In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that all memorial donations be sent to the Auto Racing Fraternity Foundation, 13539 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, Queens. He was so gentlemanly, he was boring. I could see myself helping to develop the Formula One car, setting it up and then having some younger hotshot driver take over. He died two days later. 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. Donohue was about to have his race victory taken away for cheating, but Roger Penske stepped in. But his edge was rarely lost. The two had a tremendous respect for each other and put their own personal egos aside to win races. Donohue went on to win the first-ever 500-mile USAC Champ Car Series race at Pocono in 71 and claimed victory at Indianapolis in his return in 1972. Instead, Donohue retired. In the 19721973 season, driving an AMC Matador for Penske Racing in NASCAR's top division, the Winston Cup Series, Donohue won the season-opening event at Riverside. Their performance on the track also quickly turned heads. Today, he works. 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. We werent out there to have fun. He tried to get a car dealership; that didnt work. I think I was the first guy to assert that Mark was a better driver than an engineer, says Bedard. No, I never worried about the dangers of racing, he said in March, 1974, while being honored at a luncheon following his retirement. Anyone can read what you share. I dont remember him changing a bit.. In fact, Mark often wasnt the engineer at all. Aug 21, 2015, 4:28 PM. When Penske Racing took delivery of a Ferrari 512M, for instance, they immediately fabricated a bigger rear wing. Donohue died in the one aspect of auto racing he Had not conqueredgrand prix. 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. You can go away and the void that you leave gets filled quickly, but when you come back, you are greeted with open arms. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. It was, as they say in racing, a freak accident. Hangsen was killed testing a car for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. That day at Indy, Bobby Unsers Eagle dominated the contest before Unser dropped out. They continued to use the "lightweight" car in 1968, at the Sebring 12-hour race. 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. 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 joined Roger Penske, a former sports car rival who had set up his own team, the following year as a fulltime professional. 4 yellow car with sports car driver and race car builder Bruce McLaren for Shelby American Racing. the email address you entered is invalid. Hansgen died while testing the GT40 in preparation for Le Mans so Donohue partnered with Australian Paul Hawkins. Neither Donohue or Penske forgot that remark, even after Donohue drove an astounding race and finished third. I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. He is buried in Saint Teresa Cemetery in Summit, Union County, New Jersey.R.I.P Mark Donohue \u0026 Manfred Schaller. This. Donohue, who also competed in endurance racing, IndyCar, NASCAR, Can-Am,. Begrudgingly, Donohue used Bettenhausens setup for the race. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Donohue, too, recognized the accomplishment as something of a walk-off home run for his career, briefly retiring following his IROC championship before returning later that year with Penske to compete in the final two Formula 1 races. Mark returned [a year later] because he realized he wasnt good at anything else. Mark Donohue is killed during a practice session for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. 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. In everything he droveeven an Elva Courier and a Cobra, cars he didnt develophe still won. Mark Donohue. Back to Victory Lane, Every Indy 500 Winner from the Dawn of Time, In search of Team Penske racing legend Mark Donohue. Instructions on how to reset your password have been sent to your email. 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. Donohue, no matter what he accomplished, couldnt rest. In the four-race series, Donohue won the first and third of three races at Riverside and the final race of the year at Daytona. It was August 9, 1975. Donohues dad was often racing in the United States or Canada for a fledgling operation called Penske Racing. The victory was the first for Penske in the Indy 500. 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. Strange and smart, but very driven., The drive set Mark Donohue apart and made him the winningest driver in Team Penske history. 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. We think we've made a major discovery. "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. Please try again. We may earn money from the links on this page. 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. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Donohue dominated the 1967 race, driving a Lola T70 MkIII Chevrolet for Penske. Of 55 Trans-Ams he entered, he won 29. 500-mile (800km) SCCA endurance event, which he won. The search for Mark Donohue concludes in the upscale community of Summit, New Jersey just outside of New York City. If he didnt test a car before a race, he didnt have his Peanuts security blanket and would fret that his edge was lost.. The real engineers were Don Cox [from GM] and Helmut Flegl [from Porsche]. It was largely Flegl who created the Porsche 917-30, whose 1100 horsepower, the SCCA bitched, was killing the Can-Am series. Revson's death made it almost inevitable that Donohue would come out of retirement. 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 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. By clicking on 'Join' button, you confirm that you are over 13 years of age and agree to the Terms of Service & Privacy Policy. Donohue was considered a leading Trans-Am driver of the late 1960s and early 1970s. 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. We had a polished yellow tile floor in our garage in Gasoline Alley and took everything out at night and cleaned the floor. 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. Today, he works for Porsche Cars North America as client relationship manager. 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. Directing other drivers, making suggestions, helping mechanicseven sweeping up around the garagewere not enough. In 1968 he was USRRC champion again, winning five of eight, and he was also Trans-Am champion, winning 10 of 13. The winner of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 and the Can Am in l973. Through racing and after more than four decades after the tragic death of his father, David Donohue believes he has found Mark Donohue. That sense of realism often hits Mark Donohues son. Coffay fled the scene. See the article in its original context from. He needed something he could do well., Alas, Penske Racings first F1 car, the PC1, was so mediocre that Donohue persuaded Penske to replace it with a customers March 751, a curious crack in the myth that was Mark. 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 Most of Donohues wins (28) came in Trans-Am, the United States Road Racing Championship (12) and Can-Am (10). 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 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 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 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. He was a partner, he was a friend and a critical piece of the foundation of our race team.. 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 Donohue drove the Javelin to three victories, with AMC finishing second overall in the Manufacturers' Championship. The highlight of his entire career was winning the . When he came out, he was a different person. 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 He was so key in the operation when he was there its something we had to rebuild. As an American driver, he had done it all. Choose a Username Available! However, like most race drivers in the various top racing series around the world, he had lived an outright lot of life. How famous was Mark . The only person to beat Donohue was his former Penske Trans-Am teammate, George Follmer. Carrying the number 66, Donohue qualified 13 th for the California 500, but a burned piston ended his day early, on lap eight. 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 won in 1972, driving for Penske. I was the chief engineer because I was the only engineer, Cox recalled. We went to the Speedway in 1971 and we had this card that translated the speed on the stopwatch to your average speed. They also acid-dipped the body on the Camaro and had to caution people not to lean against it, for fear it would dent. ), (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap). David Donohue is proof positive that apples dont fall far from the tree. 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. He was a sweet gentleman in every race. [2], At Hansgen's funeral, Roger Penske spoke to Donohue about driving for him. In all, he won 57 major races and more than $1million. The guy that is most like Mark that Ive ever met is David, said Don Cox. Donohue had stepped out of driving retirement . 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. Despite this, Donohue still dominated the series, even though he suffered three DNFs during the season due to mechanical problems with the M6A. Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery. 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. Fellow racer and former teammate Sam Posey called Donohue, a gunslinger who also happened to have designed the gun.. He obsessively lived at the shop, working as many as 20 hours a day. Don Cox would later join the team in 1969 after working as an engineer for General Motors. A 25-year-old passenger in the Infiniti, a woman from Olney, was seriously hurt and taken to the hospital. U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current. 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. You never saw him in an argument with anybody. The pressures of racing and designing the car took their toll on Donohue. At the Austrian Grand Prix, Donohue's career, along with Roger Penske's Formula One aspirations, took a tragic turn. The real Mark came out.. And given enough time just one more year, maybe he wouldve become Americas first world champion.. When Mark . Midway through the 1975 F1 season, Penske abandoned the troublesome PC1 and started using the March 751. The four-race schedule consisted of three races at Riverside and a finale on Daytonas road course. Mark Donohue. [citation needed]. Its as if his father is in his presence. No, I never worried about the dangers of racing, he said in March, 1974, in New York while being honored at a luncheon. 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 held the record for 11 years, until it was broken by Rick Mears at Michigan International Speedway. 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. Browse 481 mark donohue stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Donohue was hit in the head by a fence post and knocked . He went over 180 miles per hour for the first time and it wasnt on the chart, so nobody knew how fast he went. [2] Donohue announced that he would retire from racing after the 1973 Can-Am season. He answered, "It will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear.". [citation needed] He graduated from Brown in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He had one religion: testing. 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.
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