Former driver and the founder and CEO of the car and truck dealing company Penske Automotive, Roger Penske is living his dream life. As of last year, this 86-year-old businessman and entrepreneur’s net worth was $3.2 billion. However, that’s not him doing business just in the States. His endeavors have also found its way to the fuel mining and engine industry in Australia.
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But how did he even grow a business in Australia, which has strict regulations in areas like taxation, employment, and intellectual property? In an interview with Jason Stein, Penske said, “We got to go back to Detroit Diesel; we own Detroit Diesel. We were actually the distributor in Australia so I had time down there. I knew the country.”
Penske’s biggest investment in Australia was his purchase of Western Star Trucks Australia (WSTA), the commercial vehicles division of Australia’s Transpacific Industries for 200 million USD. In 2014, Penske Automotive completed the acquisition of MTU Detroit Diesel Australia from Daimler AG and MTU Friedrichshafen. “We saw that the market is one that we knew,” said Penske. “We also had the opportunity to pick up the MTU franchise and that’s given us a really country approach on highway and off highway, marine and military.”
“We’ve got our big engine business, which is generator sets for these data centers and mining is probably one of our greatest strengths with these big engines. We felt that it was a diversification. It was a low cost of entry. You didn’t have the capex in the way we do in auto business; we were not interested in automotive there,” he added.
A 55-race winless streak for Roger Penske finally snaps
Penske got to have the last smile at the 62nd version of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Filipe Nasr snatched the lead from Tom Blomqvist, the driver of the #31 Action Express Cadillac during a pit stop after a caution came out on lap 768. With just 31 minutes remaining, Nasr took advantage of the restart and held the pole sitter Blomqvist off to grab the checkered flag.
It was Penske’s second overall victory at the endurance race classic, with the first one coming way back in 1969 when the late Mark Donohue was driving for Penske at the Daytona International Speedway road course.
“You think about 1969 we won here with a Lola (T-70/Chevrolet), and things were a lot different in those days. Just to think about today, the biggest crowd they’ve had here for a sports car race,” exclaimed an overjoyed Penske.
The next goal for the automotive giant is to bag a victory at the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, as it is one of the major motorsport events where Roger Penske has not had a triumph yet.
