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. In everything he droveeven an Elva Courier and a Cobra, cars he didnt develophe still won. Stay close to the outside curbing, brake hard, and turn in . (Photo: Bob DOlivo / The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images). Mark Donohue did not take a traditional route to racing or to Penskes side. At the Austrian Grand Prix, Donohue's career, along with Roger Penske's Formula One aspirations, took a tragic turn. Donohue did not start the first race of the year at Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City due to problems getting the engine to start. Police have not yet released his identity. During its production life, there were 192 Series 200 Griffiths built, 59 of the Series 400 and only 10 of the Series 600. . Bernie Ecclestone hopes BBC agrees new Formula 1 UK TV deal, Stroll was "protecting" injured wrist during Bahrain GP practice, Stroll was "protecting" injured wrist during Bahrain GP practice Donohue held the record for 11 years, until it was broken by Rick Mears at Michigan International Speedway. Donohues father was a patent attorney. He turned his last race, the first International Race of Champions finalin which top driver from all forms of racing competed into an easy victory Feb. 15, 1974, and then concentrated on his new duties as president of Penske Racing. When you see the car in real life, it becomes so much more real.. The car did a series of cartwheels, and Donohue broke both legs. 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. You can go away and the void that you leave gets filled quickly, but when you come back, you are greeted with open arms. Donohue was the driver of Penskes first Brickyard effort in 1969. 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. Porsche, Penske, and Donohue quickly started the development of the 917-30, complete with a reworked aerodynamic "Paris" body and a 5.4-liter turbocharged flat-12 engine whose output could be adjusted from about 1,100 to 1,500 bhp[citation needed] by turning a boost knob in the cockpit. He never regained consciousness. David Donohue drives his dad's 1972 Indy 500-winning car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016. In the 1971 Indianapolis 500, Donohue started second and led 52 of the first 66 laps before breaking a gearbox. 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. An investigation determined tire failure caused Donohue's fatal crash, and the family won a $12 million settlement. There, he was Godthat was his way of distinguishing himself. His divine touch extended to his street cars; a friend once described riding in Donohues Porsche 911 as a Wall of Death thing most of the time., The relentless pursuit of perfection eventually took its toll. It is core to the myth of Mark that he was just an okay driver but a genius engineer. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Why Autosport is changing how it ranks F1 drivers from 2023 onwards, The key factors behind F1s Premier League-style managerial revolving door, The key factors behind F1s Premier League-style managerial revolving door Try a week on us. Most of Donohues wins (28) came in Trans-Am, the United States Road Racing Championship (12) and Can-Am (10). He was a winner at the 24 Hours of Daytona and in stock cars. With Roger Penske, you are always going to have good equipment. That is where Mark Donohue often slept when he worked his way to near exhaustion at the race shop. Why F1's nearly man is refreshed and ready for his return, IndyCar St. Petersburg: Dixon leads Herta in incident-packed opening practice, IndyCar St. Petersburg: Dixon leads Herta in incident-packed opening practice In all, there were 57 major victories and more than $1million in purses for this pleasant, intelligent man who gave up a career in mechanical engineering because racing is what he wanted to do. Le Mans proved frustrating for Donohue. He approaches things the same way. 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. Hansgen died while testing the GT40 in preparation for Le Mans so Donohue partnered with Australian Paul Hawkins. Airport would have sent a stock Camaro flopping around. The Newtown Square facility was a small, 4,000 square-foot garage out back with a small bungalow in front of the shop. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. Its as if his father is in his presence. He was a partner, he was a friend and a critical piece of the foundation of our race team.. Mark Donohue races to the win at the the 1972 Indy 500. He was very quiet, very unassuming, Mario Andretti told Autoweek. The book told how Donohue learned to exploit the antilock braking system and the powerful turbocharged engine of several prototype Porsches, as well as how he learned from various mishaps, including a near-fatal crash. We had the tragic crash in practice and he seemed like he was all right, but he ended up losing his life. In 1969, Penske brought his team -- and the Penske way -- to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time. Mark returned [a year later] because he realized he wasnt good at anything else. He was good in Trans-Am, Indy cars, Can-Am and Formula One. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. A visit to the gravesite on a gray, cold, foggy March day revelaved little toy race cars on the gravestone, along with a plastic checkered flag -- a testament the life of Mark Donohue. I don't think I could have handled that.. He said, Just follow me. Following Mark Donohue on a two-lane road with no street lights was an exercise. Penske's new Penske Racing complex in Mooresville, North Carolina is decorated with various murals of Donohue and his racing cars, most notably the AMC stock car and the various Porsche prototypes that Donohue drove through his career. Donohue co-drove in the No. Every time David Donohue sees that car, he sees his father. Her . His average speed around the 2.66-mile (4.28 km) high-banked oval was 221.120 mph (355.858 km/h). When she brought us in to see the finish, I dont think she knew he had won. The two proved to be like-minded peas in a pod. Foyt and Emerson Fittipaldi, among others tangible proof that, stock-car equipment being even, Donohue was a world beater. That sense of realism often hits Mark Donohues son. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. After coming out of retirement with his former boss, Penske, Donohue returned to Formula One, entering into the final two races of the 1974 Formula One season. Forgot password? He was one of the best American roadracers in history, but his biggest triumph was on the oval at Indianapolis, where in 1972 he won the 500. Revson's death made it almost inevitable that Donohue would come out of retirement. Appeal from that part of an order of the Supreme Court (Platkin, J. The 917/30 generally is considered one of the most powerful and most dominant racing machines ever created. He was my original partner in racing, Penske told Autoweek. Some day, they promised each other, Donohue would try to become the first American since Phil Hill in 1961 to win the world driving chmpionship. The driver must accept the risks involved, which I did and I spent my time in the hispital as a result., See the article in its original context from. 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. Donohue took three victories and the series championship, besting the likes of Petty, Allison, David Pearson, A.J. Donohue was able to muster fifth-place finishes at the Swedish Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix, but the new Penske PC1 chassis proved problematic, as evidenced by three retirements in the first six races. His first marriage ended in divorce and some friends blamed racing. If he didnt test a car before a race, he didnt have his Peanuts security blanket and would fret that his edge was lost.. See the article in its original context from. A mechanical engineering graduate from a wealthy New Jersey background, Donohue won everything in sight on the US scene, in every major category. Donohue. Together, they took on Trans-Am, then turned their attention to the Indianapolis 500. Mark Donohue Fatal Crash (Alternate Footage) Browse more videos Playing next 5:35 Airplane Crash Compilation 2015 SHOCKING FOOTAGE - Most Epic Plane Crashes Caught on Camera Fatal Ab Tak 4:59 Airplane Crash Compilation 2015 SHOCKING FOOTAGE - Most Epic Plane Crashes Caught on Camera Fatal punjabi & islamic tv 5:35 He was a sweet gentleman in every race. The 1967 Z-28 won its last race by lapping the entire field of cars, causing suspicion throughout the paddock. But his thinking man's approach to racing, while successful on the track, was difficult off. The guy that is most like Mark that Ive ever met is David, said Don Cox. His Porsche 917-30 was so dominant it was called the Can-Am Killer, as he won seven of eight races and the 1973 Can-Am Championship. Czarnecki saw the brilliance, humor and darkness -- all part of Donohues character. Losing a driver is something you cant replace. racing was concerned, he had done it all. As one of the best test drivers and developers in the business, he would get the car ready, then Penske would have to turn it over to a younger hotshot. But the intended hotshot, Peter Revson, was killed in a grandprix accident in March, 1974. Ford had developed a new GT, the Mark IV. Donohue's rocketed 7 through four wire catchfences and several roadside billboards. Donohue was about to have his race victory taken away for cheating, but Roger Penske stepped in. The email you entered is not registered with us. [17] That race was Penske's first NASCAR win in a long history of NASCAR participation. Once, Penske rented a Formula One car for Donohue and in 1971, in his first start in one of these singleseat, opencockpit racing cars, he finished third in the Canadian Grand Prix. 66 McLaren/Offenhauser that Mark Donohue drove to win the 1972 Indy 500. He died two days later. Donohue began his Trans-Am series campaign in 1967, winning three of twelve races in a Roger Penske-owned Chevrolet Camaro. But where other youngsters were souping up cars to impress girls, I was only interested in the mechanics, Donohue said. For Donohue, there was little time to grieve, as his own Le Mans debut was looming. Prior to a race, he would sit in the back of the transporter by himself in the dark and think about the race, Czarnecki said. But supervising the Penske efforts in stock car and Indianapolistype racing did not agree with Donohue. Then they put both cars in the race, number 15 and 16, one car being 250 pounds lighter. 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. Worse yet, when Donohue wasnt racing, he was working 18- to 20-hour days at the teams small race shop, located in a garage in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb, and later, a more modern facility in nearby Reading. 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]. 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. In 1974, Mark Donohue took a year off from driving at the height of his racing career to write "The Unfair Advantage," a candid and revealing book about his journey through the world of auto racing -- from amateur SCCA races in his own '57 Corvette to winning the Indy 500 in Roger Penske's McLaren M16. Donohue, equipped with a mechanical-engineering degree from Brown University, approached car setup not with pet theories or traditional wisdom but with a slide rule, an overarching grasp of how physics strives to thwart a race cars mission, and 300 push-ups daily. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/21/archives/mark-donohue-returns-to-die.html. 1975, resulting from an accident two days earlier during practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. Coffay fled the scene. Their performance on the track also quickly turned heads. He wanted to show he could do it all again. Donohue, no matter what he accomplished, couldnt rest. I was the chief engineer because I was the only engineer, Cox recalled. A fire at the Sunoco refinery near the airport dominated the front pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer, but the sports section belonged to Mark Donohue, a racecar driver who had blown a tire during a practice run before the Austrian Grand Prix and died from complications related to the accident two days later, August 19, 1975. Painkillers affected his memory, and he began drinking heavily to deal with the pain. But there was always that missing link, as he called itgrand prix. It became official last September. With the Corvette money, he also bought a trailer to hold the car and a station wagon to tow the trailer.. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? He finds the same things funny. The book was published shortly before Donohue's death. He won three national sports car championships as an amateur before he turned professional in 1966, first as the late Walt Hansgen's codriver, then for the rest of his life with Penske. In 1967 he became the USRRC champion, winning six out of eight races. Michael is another guy but there is this thing between Mark and David, even in terms of their life experiences. In 1961, Donohue bought the Elva and battled with another young racing star, Peter Revson, for the SCCA divisional championship. The two had a tremendous respect for each other and put their own personal egos aside to win races. Going racing meant anywhere and everywhere, and the two chose to tackle stock cars. In the final race of the season, Javelins finished in first, second and third place, with George Follmer becoming the only other Javelin driver to win besides Donohue. I get all of these tiny little stories from everybody where my dad grabbed this guy as a kid and sat him in the car -- and that motivated him enough to go to engineering school. However, the Penske Formula One car proved unsound and Donohue's best finish this year was a fifth place. He tried to get a car dealership; that didnt work. He knew, maybe all along, that he would come back. I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. It was. Donohue was a . We went to Phoenix and tested it with the wings off and then put the wings on and couldnt believe how fast it was. He went on to assist TVR's David Hives in designing the Series 400 Griffith and then working on the ill-fated Bob Cumberford-designed, Intermeccanica-(Torino, Italy) produced Series 600 Griffith. 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. Mark Donohue (1937-1975), pictured here with wife Eden and nicknamed "Captain Nice", was an American race driver who is probably best known as the driver of the 1500+ bhp Can-Am Penske Porsche 917-30 and as the 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner in a Team Penske-entered McLaren.Sadly, he perished in an accident during practice for the 1975 Austrian Formula One Grand Prix. At about 09h45 he left the pits again for another testing run. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. The track chosen for the speed record attempt was the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. 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. Were far from having too much horsepower, he asserted. 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. Mark contracted polio when he was 6, but he fully recovered. To those who knew him best, he had a tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed pulling pranks. 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. I imagine it must feel like watching another man in bed with your wife. Its a goal he had and a goal he checked off. Aug 21, 2015, 4:28 PM. [2] Donohue announced that he would retire from racing after the 1973 Can-Am season. He did the job for Roger, no question. IndyCar St. Petersburg: Dixon leads Herta in incident-packed opening practice, Bahrain GP: F1 technical images direct from the pitlane, Bahrain GP: F1 technical images direct from the pitlane From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. Mark Donohue. He won many races for us and the first IROC championship with the Porsche. It was an iconic car, iconic colors for the day and it really brings back memories. Hangsen was killed testing a car for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. We werent out there to have fun. Had there been a Drivers' Championship in place at the time, he would have won three of them (his last in 1971) while driving Camaros in 1968 and 1969, and an AMC Javelin in 1971, all for Roger Penske Racing. 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. He flew under the radar a lot, but he was always there. Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? He did everything he could to lose me. Harry Gant was a champion in 1985, Ricky Rudd was a champion in 1992 and Mark Martin became a five-time champion; all three failed to secure NASCAR championships. 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. I didnt get to know my father very well because he passed away when I was young, but racing has given him back to me. He gave us a lot of credibility and was the keystone of our racing. Despite this, Donohue still dominated the series, even though he suffered three DNFs during the season due to mechanical problems with the M6A. The book was re-released in 2000 by Bentley Publishers (Cambridge, Massachusetts). But he always had good equipment, too. Donohue paced himself that day and took the lead for the first time with 12 laps to go. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. It was August 9, 1975. 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. It is there at Saint Teresa Cemetery and Mausoleum that Donohue is buried alongside his mother and father. By the end of the crash, the front end of the car was missing, and Mark's legs were fully outside the car, with his only injury . A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? Hed eventually swap leads with Richard Petty, but took the reins of the race for good for the final 75 circuits, lapping the entire field in the process. Donohue and Hawkins completed only twelve laps due to differential failure and finished 47th. When David Donohue was young, he never really got to know his father -- Mark Donohue. The real Mark came out.. 1975 Camaro Racemark GT Bob Bailey. He tinkered his way all through Pingry School, Brown University and a job as a mechanical engineer with the Pulverizing Machinery Corporation in Summit. What can be better in life, a better ideal?, In 1966, Penske told him: Try it for a year, you're still a young man, and if it doesn't work out you can always go back to engineering.. Through racing and after more than four decades after the tragic death of his father, David Donohue believes he has found Mark Donohue. Stroll was "protecting" injured wrist during Bahrain GP practice, Alonso "not thinking" about Bahrain pole despite topping Friday times, Alonso "not thinking" about Bahrain pole despite topping Friday times ', On Wednesday morning, August 20, 1975, the phone rang in my dingy beige apartment in Burlington, Ontario. Mark was an engineer from Brown University, Penske said. DON HUNTER, BILL OURSLER, THE MANUFACTURERS, Elana Scherr: On the Count of Three (Wheels), Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Mark Donohue spent many late nights in the bungaloo in front of the original Penske garage in Newtown Square, Pa. Marks wife, Sue, raised young David and his older brother Michael. He died from severe head injuries sustained August 16 in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix at Graz, Austria. Please try again. Directing other drivers, making suggestions, helping mechanicseven sweeping up around the garagewere not enough. Showing Editorial results for mark donohue. They continued to use the "lightweight" car in 1968, at the Sebring 12-hour race. And, according to Cox, Roger certainly did his part in coming up with next projects.. That put Bettenhausen in the lead before a pinhole leak in the Bettenhausen cars cooling system with 12 laps to go put Donohue in the lead and the first of Penske Racings record 16 Indy 500 victories.
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