He would greet those who didnt know him with a smile, but he was so focused and obsessed with making the race car go fast, he was distant. We started with a Lola 4-wheel drive, and in 1971 we got a McLaren. This remains the last time a ringer captured a win in a Cup Series road course race, but the victory took on a far greater meaning in hindsight. In his career, Donohue started 311 races and won 119 of them, a winning average of 38 percent. During the development of this motor, the German Porsche engineers often asked Donohue if the motor finally had enough power. Racing is a very weird circus that way. The $9500 price was a 50-percent premium over the fully optioned Camaro Racemark started with. I think the people at Indy thought we were the college guys with the crew haircuts and the polished wheels. The setup he designed for his car didnt have as much speed as teammate Gary Bettenhausens setup. One night I was in Philadelphia and was following Mark to the old shop in Newtown Square. There were victories in stockcar racing against Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and the other Southern drivers; in the TransAm series, where three times he captured the season title competing against the best sedans the Detroit factories could produce; in the 24 hours of Daytona, against the best international sports cars endurance pilots, and in the initital Pocono 500 in 1971 against A. J. Foyt, Bobby and Al Unser, Mario Andretti and the other stars from the United States Auto Club championship circuit. After an initial run of four laps, Donohue entered the pits for a routine check-up and a few adjustments. It was an iconic car, iconic colors for the day and it really brings back memories. What controls the frontline in the latest F1 design tech battles, Why Autosport is changing how it ranks F1 drivers from 2023 onwards, Why Autosport is changing how it ranks F1 drivers from 2023 onwards Mark Donohue & Manfred Schaller's Fatal Crash @ sterreichring 1975 (Aftermath) FatalMotorsportChannel 26.2K subscribers Subscribe 24K views 4 months ago Mark Donohue and Roger Penske had. Between 1971 and 1972, Penske Racing (along with Donohue as the primary test and development driver) was commissioned by Porsche to help develop the 917-10 to compete in the Can-Am series. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? Mercedes: New W14 sidepod design wont copy F1 rivals, FIA grants Hamilton medical exemption to wear nose studs, FIA grants Hamilton medical exemption to wear nose studs Its something that Ive looked at since I was really young as a kid, Donohue said. 4445. Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery. Fellow racer and former teammate Sam Posey called Donohue, a gunslinger who also happened to have designed the gun.. He tried to be a team manager; that didnt work. He was passionate about racing. At about 09h45 he left the pits again for another testing run. The rookies looking to make their mark on F1 in 2023, The rookies looking to make their mark on F1 in 2023 I saw him race at Lime Rock in an Elva, and (longtime Penske friend and later president of the IROC series) Jay Signore said I should watch this guy. Its always great that history is reviewed and remembered and adds more to the prominence and significance of the event to bring it all together. The 1972 Indy win was a classic race for the man who not only drove the race car but also served as its engineer and mechanic back at Penske Racing. [2], Donohue was invited back to Le Mans by Ford in 1967. who retired from one of the greatest careers in auto racing history at age 36, unretired at 37 and died Tuesday night at 38 of brain injuries suffered in a crash before the Austrian. Prior to racing in Formula One, Donohue was a racer in the Ford GT40, Trans-Am, Indy car, NASCAR, Can-Am and IROC racing series. That day at Indy, Bobby Unsers Eagle dominated the contest before Unser dropped out. I don't think I could have handled that.. We were there to go racing.. I did everything I could to keep up. It would have really been great watching those two together in the later years if it had gotten that far. Donohue finished fourth at Daytona and won the Trans-Am class at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Losing a driver is something you cant replace. As an American driver, he had done it all. The Penske overturned into a ravine, just a few meters beyond an underpass in which several people were standing.Debris from Donohue's car, particularly a wheel, hit a policeman, Richard Httner from Baden, who sustained critical head injuries, and three marshals - seriously injuring two of them, Gottfried Crnic and Manfred Schaller. Donahue qualified fourth and passed Bobby Allison for the lead on Lap 10. A track marshal was killed by debris from the accident, but Donohue did not appear to be injured significantly. On his second lap, while at about 260 km/h a rear tire of his March 751 - Ford suddenly blew, the out of control car went through the fence for about 180 feet, over a guard-rail and into a ravine. With his marriage to Sue falling apart, Donohues personal life was in turmoil. He was young Roger Penskes equal. But he was still, a great driver. Mark Donohue racked in 59 career wins for Team Penske in several different series. That is something I would have never had if I didnt go to races. Racing was Donohues obsession. After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, it led the SCCA, IMSA and other race series to impose fuel limitations on motor sport racing as a whole, which hampered the performance of the 917/30, making it uncompetitive in the Can-Am series. When police found him about three hours later, his . Roger Penske and Mark Donohue following Donohue's IROC win in 1974. To appreciate what Donohue and Penske accomplished that day, lets consider three important points: Its safe to say Donohue, an Ivy League-educated engineer, was Penskes muse when it came to auto racing; the burgeoning team owner offered Donohue a driving job at a funeral for Donohues friend, Walt Hansgen, his co-driver in sports cars whod helped guide young Donohues career to that point. He was the thinking man's driver, maybe because, unlike most of his rivals, he had an Ivy League education and maybe because looking at that cherubic face, which was several years younger than his racescarred body, there was no other way to explain how this kid was winning. Once, in 1971, he and Penske showed up at the Canadian Grand Prix and Jackie Stewart, the former world champion, kidded them: Welcome to the major leagues.. He had one religion: testing. Mark was an engineer from Brown University, Penske said. And given enough time just one more year, maybe he wouldve become Americas first world champion.. What we learned from Friday practice at F1's 2023 Bahrain GP. I can hardly wait to get back to work with our car, he said. They continued to use the "lightweight" car in 1968, at the Sebring 12-hour race. It began as a hobby in 1959 when Donohue sold his soupedup Corvette, which he used to drive around at Brown, and for $3,000 purchased his first racing cara little Elva with an MG engine. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. I could see what was coming, he said. The 38yearold Donohue underwent a threehour operation at a hospital here Sunday to remove a blood clot from his brain. Donohue was the driver of Penskes first Brickyard effort in 1969. At first, the former Indianapolis 500 winner was thought to have just a mild concussion. The Penske grand prix car proved a disappointment and Donohue's best finish this season was a fifth place in the British Grand Prix. The two had a tremendous respect for each other and put their own personal egos aside to win races. Mark obviously brought an air of professionalism. The original Penske Racing team included Penske, Donohue, chief mechanic and crew chief Karl Kainhofer. And my wife gave me permission, so when something like that happens you have to go. It meant immediate surgery. [9] That year, Donohue also won two divisional championships: in SCCA B Class in a GT350 and in SCCA Formula C in a Lotus 20B. Mark Donohue at the 1971 Canadian Grand Prix, Today, we have specialists, but Mark was such a versatile guy, he drove everything for us.. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Alonso "not thinking" about Bahrain pole despite topping Friday times, Why Las Vegas is key to F1's growth plans, Why Las Vegas is key to F1's growth plans TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. He was helped by Emerson Fittipaldi, Bob Evans and Hans-Joachim Stuck, who arrived to the scene of the accident and parked their cars. He was very quiet, very unassuming, Mario Andretti told Autoweek. Instructions on how to reset your password have been sent to your email. The out-of-control car left the track at high speed, tore some 60 meters of the catch-fence on the left side of the track and crashed against the guard-rail, vaulting over it. The practice sessions were marred by serious accidents; Brian Henton destroyed his Lotus after sliding in an oil patch, and Wilson Fittipaldi broke his hand when crashing at the Rindt Kurve. He died from severe head injuries sustained August 16 in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix at Graz, Austria. Donohue is probably best known as the driver of the 1500+ bhp "Can-Am Killer" Porsche 917-30 and as the winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1972. He was good in Trans-Am, Indy cars, Can-Am and Formula One. It was an epic stomping; he led over 361 miles that day, and in perusing the finishing order Bobby Unser finished fourth while West Series drivers Ray Elder, Jimmy Insolo, Jack McCoy and Richard White, all of whom made regular stops at Riverside, finished third, fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively it was clear this was a race decided by the interlopers, the kind of race we no longer see in modern-day NASCAR, where drivers have been cross-trained and educated on technology and data to the point each race contains 38 different versions of the Donohue prototype. That long association resulted in the ultimate triumph for an American driver in 1972, when he won the Indianapolis 500. No, I never worried about the dangers of racing, he said in March, 1974, in New York while being honored at a luncheon. His car was almost inexplicably fast, so much so that, according to Donohues book The Unfair Advantage, race winner Al Unser sought him out after the race and said: Look, weve been competitors for a long time, and you have your way of doing things and I have mine, but when you come here and run six miles an hour faster than everyone else I gotta shake your hand.. During its production life, there were 192 Series 200 Griffiths built, 59 of the Series 400 and only 10 of the Series 600. To be sure, it seems what we now know as The Penske Way gained steam with Donohue as its pied piper. I didnt expect that at all, David Donohue, 51, said. Police have not yet released his identity. Painkillers affected his memory, and he began drinking heavily to deal with the pain. But where other youngsters were souping up cars to impress girls, I was only interested in the mechanics, Donohue said. He joined Roger Penske, a former sports car rival who had set up his own team, the following year as a fulltime professional. But Donohue knew that time was running short and his skills and reflexes weren't getting any better. Don Cox would later join the team in 1969 after working as an engineer for General Motors. During a practice session for the race, Donohue lost control of his March after a tyre failed, sending him into the catch fencing at the fastest corner on the track, Vest Hgel Kurve. Mark wasnt an emotional guy. It was August 9, 1975. [2][6], Donohue won the SCCA national championship in an Elva Courier in 1961. Both Donohue and Penske changed teams to American Motors Corporation in 1970 and won their third championship in 1971. Then they put both cars in the race, number 15 and 16, one car being 250 pounds lighter. Donohue won in every type of race car he climbed into except for one -- the Formula 1 March 751 that ultimately cost him his life. Donohue was obsessed with finding any possible advantage through engineering -- and loopholes in the rules. Event the win at the 1972 Indianapolis 500 created more sleepless nights, because the win did not come on his own terms. Mark Donohue drove the Porsche 917-30 Can-Am after making various aerodynamic and suspension modifications. [5][19] Donohue is buried at St. Teresa Cemetery in Summit, New Jersey. I dont remember him changing a bit.. Donohue's rocketed 7 through four wire catchfences and several roadside billboards. [citation needed]. It is core to the myth of Mark that he was just an okay driver but a genius engineer. Back then it was tape-delayed, and she was watching the race on TV. Im sure David really missed out on a lot. The guy that is most like Mark that Ive ever met is David, said Don Cox. He did it at Talladega, Ala., in the turbocharged Porsche he drove to the 1973 CanAm title. Donohues dad was often racing in the United States or Canada for a fledgling operation called Penske Racing. Nine weeks before the Le Mans race, while testing a GT40 Mk II in the rain, Donohue's friend and former teammate Walt Hansgen lost control and crashed his car into an escape road barrier, suffering fatal injuries. He wanted to know how we were doing. Our car experts choose every product we feature. Donohue and Hawkins completed only twelve laps due to differential failure and finished 47th. . They were embarrassed, and like the streak of success following the 71 Indianapolis 500, they returned to Riverside in 1973 with a heavy chip on their shoulders. His body will be flown to the United States tomorrow and the funeral will take place Monday in Summit, N. J., where Donohue grew up and first got caught up in the hotrod phenomenon. A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at 1 P.M. in St. Teresa's Church. From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. He was sleeping at the shop, and he couldnt say no to Rogercouldnt decline more development, more cars, more projects., Weary and still recuperating from leg injuries sustained in an awful crash at Road Atlantawhich briefly left him allegedly abusing alcoholDonohue announced his retirement at the end of 73. Mark Neary Donohue Jr. (March 18, 1937 August 19, 1975), nicknamed "Captain Nice,"[1][2] and later "Dark Monohue,"[2] was an American race car driver and engineer known for his ability to set up his own race car as well as driving it to victories.[3][4][5][6]. Mark returned [a year later] because he realized he wasnt good at anything else. That got everybodys attention -- the polished wheels, the way our guys looked, the way the cars were prepared and obviously, the performance was good. Mark Donohue was 38 and a sports car champion and 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner. Begrudgingly, Donohue used Bettenhausens setup for the race. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. through one of the fastest turns on the track. Portrait of American racing driver Mark Donohue as he poses with his car after winning the Indianapolis 500 race, Speedway, Indiana, May 1972. . On 09 August he reached an average speed around the 2.66 mile high-banked oval, of 221.120 mi/h (about 355 km/h), this has been a World record for several years.Donohue and the Penske team then made the trip to Austria. To those who work at the cemetery, Donohue is simply known as The Race Car Driver to visitors looking for his gravesite. . Coming out of turn seven at about 150mph (240km/h), the rear bodywork flew off the car, which became extremely unstable, lifted off the ground, and tumbled down the track. His condition quickly worsened and he passed away two days later, victim of a blood clot in his brain.Following the fatal accident the sterreichring first turn was tightened in 1976 and the track lenght passed from 5.911 to 5.906 kilometers. I think I was the first guy to assert that Mark was a better driver than an engineer, says Bedard. (He was operated on at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta by Drs. Seeing it in real life when you come into the museum here, I know one thing -- I fit in it really well. A lot of the things we saw on todays cars are things Mark thought about and brought to the surface., Mark Donohue stood out more ways than one when he was dominating the Can Am Series in the early. On August 9, 1975, Donohue drove the 917-30 to a world closed-course speed record at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. Michael is another guy but there is this thing between Mark and David, even in terms of their life experiences. Unfortunately, Donohue lost a life after an accident during practice for 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. And when he thought he had done enough, he quit. Mark Donohue began racing at the age of 22 in a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette . An out-of-court settlement was reached Wednesday at Providence, R.I., in the appeal of a $9.6-million Superior Court verdict awarded the estate of race driver Mark Donohue, killed during practice . The team was third at Daytona and second at Sebring. What I realize now is that I wouldnt have succeeded in my other businesses if Mark hadnt completely taken over the race team., In the Penske garage at Indy in 71, someonecertainly not Donohue or Penskeerected a sign that said: Those of you who think you know it all are particularly annoying to those of us who do., .css-dhtls0{display:block;font-family:GlikoS,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-weight:400;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-dhtls0:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-dhtls0{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-dhtls0{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 61.25rem){.css-dhtls0{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}Elana Scherr: On the Count of Three (Wheels), Elana Scherr: Dodge Challenger Challenge Accepted. The 917-30 is referred to as the "Can-Am killer" [18] as it dominated the competition, winning all but two races of the 1973 Can-Am championship (which is an untrue statement, because OPEC killed the Can-Am series in 19751976). It is strangely rewarding in a way I never thought racing would be for me, personally. Among the most impressive cars in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is the beautiful blue and yellow No. Despite this, Donohue still dominated the series, even though he suffered three DNFs during the season due to mechanical problems with the M6A. The trip to the airport was like the Mille Miglia. He did everything he could to lose me. Hangsen was killed testing a car for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. Hed drive the truck, hed drive the race car, he would work on the car. Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? Every time David Donohue sees that car, he sees his father. As ADAM COOPER recalls, though, it ended in tragedy. The No. Le Mans proved frustrating for Donohue. He was just 22 years old when he had won his first race, a local hill climb. Donohue recently had arrived in Austria for the Austrian Grand Prix at the sterreichring race track following the successful closed-course speed record attempt at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama just a few days earlier. He answered, "It will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear.". [4] He was survived by his wife and two sons from his first marriage. They changed the grille and taillight to the 1968 model, and then painted both cars identically. Donohue won. That is where Mark Donohue often slept when he worked his way to near exhaustion at the race shop. Amazingly, Donohue only suffered an internal derangement of his knee with meniscus damage and limited cruciate plus collateral ligament damage. Some of his most notable accomplishments included being the Indy 500 rookie-of-the-year, Trans AM champion and a winner in The 24 Hours of Daytona all in 1969. The real Mark came out.. Midway through the 1975 F1 season, Penske abandoned the troublesome PC1 and started using the March 751. The bungalow is where team manager Chuck Cantwell and the teams public relations director Dan Luginbuhl worked along with secretary Maryann ODonnell. In everything he droveeven an Elva Courier and a Cobra, cars he didnt develophe still won. Jackie Stewart interviews Mark Donohue prior to an IROC race in 1974. GRAZ, Austria, Aug. 19 (AP)Mark Donohue, who ended an eightmonth retirement as an auto driver last year because he couldn't keep away from racing, died tonight of injuries suffered Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix. We need an obit." Warming up for the Austrian Grand Prix, my hero, Donohue, 38, had spun his March at 150 mph and struck his head on a metal bar supporting a sign. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. It was, as they say in racing, a freak accident. He won three times in IndyCar competition and won the 1973 NASCAR Cup Series race at Riverside Raceway in Riverside, California, driving an AMC Matador. His fathers absence from the family took its toll, and eventually the marriage dissolved into divorce. Donohue held the record for 11 years, until it was broken by Rick Mears at Michigan International Speedway . 500-mile (800km) SCCA endurance event, which he won. Watts.) In auto racing, though, even thinking man's drivers can get killed by punctured tires. In 2003, in commemoration of Penske Racing's 50th NASCAR win, Nextel Cup driver Ryan Newman drove a Dodge Intrepid painted to resemble Donohue's 1973 AMC (with a No. I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. "Going down the back straightaway, the wing, which produced a tremendous amount of downforce at high speeds, came off the back of the car," Donohue claimed. In 1969, Penske and Donohue raced in their first Indianapolis 500,[14] with Donohue finishing seventh, winning the rookie of the year award. Cars that Donohue raced include: AMC Javelin, AMC Matador, Chevrolet Camaro, Eagle-Offy, Elva Courier, Ford GT40 MK IV, Ferrari 250LM, Ferrari 512, Lola T70, Lola T330, Lotus 20, McLaren M16, Porsche 911, Porsche 917/10, Porsche 917/30, Shelby Cobra, and Shelby Mustang GT350R. First to go was his marriage, says Argetsinger. An investigation determined tire failure caused Donohue's fatal crash, and the family won a $12 million settlement. He was my original partner in racing, Penske told Autoweek. Back to Victory Lane, Every Indy 500 Winner from the Dawn of Time, In search of Team Penske racing legend Mark Donohue. But there was always that missing link, as he called itgrand prix. Airport would have sent a stock Camaro flopping around. Mark told me, Sometimes you just have to get it done., That was my take, too, says Michael Argetsinger, who has just written a riveting biography called Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed (David Bull Publishing, $39.95). He began to spend more than time. I used to hate riding with him to the airport, said Don Cox, a former chief engineer at Penske Racing when Donohue was with the team. My definition of too much horsepower is when all four wheels are spinning in every gear., Burge Hulett, Donohues lifelong friend, told Bedard: Mark was actually a bit of a doofus, awkward everywhere except behind the wheel. He won the first event he entered, a hillclimb[2] in Belknap County, New Hampshire. My involvement in racing has been like a jigsaw puzzle, David Donohue told Autoweek. The two drivers disagreed on many aspects of racing and car setup, but as a team were able to muster a fourth-place finish in the endurance classic.[13]. Walt Czarnecki, Team Penske vice chairman and among the operations early members, has a deep admiration and respect for what Donohue meant to the Penske organization. A Pennsylvania native by the name of Mark Donohue, the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner, pedaled a red-white-and-blue AMC Matador to his only Cup Series victory in six career starts. They discovered that using a drag racing trick of dipping a car in an acid bath would eat away small amounts of metal, which in turn made the car incrementally lighter, and allowed it to be driven faster. Donohue went on to win 10 of 13 races, a Trans-Am series record which would stand until Tommy Kendall went 11 for 13 in the 1997 Trans-Am championship, winning the first 11 races that year in his All-Sport liveried Mustang. The 1975 season turned out to be a difficult one for Donohue and Penske. Brad Keselowski is second with 54 wins in NASCAR Xfinity and Monster Energy Cup Series racing. This was not merely a celebrity autobiography, but a detailed, step-by-step record of the engineering approach he took to getting the absolutely highest performance from every car he drove, always looking for that elusive "unfair advantage". The key factors behind F1s Premier League-style managerial revolving door, The tangible steps Alpine has taken to meeting its humble F1 2023 targets, The tangible steps Alpine has taken to meeting its humble F1 2023 targets I imagine it must feel like watching another man in bed with your wife. Czarnecki saw the brilliance, humor and darkness -- all part of Donohues character. I had just put in 30 consecutive hours of writing, editing, and laying out race reports for CAR Weekly, which we sometimes spelled Weakly because there were only five of us and we possessed merely the slimmest notion of what we were doing. Donohue raced in the inaugural IROC series in 197374, racing identical, specially-prepared Porsche RSRs. Penske's first race shop in Newtown Square, Pa. All of these tiny little stories you get to put all of these puzzle pieces together and get a much better picture of my father. If we're right, by next season we could be the dominant team in Formula One.. If he didnt test a car before a race, he didnt have his Peanuts security blanket and would fret that his edge was lost.. He won many races for us and the first IROC championship with the Porsche. He was hit on the side of his helmet with debris as his car, which had suffered a punctured tire, went out of control in prerace practice and crashed through four rows of wire catchfences and some billboards along the Oesterreichring race course. He could drive a car in the 24-hour race at Daytona, a Trans-Am Car, an Indy car and a NASCAR car. He is really, really like Mark for good or ill. Ive worked with David for a little bit. And, according to Cox, Roger certainly did his part in coming up with next projects.. For him, it was a check in the box, Penske recalled. A friend once described riding in Donohue's Porsche 911 as a 'Wall of Death thing most of the time. Seeing another man driving your car, a car you know so well. He said so himself many times. He is buried in Saint Teresa Cemetery in Summit, Union County, New Jersey.R.I.P Mark Donohue \u0026 Manfred Schaller. 66 McLaren/Offenhauser that Mark Donohue drove to win the 1972 Indy 500. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? The only engineering Donohue went back to concerned race cars. Donohue began the 1975 Formula 1 season as a 38-year-old rookie and the oldest driver on the grid. Were far from having too much horsepower, he asserted. Search instead in Creative? When Mark Donohue died in Austria 40 years ago this week, motor racing lost not only a hugely successful driver, but also someone who would surely have enjoyed a long and productive career on the other side of the sport.
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