Gustab Wenbus

Gustab Wenbus was a fearless alien racer who started the modern age of podracing around a century before the Galactic Civil War by entering himself into an event on the planet Malastare with a super-fast podracer designed by the rogue mechanic Phoebos. Rather than the animal-drawn carts or Hanno Speeders used in most races at the time, Gustab's virtually untested pod combined a repulsorlift pod with flaming jet engines.

The famous first experimental race ensured podracing's reputation as a popular and incredibly dangerous sport, and Wenbus, who also worked as a mechanic and race promoter, then developed the sport and set up the first circuits. He standardized the configuration of podracers as being Phoebos's design of a small repulsorlift-driven cockpit connected by flexible control cables to a pair of massive turbine, plasma, or rocket engines that were joined by a pair of plasma energy binders.

Text and facts from the “Gustab Wenbus” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.