-Am and Trans-Am titles in the same year.
Follmer would go on to compete in two endurance races with Team Penske in 1973 – the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen – and would make one NASCASR start for the team in 1974, where he won the pole at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway.
Follmer was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1999.
Peter Revson was also inducted to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996, 22 years after his death in a Formula 1 test session.
Revson’s time with Team Penske spanned just one season – 1970 – when he competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona and a full season of Trans-Am competition with Donohue. Revson ran eight races that season, with a best finish of second at Bryar Motorsport Park in New Hampshire in May.
Revson earned plenty of accolades during his post-Team Penske career. He was the first American to win the Can-Am Championship in 1971. He also won two Formula 1 races in 1973 – the British Grand Prix and the Canadian Grand Prix while driving for McLaren – becoming the last American born driver to win a Formula 1 race.