In what has become an annual, year-end tradition, Team Penske announced the ninth class of the Team Penske Hall of Fame that was inducted at the organization’s holiday party on Thursday, December 19th. Two-time IndyCar Series champion and 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran and longtime team member Tim Lombardi form this most recent class to the Hall of Fame that began in 2016.
The two new inductees were honored with custom Hall of Fame awards as the team gathered in Mooresville, N.C. to celebrate one of the team’s most successful years in which they captured their third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series title, 20th Indianapolis 500 victory, sixth IMSA WeatherTech Sport Car Championship and first title in the competitive World Endurance Championship. Walter Czarnecki, Vice Chairman of Team Penske and 2018 Team Penske Hall of Fame inductee, helped induct each honoree with the presentation of the custom award that takes nearly 100 man hours to produce in Team Penske’s machine shop inside their Mooresville, NC headquarters.
Born in Paris but raised in Brazil, the late de Ferran remains one of the most respected names in the motorsports world one year after his untimely death at the age of 56. A key figure in Team Penske’s resurgence in the early 2000s, de Ferran won the former CART Series championship in 2000 and 2001. He was then instrumental in the team’s move to the Indy Racing League in 2002, scoring the win in the 2003 Indianapolis 500 to make it three wins in a row for Team Penske in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Over the course of his four-year career with Team Penske, de Ferran scored nine wins and 14 pole positions. In a career filled with accomplishments, de Ferran’s record qualifying run at Auto Club Speedway remains one of the most awe-inspiring as his average speed of 241.428 mph for the 2000 CART race at the two-mile venue remains the closed-course record to this day. He retired from competition following a 2009 season that culminated with an American Le Mans Series (ALMS) victory at Laguna Seca in the series’ finale race. He then moved to serving managerial roles with several teams.
“Gil would have been extremely honored with his induction into the Team Penske Hall of Fame alongside so many other racing legends,” said Angela de Ferran, Gil’s wife, who was on hand for the presentation to accept the Hall of Fame Award. “His years at Team Penske were not only his most successful years in his racing career, but also some of his happiest. He had the utmost respect for everyone he worked with.”