The supposition is that a support post from one of the advertising signs caught Donohue's helmet. Hamilton: F1 retirement talk from Button and Hill not "helpful, How Gulf deal has boosted Williams's F1 commercial strategy, How Gulf deal has boosted Williams's F1 commercial strategy 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. 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. It would have been really fun to watch the two of them because they are so much alike. The guy that is most like Mark that Ive ever met is David, said Don Cox. With his marriage to Sue falling apart, Donohues personal life was in turmoil. I dont remember him changing a bit.. Mark Donohue did not take a traditional route to racing or to Penskes side. Mark Donohue and Roger Penske during a break in the Indy-car action at Michigan International Speedway n 1974. Seeing it in real life when you come into the museum here, I know one thing -- I fit in it really well. Please try again. He had one religion: testing. It was, as they say in racing, a freak accident. A track marshal was killed by debris from the accident, but Donohue did not appear to be injured significantly. 12 and current Alltel decals) at the fall Rockingham, North Carolina, race. I think I was the first guy to assert that Mark was a better driver than an engineer, says Bedard. 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. Painkillers affected his memory, and he began drinking heavily to deal with the pain. Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? Then they put both cars in the race, number 15 and 16, one car being 250 pounds lighter. Hangsen was killed testing a car for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. When Donohue took the Ferrari to Le Mans, the car attained only 205 mph on the straight versus the Porsche 917s 235 mph. We were there to go racing.. He finished the race in his McLaren-Offy setting a record speed of over 162mph (261km/h),[16] which stood for twelve years. He tinkered his way all through Pingry School, Brown University and a job as a mechanical engineer with the Pulverizing Machinery Corporation in Summit. When you see the car in real life, it becomes so much more real.. 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. The two had a tremendous respect for each other and put their own personal egos aside to win races. He said so himself many times. 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 fact, Mark often wasnt the engineer at all. He answered, "It will never have enough power until I can spin the wheels at the end of the straightaway in high gear.". He could drive a car in the 24-hour race at Daytona, a Trans-Am Car, an Indy car and a NASCAR car. During his stay at Griffith Mark drove the Griffith-owned Shelby 289 Cobra making his mark on the SCCA circuit. David Donohue drives his dad's 1972 Indy 500-winning car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016. Watts.) Advertisement. 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]. With Roger Penske, you are always going to have good equipment. It is core to the myth of Mark that he was just an okay driver but a genius engineer. Several minutes later Donohue regained consciousness and spoke with his rescuers, who took him to Knittelfeld hospital. I know their first conversation after the race, he didnt say (that he had won). He turned out to be a real partner of mine. 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 Twice before he had had serious accidents and he walked like a man who had had his knees shattered and put back together again. He was passionate about racing. 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. DON HUNTER, BILL OURSLER, THE MANUFACTURERS, Elana Scherr: On the Count of Three (Wheels), Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. When David Donohue was young, he never really got to know his father -- Mark Donohue. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. The only person to beat Donohue was his former Penske Trans-Am teammate, George Follmer. 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. 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. The driver must accept the risks involved, which I didand I spent my time in the hospital as a result.. 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. He was so gentlemanly, he was boring. 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. The thing that impressed me most about Mark is how serious he was about racing, vehicle preparation and all of the things that we know that contribute to success, Czarnecki said. Donohue was the driver of Penskes first Brickyard effort in 1969. Since his remarriage eight months ago, those same friends found Donohue relaxed and cheerful, something he had not been while retired. His fathers absence from the family took its toll, and eventually the marriage dissolved into divorce. He wanted to know how we were doing. 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. For him, it was a check in the box, Penske recalled. He died two days later. The 38yearold Donohue underwent a threehour operation at a hospital here Sunday to remove a blood clot from his brain. 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. 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. 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. I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. Both Donohue and Penske changed teams to American Motors Corporation in 1970 and won their third championship in 1971. No, I never worried about the dangers of racing, he said in March, 1974, while being honored at a luncheon following his retirement. But there was always that missing link, as he called itgrand prix. 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. The 1975 season turned out to be a difficult one for Donohue and Penske. Mark Donohue began racing at the age of 22 in a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette . I think the people at Indy thought we were the college guys with the crew haircuts and the polished wheels. The singleseat, opencockpit Formula One cars used in grand prix racing have been called torpedoes. 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. Donahue qualified fourth and passed Bobby Allison for the lead on Lap 10. 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. 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. Donohue held the record for 11 years, until it was broken by Rick Mears at Michigan International Speedway. A bad week or the dark horse from F1 testing? 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. [10], In 1966, thanks to his friendship with Hansgen, word quickly spread to the Ford Motor Company about the young driver. Allison, the runner-up finisher, will forever be in awe of what he witnessed from Donohue, with whom hed eventually work while driving for Penske. It was. 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. When Mark . His true passion was racing. There was little question then that Donohue, who would testdrive the new car and help supervise its development, would come out of retirement. His first marriage ended in divorce and some friends blamed racing. 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 Today, he works for Porsche Cars North America as client relationship manager. His average speed around the 2.66-mile (4.28km) high-banked oval was 221.120mph (355.858km/h). 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. Racing is a very weird circus that way. Mark was an engineer from Brown University, Penske said. Donohue raced in several NASCAR Grand American races and a NASCAR pony car division from 1968 until 1971. 500-mile (800km) SCCA endurance event, which he won. But he always had good equipment, too. He did it at Talladega, Ala., in the turbocharged Porsche he drove to the 1973 CanAm title. Directing other drivers, making suggestions, helping mechanicseven sweeping up around the garagewere not enough. Hansgen died while testing the GT40 in preparation for Le Mans so Donohue partnered with Australian Paul Hawkins. Donohue disagreed. 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Despite this, Donohue still dominated the series, even though he suffered three DNFs during the season due to mechanical problems with the M6A. 1975 Camaro Racemark GT Bob Bailey. The hotrod phenomenon came East from California and caught me up in it, he once explained. Alonso "not thinking" about Bahrain pole despite topping Friday times, Why Las Vegas is key to F1's growth plans, Why Las Vegas is key to F1's growth plans August 19th marks twenty-five years ago that Mark Donohue passed away from brain trauma, which was caused from an accident while practicing for a Formula 1 event. 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. 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. FIA grants Hamilton medical exemption to wear nose studs, Hamilton: F1 retirement talk from Button and Hill not "helpful, Hamilton: F1 retirement talk from Button and Hill not "helpful Donohue finished in 12th place at the Canadian Grand Prix, but failed to finish at the United States Grand Prix. But his thinking man's approach to racing, while successful on the track, was difficult off. [17] That race was Penske's first NASCAR win in a long history of NASCAR participation. In August 1975, while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix in a March 751, a tire failed, causing Donohue to lose control of the car. He will be ranked with A. J. Foyt, Dan Gurney and Andretti in the leading group of American drivers. 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. From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. 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. [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. He began to spend more than time. When he came out, he was a different person. Its made me realize its an honor to be his son. I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. Search instead in Creative? They won the race, finished third overall, and went on to win 10 out of 13 races that year. At about 09h45 he left the pits again for another testing run. He sustained a fatal head injury from the crash. In everything he droveeven an Elva Courier and a Cobra, cars he didnt develophe still won. 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. Clark, J. 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. 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. By 1973, the "Captain Nice" nickname he had earned earlier in his career was being supplanted by the nickname "Dark Monohue". 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. 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. [2], At Hansgen's funeral, Roger Penske spoke to Donohue about driving for him. David Donohue is proof positive that apples dont fall far from the tree. Mark Donohue was 38 and a sports car champion and 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner. Neither Donohue or Penske forgot that remark, even after Donohue drove an astounding race and finished third. We started to look at data Mark was an engineer at Brown (University), and that was certainly part of it, but we were committed. I can hardly wait to get back to work with our car, he said. Instead, Donohue retired. Mark Donohue. Email or password is incorrect. He went on to assist TVR's David Hives in designing the Series 400 Griffith and then working on the ill-fated Bob Cumberford-designed, Intermeccanica-(Torino, Italy) produced Series 600 Griffith. Penske warned that any disqualification would have the potential of motivating Chevrolet to pull all support for the Trans-Am series. (He was operated on at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta by Drs. I think at that point we started to bring the sport to a higher level, Penske said. Hed eventually swap leads with Richard Petty, but took the reins of the race for good for the final 75 circuits, lapping the entire field in the process. 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. Mark Donohue races to the win at the the 1972 Indy 500. [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. Brian Redman drove it once in 1974, and that was it for the car as far as Penske campaigning it. 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]. At the age of twenty-two,[citation needed] while a senior at Brown, Donohue began racing his 1957 Corvette. However, the Penske Formula One car proved unsound and Donohue's best finish this year was a fifth place.
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