Between 1971 and 1972, Penske Racing (along with Donohue as the primary test and development driver) was commissioned by Porsche to help develop the 917-10 to compete in the Can-Am series. 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 obsessively lived at the shop, working as many as 20 hours a day. this email address already registerd with us. [citation needed] He graduated from Brown in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. His average speed around the 2.66-mile (4.28 km) high-banked oval was 221.120 mph (355.858 km/h). I don't think I could have handled that.. Conversely, Mark had one of the greatest senses of humor of anybody I ever met. He finds the same things funny. He was on for a second appearance at the Glen, but a practice accident saw Mark being replaced by David Hobbs. The 1967 Z-28 won its last race by lapping the entire field of cars, causing suspicion throughout the paddock. Donohue (along with Penske) were pioneers in many rights, some as notable as the use of a skidpad as a tool for developing and perfecting race car suspension designs and setups. Walt Hangsen, a former SCCA champion and road racing veteran who even make a pair of F1 starts, helped Donohue get a ride in John Mecoms Ferrari 250LM at Sebring in 1965. Mark Donohue was one of the daredevil drivers of the 1970's. He exuded boyhood charm, was a speed demon behind the wheel, and was a legend of US racing, with wins at Daytona, the Indy 500, and Trans-Am Champion. Mark Donohue and Roger Penske during a break in the Indy-car action at Michigan International Speedway n 1974. 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. 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. The Ferrari lived up to none of Marks calculations, and he was devastated, Bedard recalls. Auto Race Car Driver. "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. Donohue's rocketed 7 through four wire catchfences and several roadside billboards. After going to the hospital in Graz the next day, Donohue lapsed into a coma from a cerebral hemorrhage and died. Browse 481 mark donohue stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Despite this, Donohue still dominated the series, even though he suffered three DNFs during the season due to mechanical problems with the M6A. 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. 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. He was just 22 years old when he had won his first race, a local hill climb. Stay close to the outside curbing, brake hard, and turn in . Donohue was the driver of Penskes first Brickyard effort in 1969. There was no real color out of it. My friends began warning me., Racing was becoming an obsession, but in 1965, he realized: Maybe I can make a living out of something like to do. The only engineering Donohue went back to concerned race cars. 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 . Hangsen was killed testing a car for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. After an initial run of four laps, Donohue entered the pits for a routine check-up and a few adjustments. Several minutes later Donohue regained consciousness and spoke with his rescuers, who took him to Knittelfeld hospital. 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 Czarnecki saw the brilliance, humor and darkness -- all part of Donohues character. It is there at Saint Teresa Cemetery and Mausoleum that Donohue is buried alongside his mother and father. He tried to be a team manager; that didnt work. J. Funk and J. L. Racing was Donohues obsession. . 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. Donohue was about to have his race victory taken away for cheating, but Roger Penske stepped in. When Donohue took the Ferrari to Le Mans, the car attained only 205 mph on the straight versus the Porsche 917s 235 mph. With Roger Penske, you are always going to have good equipment. Donohue. 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. The Penske PC1 was developed but the car proved problematic and midway through the season they decided to switch to a March 751 chassis. The highlight of his entire career was winning the . As an American driver, he had done it all. Were far from having too much horsepower, he asserted. 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. A 25-year-old passenger in the Infiniti, a woman from Olney, was seriously hurt and taken to the hospital. Penske, along with Donohue's wife, Eden, and father, Mark Sr., were at Donohue's bedside. [2][6], Donohue won the SCCA national championship in an Elva Courier in 1961. The book was re-released in 2000 by Bentley Publishers (Cambridge, Massachusetts). 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. From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. To those who knew him best, he had a tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed pulling pranks. 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. Donohue drove the Javelin to three victories, with AMC finishing second overall in the Manufacturers' Championship. He was just that way. Mark Donohue was an enigma. The rookies looking to make their mark on F1 in 2023, The rookies looking to make their mark on F1 in 2023 Mark Donohue & Manfred Schaller's Fatal Crash @ sterreichring 1975 (Aftermath) FatalMotorsportChannel 26.2K subscribers Subscribe 24K views 4 months ago Mark Donohue and Roger Penske had. 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. He joined Roger Penske, a former sports car rival who had set up his own team, the following year as a fulltime professional. Unfortunately, Donohue lost a life after an accident during practice for 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/21/archives/mark-donohue-returns-to-die.html. I didnt expect that at all, David Donohue, 51, said. Michael is another guy but there is this thing between Mark and David, even in terms of their life experiences. So they fiddled with it in non-meaningful ways, then Mark went back out. He gained 11.5 secondsthe quickest Ferrari in the field and fourth overall. Fellow racer and former teammate Sam Posey called Donohue, a gunslinger who also happened to have designed the gun.. Not true. 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. And Mark Donohue couldn't live with retirement. 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. It comes up quickly and, at more than 90 degrees, is the slowest corner on this course. The team was third at Daytona and second at Sebring. The two had a tremendous respect for each other and put their own personal egos aside to win races. Portrait of American racing driver Mark Donohue as he poses with his car after winning the Indianapolis 500 race, Speedway, Indiana, May 1972. . We started with a Lola 4-wheel drive, and in 1971 we got a McLaren. Mercedes: New W14 sidepod design wont copy F1 rivals, FIA grants Hamilton medical exemption to wear nose studs, FIA grants Hamilton medical exemption to wear nose studs Every time David Donohue sees that car, he sees his father. 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. For the remainder of the 1970 season, Donohue ran a different Lola, with Chevy power, finishing second (again behind Al Unser) at Indianapolis Raceway Park in July. 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. The book was published shortly before Donohue's death. In 1969, Penske and Donohue raced in their first Indianapolis 500,[14] with Donohue finishing seventh, winning the rookie of the year award. But he was still, a great driver. He tinkered his way all through Pingry School, Brown University and a job as a mechanical engineer with the Pulverizing Machinery Corporation in Summit. He will be ranked with A. J. Foyt, Dan Gurney and Andretti in the leading group of American drivers. We will get back to you in 24 hours. One track marshal was killed by the crash and another seriousy injured. 12 and current Alltel decals) at the fall Rockingham, North Carolina, race. Donohue's death was announced by a spokesman for Roger Penske, a close personal friend and his team boss. We went to Phoenix and tested it with the wings off and then put the wings on and couldnt believe how fast it was. We used to clean our garage out every night, and that was something people didnt understand.. Im sure David really missed out on a lot. 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. The $9500 price was a 50-percent premium over the fully optioned Camaro Racemark started with. On the phone, the editor said, You gotta come back in. [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. Painkillers affected his memory, and he began drinking heavily to deal with the pain. During his stay at Griffith Mark drove the Griffith-owned Shelby 289 Cobra making his mark on the SCCA circuit. 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 Thank you. It would have really been great watching those two together in the later years if it had gotten that far. He won the Can Am championship in 197, the TransAm title in 1968, 1969 and 1971. This. For Donohue, there was little time to grieve, as his own Le Mans debut was looming. He did it at Talladega, Ala., in the turbocharged Porsche he drove to the 1973 CanAm title. Choose a Username Available! 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). So in a televised interview after the incident, race driver Mark Donohue told the story of his horrific practice crash at Road Atlanta with carefully chosen words. Donohue and Hawkins completed only twelve laps due to differential failure and finished 47th. Born in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Donohue grew up in Summit,[7] graduated from the Pingry School in Hillside, and entered Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Directing other drivers, making suggestions, helping mechanicseven sweeping up around the garagewere not enough. At the age of twenty-two,[citation needed] while a senior at Brown, Donohue began racing his 1957 Corvette. During its production life, there were 192 Series 200 Griffiths built, 59 of the Series 400 and only 10 of the Series 600. Brian Redman drove it once in 1974, and that was it for the car as far as Penske campaigning it. Mark Donohue's Fatal Crash - sterreichring 1975 (42 years ago) Humphrey The Auto Racing Fan 1989 2.38K subscribers Subscribe 54 Save 13K views 5 years ago Notice Age-restricted video. 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. I can hardly wait to get back to work with our car, he said. 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. On August 9, 1975, Donohue drove the 91730 to a world closed-course speed record at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. To those who work at the cemetery, Donohue is simply known as The Race Car Driver to visitors looking for his gravesite. The only person to beat Donohue was his former Penske Trans-Am teammate, George Follmer. Of 55 Trans-Ams he entered, he won 29. 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. 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 For him, it was a check in the box, Penske recalled. But supervising the Penske efforts in stock car and Indianapolistype racing did not agree with Donohue. We may earn money from the links on this page. 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. Police have not yet released his identity. 4445. Sometimes, I would leave early and take my own car to the airport because I didnt want to put up with him. Not that Donohues career or his one win in NASCAR needed validation, but IROC has long crystallized what fans thought of the talent in drivers who never outwardly succeeded in the Cup Series. 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. Complete Canadian-American Challenge Cup results, Inskip Family History & Competition Engineering staff. On January 21, 1973, the NASCAR Cup Series opened its season with a road course race at Riverside International Raceway in California. The 917-30 is referred to as the "Can-Am killer" [18] as it dominated the competition, winning all but two races of the 1973 Can-Am championship (which is an untrue statement, because OPEC killed the Can-Am series in 19751976). In 1969, Penske brought his team -- and the Penske way -- to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time. 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. 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. 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. During a post-race inspection, race stewards discovered that the car was 250 pounds lighter than the 2,800-pound minimum weight requirement. But where other youngsters were souping up cars to impress girls, I was only interested in the mechanics, Donohue said. He did the job for Roger, no question. I was at Lime Rock, Connecticut, Donohue said. Donohue raced in the inaugural IROC series in 197374, racing identical, specially-prepared Porsche RSRs. One night I was in Philadelphia and was following Mark to the old shop in Newtown Square.
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