Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? The guy never gained that flashy status. this email address already registerd with us. He did the job for Roger, no question. He was passionate about racing. That is where Mark Donohue often slept when he worked his way to near exhaustion at the race shop. 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. [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. 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. Continuing the practice of reducing weight allowed them to place weights of certain sizes strategically in specific locations within the car, thus helping to balance the car while being driven on the limit. He was a partner, he was a friend and a critical piece of the foundation of our race team.. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker. In auto racing, though, even thinking man's drivers can get killed by punctured tires. During the day, being the state of health still worrying, he was airlifted to the Universittsklinik of Graz where he was operated by Dr. Fritz Heppner. Thank you. 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. 66 McLaren/Offenhauser that Mark Donohue drove to win the 1972 Indy 500. Mark returned [a year later] because he realized he wasnt good at anything else. During his stay at Griffith Mark drove the Griffith-owned Shelby 289 Cobra making his mark on the SCCA circuit. 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 The setup he designed for his car didnt have as much speed as teammate Gary Bettenhausens setup. We had a polished yellow tile floor in our garage in Gasoline Alley and took everything out at night and cleaned the floor. But he always had good equipment, too. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. We had the tragic crash in practice and he seemed like he was all right, but he ended up losing 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. That day at Indy, Bobby Unsers Eagle dominated the contest before Unser dropped out. 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. Le Mans proved frustrating for Donohue. Begrudgingly, Donohue used Bettenhausens setup for the race. Mark Donohue at the 1971 Canadian Grand Prix, Today, we have specialists, but Mark was such a versatile guy, he drove everything for us.. Watts.) That took a couple of years. Twice before he had had serious accidents and he walked like a man who had had his knees shattered and put back together again. Donahue qualified fourth and passed Bobby Allison for the lead on Lap 10. 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. Think about the championships we won together, the first Indy 500 victory for the team, three Trans-Am championships. Hed drive the truck, hed drive the race car, he would work on the car. In the final race of the season, Javelins finished in first, second and third place, with George Follmer becoming the only other Javelin driver to win besides Donohue. We think we've made a major discovery. I don't think I could have handled that.. Painkillers affected his memory, and he began drinking heavily to deal with the pain. When you see the car in real life, it becomes so much more real.. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/21/archives/mark-donohue-returns-to-die.html. Back to Victory Lane, Every Indy 500 Winner from the Dawn of Time, In search of Team Penske racing legend Mark Donohue. 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 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. In an interview then, he talked of his disappointing grand prix showing. But Donohue knew that time was running short and his skills and reflexes weren't getting any better. That didnt satisfy his competitive spirits, so he decided to take on Formula One. Upstairs was a small room with a bed that had an outside private entrance. Its been 43 years since Donohues death, but he remains Penske Racings cornerstone. However, like most race drivers in the various top racing series around the world, he had lived an outright lot of life. I'd always thought that I'm not as good a driver as I am capable of figuring out how to make the car the quickest, he once said. Search instead in Creative? 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. 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. Airport would have sent a stock Camaro flopping around. 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. 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. Michael is another guy but there is this thing between Mark and David, even in terms of their life experiences. Its always great that history is reviewed and remembered and adds more to the prominence and significance of the event to bring it all together. The 1972 Indy win was a classic race for the man who not only drove the race car but also served as its engineer and mechanic back at Penske Racing. [10], In 1966, thanks to his friendship with Hansgen, word quickly spread to the Ford Motor Company about the young driver. The email you entered is not registered with us. Donohue, who also competed in endurance racing, IndyCar, NASCAR, Can-Am,. 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. 1975, resulting from an accident two days earlier during practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. Donohues degree from Brown in Mechanical Engineering got him a job designing filters for air conditioners -- not quite what he had in mind. The driver of the Honda was killed. Brian Redman drove it once in 1974, and that was it for the car as far as Penske campaigning it. After going to the hospital in Graz the next day, Donohue lapsed into a coma from a cerebral hemorrhage and died. Donohue was the driver of Penskes first Brickyard effort in 1969. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. . Jackie Stewart interviews Mark Donohue prior to an IROC race in 1974. Penske, along with Donohue's wife, Eden, and father, Mark Sr., were at Donohue's bedside. Back then it was tape-delayed, and she was watching the race on TV. Donohue was hit in the head by a fence post and knocked . He was hit on the side of his helmet with debris as his car, which had suffered a punctured tire, went out of control in prerace practice and crashed through four rows of wire catchfences and some billboards along the Oesterreichring race course. Mark Donohue races to the win at the the 1972 Indy 500. On August 9, 1975, Donohue drove the 91730 to a world closed-course speed record at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. He was a sweet gentleman in every 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. He tried to get a car dealership; that didnt work. That is something I would have never had if I didnt go to races. Donohue won in 1972, driving for Penske. 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. Some of his most notable accomplishments included being the Indy 500 rookie-of-the-year, Trans AM champion and a winner in The 24 Hours of Daytona all in 1969. Hansgen died while testing the GT40 in preparation for Le Mans so Donohue partnered with Australian Paul Hawkins. He was young Roger Penskes equal. 66 Penske Racing entry went on to win at Indianapolis in 1972 to give Roger Penske the first of his 17 Indy 500 wins. He was really the first person that I knew in racing that not only had the driving skills, but also the technical knowledge. 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 Though he walked away from the resulting crash, he fell into a coma the next day and, shortly after, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. 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]. U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current. His body will be flown to the United States tomorrow and the funeral will take place Monday in Summit, N. J., where Donohue grew up and first got caught up in the hotrod phenomenon. A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at 1 P.M. in St. Teresa's Church. Directing other drivers, making suggestions, helping mechanicseven sweeping up around the garagewere not enough. (Photo: Bob DOlivo / The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images). Mark Donohue Fatal Crash (Alternate Footage) Browse more videos Playing next 5:35 Airplane Crash Compilation 2015 SHOCKING FOOTAGE - Most Epic Plane Crashes Caught on Camera Fatal Ab Tak 4:59 Airplane Crash Compilation 2015 SHOCKING FOOTAGE - Most Epic Plane Crashes Caught on Camera Fatal punjabi & islamic tv 5:35 But supervising the Penske efforts in stock car and Indianapolistype racing did not agree with Donohue. 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. 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 lightweight car was featured on an episode of Dream Car Garage on Speed TV in 2005. One track marshal was killed by the crash and another seriousy injured. Twelve identically prepared cars is the mantra forever engrained in those who followed the International Race of Champions, and IROCs inaugural season, ranging from the fall of 1973 to the winter of 1974, was one of Donohues finest showings. His car was almost inexplicably fast, so much so that, according to Donohues book The Unfair Advantage, race winner Al Unser sought him out after the race and said: Look, weve been competitors for a long time, and you have your way of doing things and I have mine, but when you come here and run six miles an hour faster than everyone else I gotta shake your hand.. Donohue dominated the 1967 race, driving a Lola T70 MkIII Chevrolet for Penske. 1975 Camaro Racemark GT Bob Bailey. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? He obsessively lived at the shop, working as many as 20 hours a day. As ADAM COOPER recalls, though, it ended in tragedy. The Penske grand prix car proved a disappointment and Donohue's best finish this season was a fifth place in the British Grand Prix. In February of '65 Donohue was named as comptroller at Griffith Motors but was soon spirited away from Griffith by Roger Penske early in 1966. First to go was his marriage, says Argetsinger. And so, last Sunday, while warming up his car at the Oesterreichring, a hill five hours by train from Vienna in the middle of nowhere, he had an accident. Mark Donohue is killed during a practice session for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. In 1967 and 1968, Trans-Am schedule included two of the most prized endurance races in the world, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. To be sure, it seems what we now know as The Penske Way gained steam with Donohue as its pied piper. racing was concerned, he had done it all. The only person to beat Donohue was his former Penske Trans-Am teammate, George Follmer. [2] Donohue announced that he would retire from racing after the 1973 Can-Am season. Choose a Username Available! In 1967, Penske contacted Donohue about driving Penske's brand new Lola T70 spyder in the United States Road Racing Championship. 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. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. He finished the race in his McLaren-Offy setting a record speed of over 162mph (261km/h),[16] which stood for twelve years. He busted a gut when we got back to the shop. Then there was Marks other side. Event the win at the 1972 Indianapolis 500 created more sleepless nights, because the win did not come on his own terms. When police found him about three hours later, his . That was the most striking thing I ever saw him do. 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. He was just 22 years old when he had won his first race, a local hill climb. He knew, maybe all along, that he would come back. 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. I think at that point we started to bring the sport to a higher level, Penske said. 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. Donohue and Hawkins completed only twelve laps due to differential failure and finished 47th. To those who knew him best, he had a tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed pulling pranks. By clicking on 'Join' button, you confirm that you are over 13 years of age and agree to the Terms of Service & Privacy Policy. Please try again. The search for Mark Donohue concludes in the upscale community of Summit, New Jersey just outside of New York City. 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. Browse 481 mark donohue stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. In everything he droveeven an Elva Courier and a Cobra, cars he didnt develophe still won. 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 raced in the inaugural IROC series in 197374, racing identical, specially-prepared Porsche RSRs. Password Donohue held the record for 11 years, until it was broken by Rick Mears at Michigan International Speedway. They sent the legal weight car through the technical inspection with the number 15 and again with the number 16 on it. 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. The book documents his career from his first races to his final full season of racing the year before he was killed. The car did a series of cartwheels, and Donohue broke both legs. He was just that way. Mark Donohue was an enigma. Their performance on the track also quickly turned heads. We brought some technology. It is there at Saint Teresa Cemetery and Mausoleum that Donohue is buried alongside his mother and father. 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 died from severe head injuries sustained August 16 in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix at Graz, Austria. Bahrain GP: F1 technical images direct from the pitlane, What we learned from Friday practice at F1's 2023 Bahrain GP, What we learned from Friday practice at F1's 2023 Bahrain GP Most of Donohues wins (28) came in Trans-Am, the United States Road Racing Championship (12) and Can-Am (10). Revson's death made it almost inevitable that Donohue would come out of retirement. 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. The team was third at Daytona and second at Sebring. As one of the best test drivers and developers in the business, he would get the car ready, then Penske would have to turn it over to a younger hotshot. But the intended hotshot, Peter Revson, was killed in a grandprix accident in March, 1974. With Roger Penske, you are always going to have good equipment.