David Donohue drives his dad's 1972 Indy 500-winning car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016. I didnt expect that at all, David Donohue, 51, said. U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current. I was the chief engineer because I was the only engineer, Cox recalled. Its made me realize its an honor to be his son. 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. Racing was Donohues obsession. The two proved to be like-minded peas in a pod. He was my original partner in racing, Penske told Autoweek. How famous was Mark . He tried to get a car dealership; that didnt work. Were far from having too much horsepower, he asserted. He won the Can Am championship in 197, the TransAm title in 1968, 1969 and 1971. If he didnt test a car before a race, he didnt have his Peanuts security blanket and would fret that his edge was lost.. Donohue, who also competed in endurance racing, IndyCar, NASCAR, Can-Am,. Her . When you see the car in real life, it becomes so much more real.. 1975 Camaro Racemark GT Bob Bailey. Mark Donohue died last night. In auto racing, though, even thinking man's drivers can get killed by punctured tires. 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. Foyt and Emerson Fittipaldi, among others tangible proof that, stock-car equipment being even, Donohue was a world beater. A Montgomery County man who crashed his car and fled from the wreck, leaving three of his friends dead or dying, on Thursday was sentenced . Donohue was considered a leading Trans-Am driver of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Donohue raced in the inaugural IROC series in 197374, racing identical, specially-prepared Porsche RSRs. The 1975 season turned out to be a difficult one for Donohue and Penske. That day at Indy, Bobby Unsers Eagle dominated the contest before Unser dropped out. Sometimes, I would leave early and take my own car to the airport because I didnt want to put up with him. 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. 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. 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. 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. The supposition is that a support post from one of the advertising signs caught Donohue's helmet. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. On January 21, 1973, the NASCAR Cup Series opened its season with a road course race at Riverside International Raceway in California. I know their first conversation after the race, he didnt say (that he had won). 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 Acid-dipping car bodies was prevalent with competing Trans-Am teams also. Mark won the 1972 Indianapolis 500 when David was just five. ', On Wednesday morning, August 20, 1975, the phone rang in my dingy beige apartment in Burlington, Ontario. racing was concerned, he had done it all. 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. 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. Upstairs was a small room with a bed that had an outside private entrance. 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]. The singleseat, opencockpit Formula One cars used in grand prix racing have been called torpedoes. But he kept complaining of headaches and Mario Andretti, who also has an obsession with grand prix racing, said Donohue was lapsing in and out of consciousness, Donohue was rushed to a hospital at Graz where grays revealed blood clot on the brain. During a post-race inspection, race stewards discovered that the car was 250 pounds lighter than the 2,800-pound minimum weight requirement. He flew under the radar a lot, but he was always there. 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]. I was at Lime Rock, Connecticut, Donohue said. 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 Donohue won. Every dime I had I put into cars, he said. Please try again. An investigation determined tire failure caused Donohue's fatal crash, and the family won a $12 million settlement. It was an iconic car, iconic colors for the day and it really brings back memories. Donohue chronicled his entire racing career in the book, The Unfair Advantage (co-written with noted motorsports and engineering journalist Paul Van Valkenburgh). Carrying the number 66, Donohue qualified 13 th for the California 500, but a burned piston ended his day early, on lap eight. 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Donohues dad was often racing in the United States or Canada for a fledgling operation called Penske Racing. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? The guy never gained that flashy status. His lone NASCAR race win was just part of his narrative, but that victory another hurdle in auto racing cleared in partnership with Penske helped ignite a flame thats lasted over 50 years across different genres of the sport and in turn elevated the quality and intelligence of American racing. That long association resulted in the ultimate triumph for an American driver in 1972, when he won the Indianapolis 500. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. There was no real color out of it. With Donohues methodical approach and his commitment to work for Penske fulltime that counted for a lot Penske said. Mark Donohue races to the win at the the 1972 Indy 500. Mark Donohue. 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. He thinks the same way. Seeing another man driving your car, a car you know so well. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker. 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. The highlight of his entire career was winning the . Mark Donohue began racing at the age of 22 in a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette . Donohue qualified his Penske midway the grid, and took it to the morning warm-up session before the start of the race. [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. 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. Or, signing some autographs. Back then it was tape-delayed, and she was watching the race on TV. He became a great friend of mine, Penske said in an IMS tribute to Donohue. Please try again. 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 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. We started to look at data Mark was an engineer at Brown (University), and that was certainly part of it, but we were committed. Goldberg Segalla, LLP, Albany (Mark Donohue of counsel), for respondents. In 69 Mark repeated his Trans-Am championship, winning six of 12. And Mark Donohue couldn't live with retirement. David Donohue is proof positive that apples dont fall far from the tree. 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 co-drove in the No. He knew, maybe all along, that he would come back. Donohue, no matter what he accomplished, couldnt rest. He began to spend more than time. Sponsored by Ancestry. He finished the race in his McLaren-Offy setting a record speed of over 162mph (261km/h),[16] which stood for twelve years. Mark Donohue and Roger Penske during a break in the Indy-car action at Michigan International Speedway n 1974. Instead, Donohue retired. . He was so gentlemanly, he was boring. Several minutes later Donohue regained consciousness and spoke with his rescuers, who took him to Knittelfeld hospital. He wanted to know how we were doing. Donohue demolished Al Unser's IMS track record of 170.221mph with a 181.2mph practice lap on May 12, a day that still makes Penske chuckle. 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. Even with only three caution flags, the race lasted 12 minutes shy of five hours, a brutal exercise for the majority of the right-turn-averse stock car regulars, but nothing a veteran of the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring hadnt already experienced. 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. The No. To be sure, it seems what we now know as The Penske Way gained steam with Donohue as its pied piper. "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 Anyone can read what you share. When police found him about three hours later, his . Police have not yet released his identity. It would have really been great watching those two together in the later years if it had gotten that far. Drexel University 1973 Lexerd (Yearbook), pp. To those who knew him best, he had a tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed pulling pranks. You never saw him in an argument with anybody. Portrait of American racing driver Mark Donohue as he poses with his car after winning the Indianapolis 500 race, Speedway, Indiana, May 1972. . On August 9, 1975, Donohue drove the 917-30 to a world closed-course speed record at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. Riverside was over 2.6 miles long and the duration of the race 500 miles meant this particular event was more of an endurance contest. 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. Don Cox would later join the team in 1969 after working as an engineer for General Motors. I think I was the first guy to assert that Mark was a better driver than an engineer, says Bedard. 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].
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