Fire destroys trailer carrying primary Penske cars

In the wee hours of the morning, despite their best efforts to try and extinguish the blaze, the two Team Penske truck drivers could do nothing but watch as their transporter, carrying the primary cars of Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe caught fire and burned to the ground.

The team transport was just outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming on the way to this weekends race at Infineon Raceway when a wheel bearing triggered the fire.

"It melted the ceiling and we lost both primary cars, all our pit equipment, all the team uniforms, the shock dyno and a lot of gearbox stuff," said Tim Cindric president of Penske Performance Inc., from his office in Mooresville, N.C. "There was also a fab shop and it was gutted. My guess is a couple million bucks. It's a disaster."

Realizing they weren't going to get the blaze under control, the two truck drivers had the good sense to unhooked the tractor from the trailer, saving it from damage.

"It was about 2:30 in the morning and they had no cell phone coverage but somebody finally saw it burning and eventually the fire department showed up. Obviously, it was too late to help."

Another truck carrying replacement cars and pit equipment is headed towards Sonoma as of this afternoon.

"They were oval-track cars we were preparing so we'll have to turn them around and just deal with it. We tested last week with Helio's backup car so we've got that and we'll be scrambling for a few days."

The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series team of Wayne Taylor Racing suffered a similar scary fate mid May when their transporter caught fire while returning to their shop following a race weekend at Laguna Seca, destroying the contents, including their primary car.

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