Both Olvey and Trammell got their start in trackside medical response in similar fashion: Answering a bulletin board call for med students to help out at the Indianapolis 500 - Olvey in about 1969, Trammell in 1972. George Follmer, Donohue's old Trans-Am teammate, took over testing the 917-10 for Donohue, who said: It just doesn't feel right. Then they put both cars in the race, number 15 and 16, one car being 250 pounds lighter. 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. Michael is another guy but there is this thing between Mark and David, even in terms of their life experiences. 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 went over 180 miles per hour for the first time and it wasnt on the chart, so nobody knew how fast he went. Donohue was able to obtain two fifth places in the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp and in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, but scored five DNF's in the first 11 races of the season.A few days before going to Zeltweg for the Austrian Grand Prix, scheduled to be contested on 17 August 1975, Penske and Porsche attempted to set the world closed-course record. He was my original partner in racing, Penske told Autoweek. That day at Indy, Bobby Unsers Eagle dominated the contest before Unser dropped out. Directing other drivers, making suggestions, helping mechanicseven sweeping up around the garagewere not enough. I know their first conversation after the race, he didnt say (that he had won). Please try again. No one piece tells you what the puzzle is. When he came out, he was a different person. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker. He will be ranked with A. J. Foyt, Dan Gurney and Andretti in the leading group of American drivers. He was on for a second appearance at the Glen, but a practice accident saw Mark being replaced by David Hobbs. By clicking on 'Join' button, you confirm that you are over 13 years of age and agree to the Terms of Service & Privacy Policy. Hangsen was killed testing a car for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. How famous was Mark . He was a winner at the 24 Hours of Daytona and in stock cars. By then, he had remarried to a model from Atlanta named Eden. 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. David Donohue drives his dad's 1972 Indy 500-winning car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016. 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. However, the Penske Formula One car proved unsound and Donohue's best finish this year was a fifth place. The book was published shortly before Donohue's death. 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 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. Don Cox would later join the team in 1969 after working as an engineer for General Motors. It was an iconic car, iconic colors for the day and it really brings back memories. The rookies looking to make their mark on F1 in 2023, What controls the frontline in the latest F1 design tech battles, What controls the frontline in the latest F1 design tech battles We need an obit.. When David Donohue was young, he never really got to know his father -- Mark Donohue. He knew racing drivers couldn't come back. [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. Mark Donohue races to the win at the the 1972 Indy 500. 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.. [2], At Hansgen's funeral, Roger Penske spoke to Donohue about driving for him. 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. We had a polished yellow tile floor in our garage in Gasoline Alley and took everything out at night and cleaned the floor. The book was re-released in 2000 by Bentley Publishers (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Auto Race Car Driver. Airport would have sent a stock Camaro flopping around. Hed drive the truck, hed drive the race car, he would work on the car. The two had a tremendous respect for each other and put their own personal egos aside to win races. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. For Donohue, there was little time to grieve, as his own Le Mans debut was looming. During its production life, there were 192 Series 200 Griffiths built, 59 of the Series 400 and only 10 of the Series 600. He won Indy and we juiced him up and he was out there giving a speech and he was so funny that his sense of humor came out and everybody loved it. Begrudgingly, Donohue used Bettenhausens setup for the race. Oops! Unfortunately, Donohue lost a life after an accident during practice for 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. He was so gentlemanly, he was boring. Losing a driver is something you cant replace. To those who work at the cemetery, Donohue is simply known as The Race Car Driver to visitors looking for his gravesite. 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. At Donohue's bedside were his wife of eight months, Eden; his father, Mark Sr., a retired patent lawyer, and Roger Penske, for whom he drove since 1966 and a close personal friend. 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. 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. Choose a Username Available! 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. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? I think at that point we started to bring the sport to a higher level, Penske said. His retirement was short-lived, however, as he was lured back to full-time competitive driving by Penske when he formed a Formula One team, Penske Cars Ltd, to compete in the final two events of the 1974 Formula One World Championship, and to continue competing in 1975 with the new Penske PC1. 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. He wanted to know how we were doing. Mark Donohue died last night. To those who knew him best, he had a tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed pulling pranks. Mark Donohue. The four-race schedule consisted of three races at Riverside and a finale on Daytonas road course. I was at Lime Rock, Connecticut, Donohue said. What we learned from Friday practice at F1's 2023 Bahrain GP. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. 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. 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. In 1968 he was USRRC champion again, winning five of eight, and he was also Trans-Am champion, winning 10 of 13. They also acid-dipped the body on the Camaro and had to caution people not to lean against it, for fear it would dent. 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. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. He also gave us our first NASCAR win. When you see the car in real life, it becomes so much more real.. 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. This. It meant immediate surgery. Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery. Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? 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. Donohue took three victories and the series championship, besting the likes of Petty, Allison, David Pearson, A.J. They made four NASCAR Cup Series starts in 1972 and while they displayed commendable speed Donohue never qualified worse than 11th, including a third-place start at Riverside they failed to finish three of the four races and earned a best finish of 15th at Atlanta. And when he thought he had done enough, he quit. Donohues degree from Brown in Mechanical Engineering got him a job designing filters for air conditioners -- not quite what he had in mind. 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. Appeal from that part of an order of the Supreme Court (Platkin, J. As Roger Penske said, Mark wasnt flashy, but he put the numbers on the board.. When police found him about three hours later, his . As a person, he was always fun to be around, but I always admired that work ethic he displayed when it was time to race., Donohue was known as Captain Nice. To some, however, Donohue seemed distant and was later nicknamed Dark Monohue., Donohue was a good guy, said long-time racing journalist Robin Miller, who was a young reporter for The Indianapolis Star when Donohue raced at Indy. In his career, Donohue started 311 races and won 119 of them, a winning average of 38 percent. After going to the hospital in Graz the next day, Donohue lapsed into a coma from a cerebral hemorrhage and died. No, I never worried about the dangers of racing, he said in March, 1974, in New York while being honored at a luncheon. "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 But where other youngsters were souping up cars to impress girls, I was only interested in the mechanics, Donohue said. The tangible steps Alpine has taken to meeting its humble F1 2023 targets, Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery, Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery Police have not yet released his identity. See the article in its original context from. Mark Donohue was killed during a practice session for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. 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. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. He was, I feel, the finest road race driver this country has ever produced, Allison told Hemmings Motor News years later. Maybe it was some Austrian rock, but whatever it was, one of Donohue's tires blew at 160 miles an hour. Its as if his father is in his presence. But in eight months of retirement, the quiet, wellspoken kid from the other side of the tracks learned that the hobby that had become an obsession still haunted him. 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. Conversely, Mark had one of the greatest senses of humor of anybody I ever met. He knew, maybe all along, that he would come back. During a post-race inspection, race stewards discovered that the car was 250 pounds lighter than the 2,800-pound minimum weight requirement. As an American driver, he had done it all. 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 winning the first IROC championship, Donohue beat the best racing drivers of that era from all of the major championships, such as Denny Hulme, Richard Petty, A. J. Foyt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Peter Revson, Bobby Unser, and Gordon Johncock. Today, he works. When Mark . He lost his life doing what he wanted to do, which is one thing, but it took us a long time to get over that. His first marriage ended in divorce and some friends blamed racing. Their performance on the track also quickly turned heads. The bumpy, rain-soaked course around J.F.K. The Penske team leader, Heinz Hofer, said Donohue had told him after the crash that the left front tire had been punctured as he was traveling about 160 m.p.h. 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. He tinkered his way all through Pingry School, Brown University and a job as a mechanical engineer with the Pulverizing Machinery Corporation in Summit. 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. Its made me realize its an honor to be his son. Donohue died in the one aspect of auto racing he Had not conqueredgrand prix. Try a week on us. 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. 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. 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. In 1969, Penske and Donohue raced in their first Indianapolis 500,[14] with Donohue finishing seventh, winning the rookie of the year award. 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. Every time David Donohue sees that car, he sees his father. In 1969, Penske brought his team -- and the Penske way -- to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time. Acid-dipping car bodies was prevalent with competing Trans-Am teams also. The real Mark came out.. Le cavalier du diable : Toutes les informations de diffusion, les bandes-annonces, les photos et rediffusions de Le cavalier du diable avec Tl 7 Jours Donohue drove the Javelin to three victories, with AMC finishing second overall in the Manufacturers' Championship. He died two days later. That is where Mark Donohue often slept when he worked his way to near exhaustion at the race shop. Instead, the Racemark GT had Bedard, also a racer, showering praise. Mark Donohue and Roger Penske had planned an hard assault to the 1975 Formula 1 Championship, but the season soon turned out to be difficult. 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. That took a couple of years. Three years later, Mark was gone, dead from a cerebral hemorrhage suffered in a crash during practice for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at sterreichring. Donohue held the record for 11 years, until it was broken by Rick Mears at Michigan International Speedway . Donohue began working with cars while growing up in the nineteenfifties in a comfortable neighborhood in Summit, N. J. Instead, Donohue retired. 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. The Griffith company closed its doors in November, 1966. 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. 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. The only engineering Donohue went back to concerned race cars. 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. We used to clean our garage out every night, and that was something people didnt understand.. He did the job for Roger, no question. 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]. 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. 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 . You can go away and the void that you leave gets filled quickly, but when you come back, you are greeted with open arms. It is core to the myth of Mark that he was just an okay driver but a genius engineer. I could see what was coming, he said. We brought some technology. Sponsored by Ancestry. 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. Seeing another man driving your car, a car you know so well. The winner of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 and the Can Am in l973. In 1970 new Javelin team owner Roger Penske and driver Mark Donohue would breathe new life into the AMC team. He is known for Formula 1 (1950) and The Trans-Am Challenge (1972). This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Clark, J. Every dime I had I put into cars, he said. Not true. I got into racing because it seemed like an easy thing to do. With the Corvette money, he also bought a trailer to hold the car and a station wagon to tow the trailer.. Its something that Ive looked at since I was really young as a kid, Donohue said. Mark obviously brought an air of professionalism. 1968 would be a banner year for Donohue in the Trans-Am series, as he successfully defended his 12 Hours of Sebring victory by partnering with Craig Fisher and driving his Penske Chevrolet Camaro to victory. I think the people at Indy thought we were the college guys with the crew haircuts and the polished wheels. 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. 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 finished the race in his McLaren-Offy setting a record speed of over 162mph (261km/h),[16] which stood for twelve years. It would have really been great watching those two together in the later years if it had gotten that far. I think I was the first guy to assert that Mark was a better driver than an engineer, says Bedard. 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. At the Austrian Grand Prix, Donohue's career, along with Roger Penske's Formula One aspirations, took a tragic turn. The victory was the first for Penske in the Indy 500. On August 9, 1975, Donohue drove the 91730 to a world closed-course speed record at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. 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. He joined Roger Penske, a former sports car rival who had set up his own team, the following year as a fulltime professional. 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. Donohue disagreed. At about 09h45 he left the pits again for another testing run. "Donohue is no angel out there on the track Parnelli Jones", "Donohue, on the Way Out, Views Things From Top; Calendar of Motor Sports", "1965 Sebring 12-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance Race Profile", "1966 24 Hours of Le Mans Results and Competitors", "1967 24 Hours of Le Mans Results and Competitors", "Mark Donohue Named '500' Rookie of Year", "Mark Donohue set Indy speed record in 1972", "1973 Winston Western 500: Donohue Dominates", "Hall of Fame Members (Mark Donohue Jr.)", "Mark Donohue, Sports Cars, Class of 1990", Mark Donohue's IROC and NASCAR stats at racing-reference.info, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mark_Donohue&oldid=1136103335, Brown University School of Engineering alumni, International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees, SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2012, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2014, Pages using small with an empty input parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, run as the Daytona 3 Hour Continental (196263), 24 Hours of Daytona (196671/ 1973/ 1975present), This page was last edited on 28 January 2023, at 19:22. And I know that Roger loved him. For him, it was a check in the box, Penske recalled. Driver who fled fatal Olney crash gets 20-year sentence. A headache resulted, however, and worsened. [5][19] Donohue is buried at St. Teresa Cemetery in Summit, New Jersey. Our car experts choose every product we feature. 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. Showing Editorial results for mark donohue. 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. Upstairs was a small room with a bed that had an outside private entrance. If we're right, by next season we could be the dominant team in Formula One.. And Mark Donohue couldn't live with retirement. A mechanical engineering graduate from a wealthy New Jersey background, Donohue won everything in sight on the US scene, in every major category. There was no real color out of it. He approaches things the same way. 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. They sent the legal weight car through the technical inspection with the number 15 and again with the number 16 on it. Donohue co-drove in the No. The two proved to be like-minded peas in a pod. Drexel University 1973 Lexerd (Yearbook), pp.