INDIANAPOLIS -- Geoff Ferris, designer of the Penske PC-10 driven by Rick Mears and Kevin Cogan to the first two spots in the lineup for the Indianapolis 500, Thursday won the Louis Schwitzer Award for innovation and engineering excellence in the field of race car design.
Ferris also won the award in 1980 for his design of the PC-9.
He has designed 10 different chasses for the Penske team since December 1979. The first four were Formula One cars, including the PC-4, winner of the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix with driver John Watson.
Ferris also designed the PC-6, which Tom Sneva drove to one and four-lap qualifyng records in 1978. Those records stood until Cogan broke them in the PC-10 last Saturday. Mears broke Cogan's marks minutes later.
Louis Schwitzer was an Austrian-born engineer who designed the engine used in the first Indianapolis 500 winner in 1911.
