That sense of realism often hits Mark Donohues son. He was just 22 years old when he had won his first race, a local hill climb. Donohue was considered a leading Trans-Am driver of the late 1960s and early 1970s. 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. Clark, J. Donahue qualified fourth and passed Bobby Allison for the lead on Lap 10. 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 Grand Prix. He finds the same things funny. How Gulf deal has boosted Williams's F1 commercial strategy, Why F1's nearly man is refreshed and ready for his return, Why F1's nearly man is refreshed and ready for his return 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. 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. He was just that way. Mark Donohue was an enigma. During their enormous success in Trans-Am, Penske and Donohue would begin to experiment with their Camaros. Truth is, they often didnt know if something would work., Thirty-three years after the big crash, Penske told Argetsinger: Mark was my best friend [this, despite Donohue once spearing his boss with an AMC Javelin in the pits, tossing Penske 15 feet]. He won the first event he entered, a hillclimb[2] in Belknap County, New Hampshire. Donohue dominated the 1967 race, driving a Lola T70 MkIII Chevrolet for Penske. I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. It served as the first NASCAR victory for aspiring team owner Roger Penske, a proverbial snowball sent rolling down a path thatd alter the entire American auto racing landscape. 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. 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 . He was young Roger Penskes equal. The victory was the first for Penske in the Indy 500. Donohue raced in the inaugural IROC series in 197374, racing identical, specially-prepared Porsche RSRs. 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). Forgot password? In auto racing, though, even thinking man's drivers can get killed by punctured tires. Im sure David really missed out on a lot. 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. "We had stop watches back then, with a timing chart taped on the back that converted seconds to miles per hour, but 180mph didn't exist on the timing chart." 12 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. 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. In 1970 new Javelin team owner Roger Penske and driver Mark Donohue would breathe new life into the AMC team. He was really the first person that I knew in racing that not only had the driving skills, but also the technical knowledge. 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. He died on August 19, 1975 in Graz, Styria, Austria. [2], Donohue was hired on March 29, 1964, by Jack Griffith [Griffith Motors, Syosset, N.Y./Plainview, N.Y.] as design engineer for the Griffith, formerly TVR Grantura Mk III, powered by a Ford 289 cid (4.7l) V8 engine. They changed the grille and taillight to the 1968 model, and then painted both cars identically. Think about the championships we won together, the first Indy 500 victory for the team, three Trans-Am championships. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. But his thinking man's approach to racing, while successful on the track, was difficult off. Two weeks ago, he took the 1973 CanAm car out of mothballs and set a world speed record for a closed course of 221.160 miles an. [12] In his first race for Penske, at Watkins Glen in June 1966, Donohue qualified well but crashed the car at the top of a hill, destroying it. But this was a safe driver, a man who knew his limits, his car's limits and didn't go over the edge, as they say in racing. Event the win at the 1972 Indianapolis 500 created more sleepless nights, because the win did not come on his own terms. The highlight of his entire career was winning the . Complete Canadian-American Challenge Cup results, Inskip Family History & Competition Engineering staff. We were in Lime Rock and I was in a motorhome and my mom came out and woke my brother and I up so we could watch the end of the race. 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 had stepped out of driving retirement . 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. J. Funk and J. L. 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. Although photographs of Donohue with the more aerodynamic 1974 Matador coupe exist and are published, he did not drive it in competition. No, I never worried about the dangers of racing, he said in March, 1974, while being honored at a luncheon following his retirement. Its a goal he had and a goal he checked off. Racing was Donohues obsession. this email address already registerd with us. Allison, the runner-up finisher, will forever be in awe of what he witnessed from Donohue, with whom hed eventually work while driving for Penske. Donohue was hit in the head by a fence post and knocked unconscious. I think I was the first guy to assert that Mark was a better driver than an engineer, says Bedard. Mark returned [a year later] because he realized he wasnt good at anything else. After considering the potential consequences, the race stewards allowed Donohue's victory to stand, but the rules for the 1968 season incorporated a change whereby all cars would be weighed during the technical inspection before the race. And when he thought he had done enough, he quit. 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. 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. Every dime I had I put into cars, he said. This account has been suspended due to strange activity. There was little question then that Donohue, who would testdrive the new car and help supervise its development, would come out of retirement. The 2023 Genesis G90 Shows Sedans Still Matter, Horner: FIA 'Got a New Couch' From His Team's Fine, Why Ford and GM Truck Production Has Stopped, Alonso, Aston Martin Put Red Bull on Notice, Autoweek Racing on TV: February 27-March 5, Racer helped build the foundation for Roger Penske's racing success, Newman/Haas Racing Is Selling 42 Indy Cars Oct. 29, Three-time Indy 500 Starter Rasmussen Dies at 85, How Dixon's Simple Mistake Cost Him Indy 500 Win, Move Over ABBA, Sweden Has a New Racing Superstar, Jimmie Johnson's Indy 500 Experience Ends in Crash, Ayla Agren Is Montoya's Eyes in the Sky for 500, 11 Closest Indianapolis 500 Finishes in History, Larry Foyt Out to Get A.J. Mark Donohue SCCA national champion early in a career Donohue was born in New Jersey on March 18, 1937, and became involved in racing as a senior at college. Then they put both cars in the race, number 15 and 16, one car being 250 pounds lighter. The bungalow is where team manager Chuck Cantwell and the teams public relations director Dan Luginbuhl worked along with secretary Maryann ODonnell. Donohue was the driver of Penskes first Brickyard effort in 1969. He had been a national amateur champion and the Sports Car Club of America driver of the year in 1965. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. 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. He did it at Talladega, Ala., in the turbocharged Porsche he drove to the 1973 CanAm title. [10], In 1966, thanks to his friendship with Hansgen, word quickly spread to the Ford Motor Company about the young driver. It was hard to believe because Donohue and team owner Roger Penske were then the cleverest guys in racing. He thinks the same way. He began to spend more than time. The thing that impressed me most about Mark is how serious he was about racing, vehicle preparation and all of the things that we know that contribute to success, Czarnecki said. And I know that Roger loved him. It is core to the myth of Mark that he was just an okay driver but a genius engineer. He knew racing drivers couldn't come back. And neither found what they expected. As ADAM COOPER recalls, though, it ended in tragedy. Roger Penske and Mark Donohue following Donohue's IROC win in 1974. We need an obit.. 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. To those who work at the cemetery, Donohue is simply known as The Race Car Driver to visitors looking for his gravesite. The supposition is that a support post from one of the advertising signs caught Donohue's helmet. It meant immediate surgery. The No. 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. But there was always that missing link, as he called itgrand prix. But if his father, Mark Sr., a successful patent lawyer, never envisaged a racing career for his son, neither cid young Mark. The search for Mark Donohue concludes in the upscale community of Summit, New Jersey just outside of New York City. But supervising the Penske efforts in stock car and Indianapolistype racing did not agree with Donohue. In 1974, he quit driving and became president of Penske Racing. 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. Midway through the 1975 F1 season, Penske abandoned the troublesome PC1 and started using the March 751. His true passion was racing. Its as if his father is in his presence. The team was third at Daytona and second at Sebring. [citation needed] Hansgen arranged for Donohue to become his teammate in 1965, co-driving a Ferrari 275 at the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race,[2] which they finished in 11th place. Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery. Police have not yet released his identity. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/20/archives/donohue-38-dead-of-racing-injuries-mark-donohue-is-dead-of-racing.html. When Donohue took the Ferrari to Le Mans, the car attained only 205 mph on the straight versus the Porsche 917s 235 mph. U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current. 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. To those who knew him best, he had a tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed pulling pranks. 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. Drexel University 1973 Lexerd (Yearbook), pp. Thank you. 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 raced in seven of the eight races that year, winning six (at Las Vegas, Riverside, Bridgehampton, Watkins Glen, Pacific Raceways, and Mid-Ohio) and finishing third at the Laguna Seca Raceway round behind Lothar Motschenbacher and Mike Goth. 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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Mark Donohue returning from retirement to lead Roger Penske's Formula 1 team looked like a perfect match. Begrudgingly, Donohue used Bettenhausens setup for the race. [citation needed]. He was my original partner in racing, Penske told Autoweek. The setup he designed for his car didnt have as much speed as teammate Gary Bettenhausens setup. Back to Victory Lane, Every Indy 500 Winner from the Dawn of Time, In search of Team Penske racing legend Mark Donohue. [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. When Penske decided late to enter Formula One full time, Donohue had a difficult decision to make. But there was one phase of racing that he had never really taken part in, what he called his personal missing link. This was in the Formula One cars, perhaps this dangerous sport's most dangerous, which run on the grand prix circuit.
Quizlet Module 5 Exploring Creation With Biology,
Pounds To Dollars In Year 1930,
Articles M