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. They won the race, finished third overall, and went on to win 10 out of 13 races that year. J. Funk and J. L. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. In 1971, of the ten races that the Over 2.5L Class cars participated in, Donohue won seven of them, including the final six races in a row, with AMC winning the Manufacturers' championship for the first time ever. 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. The team was third at Daytona and second at Sebring. Autoweek participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. During its production life, there were 192 Series 200 Griffiths built, 59 of the Series 400 and only 10 of the Series 600. The lightweight car was featured on an episode of Dream Car Garage on Speed TV in 2005. In his career, Donohue started 311 races and won 119 of them, a winning average of 38 percent. He became a great friend of mine, Penske said in an IMS tribute to Donohue. We were the college kids with the crew cuts and the polished wheels, Penske said. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. What I realize now is that I wouldnt have succeeded in my other businesses if Mark hadnt completely taken over the race team., In the Penske garage at Indy in 71, someonecertainly not Donohue or Penskeerected a sign that said: Those of you who think you know it all are particularly annoying to those of us who do., .css-dhtls0{display:block;font-family:GlikoS,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-weight:400;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-dhtls0:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-dhtls0{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-dhtls0{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 61.25rem){.css-dhtls0{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}Elana Scherr: On the Count of Three (Wheels), Elana Scherr: Dodge Challenger Challenge Accepted. racing was concerned, he had done it all. Try a week on us. Donahue qualified fourth and passed Bobby Allison for the lead on Lap 10. Mark Donohue and Roger Penske during a break in the Indy-car action at Michigan International Speedway n 1974. 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. U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current. Donohue, no matter what he accomplished, couldnt rest. He will be ranked with A. J. Foyt, Dan Gurney and Andretti in the leading group of American drivers. He thinks the same way. Foyt and Emerson Fittipaldi, among others tangible proof that, stock-car equipment being even, Donohue was a world beater. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Revson's death made it almost inevitable that Donohue would come out of retirement. 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. When Penske decided late to enter Formula One full time, Donohue had a difficult decision to make. 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]. We were there to go racing.. We may earn money from the links on this page. A track marshal was killed by debris from the accident, but Donohue did not appear to be injured significantly. Czarnecki saw the brilliance, humor and darkness -- all part of Donohues character. 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. The original Penske Racing team included Penske, Donohue, chief mechanic and crew chief Karl Kainhofer. The supposition is that a support post from one of the advertising signs caught Donohue's helmet. Anyone can read what you share. He knew, maybe all along, that he would come back. The Ferrari lived up to none of Marks calculations, and he was devastated, Bedard recalls. But this was a safe driver, a man who knew his limits, his car's limits and didn't go over the edge, as they say in racing. The book told how Donohue learned to exploit the antilock braking system and the powerful turbocharged engine of several prototype Porsches, as well as how he learned from various mishaps, including a near-fatal crash. The 1967 Z-28 won its last race by lapping the entire field of cars, causing suspicion throughout the paddock. Donohues father was a patent attorney. In 2003, in commemoration of Penske Racing's 50th NASCAR win, Nextel Cup driver Ryan Newman drove a Dodge Intrepid painted to resemble Donohue's 1973 AMC (with a No. He is known for Formula 1 (1950) and The Trans-Am Challenge (1972). We started to look at data Mark was an engineer at Brown (University), and that was certainly part of it, but we were committed. At the Austrian Grand Prix, Donohue's career, along with Roger Penske's Formula One aspirations, took a tragic turn. Event the win at the 1972 Indianapolis 500 created more sleepless nights, because the win did not come on his own terms. Please try again. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. Donohue previously had debuted in Formula One on September 19, 1971, with a Penske-sponsored McLaren at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Park, finishing on the podium in third place. He tried to get a car dealership; that didnt work. Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? 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. Donohue took three victories and the series championship, besting the likes of Petty, Allison, David Pearson, A.J. No one knew, but Mark Donohue had just 10 days to live. Hansgen died while testing the GT40 in preparation for Le Mans so Donohue partnered with Australian Paul Hawkins. The bumpy, rain-soaked course around J.F.K. Donohue raced in several NASCAR Grand American races and a NASCAR pony car division from 1968 until 1971. 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. [17] That race was Penske's first NASCAR win in a long history of NASCAR participation. 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. Amongst his friends, he liked practical jokes and liked catching people out on things. Donohue was fiercely motivated and was one of the first drivers to bring a sense of mechanical engineering to his craft. To be sure, it seems what we now know as The Penske Way gained steam with Donohue as its pied piper. The 917/30 generally is considered one of the most powerful and most dominant racing machines ever created. When Penske Racing took delivery of a Ferrari 512M, for instance, they immediately fabricated a bigger rear wing. You can go away and the void that you leave gets filled quickly, but when you come back, you are greeted with open arms. We brought some technology. "They posted me to the infield, taking care of people who got too much sun or had too much to drink," Olvey said. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. 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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. And my wife gave me permission, so when something like that happens you have to go. When David Donohue was young, he never really got to know his father -- Mark Donohue. He was my original partner in racing, Penske told Autoweek. However, like most race drivers in the various top racing series around the world, he had lived an outright lot of life. During the development of this motor, the German Porsche engineers often asked Donohue if the motor finally had enough power. 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. The guy never gained that flashy status. His fathers absence from the family took its toll, and eventually the marriage dissolved into divorce. But Donohue knew that time was running short and his skills and reflexes weren't getting any better. In an interview then, he talked of his disappointing grand prix showing. His average speed around the 2.66-mile (4.28km) high-banked oval was 221.120mph (355.858km/h). Her . Donohue chronicled his entire racing career in the book, The Unfair Advantage (co-written with noted motorsports and engineering journalist Paul Van Valkenburgh). We started with a Lola 4-wheel drive, and in 1971 we got a McLaren. And when he thought he had done enough, he quit. He tinkered his way all through Pingry School, Brown University and a job as a mechanical engineer with the Pulverizing Machinery Corporation in Summit. Donohue disagreed. Their performance on the track also quickly turned heads. Mark contracted polio when he was 6, but he fully recovered. [11] Earlier that year, co-driving with Hansgen, Donohue finished third at the 24 Hours of Daytona and second at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The only engineering Donohue went back to concerned race cars. It is core to the myth of Mark that he was just an okay driver but a genius engineer. 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. We werent out there to have fun. 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. He died from severe head injuries sustained August 16 in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix at Graz, Austria. 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 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. Penske and Donohue did not stop acid-dipping after this, however. Its something that Ive looked at since I was really young as a kid, Donohue said. Drexel University 1973 Lexerd (Yearbook), pp. His instant F1 success led to no further involvement in the category, Mark instead concentrating on his blossoming Indy career, winning the big one in 1972. . 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. Mark was an engineer from Brown University, Penske said. the email address you entered is invalid. Goldberg Segalla, LLP, Albany (Mark Donohue of counsel), for respondents. * Most laps led. 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. 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. I think I was the first guy to assert that Mark was a better driver than an engineer, says Bedard. Hed drive the truck, hed drive the race car, he would work on the car. One track marshal was killed by the crash and another seriousy injured. In 1970 new Javelin team owner Roger Penske and driver Mark Donohue would breathe new life into the AMC team. I got to know Mark and hired him to run our Can-Am car. 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. For Donohue, there was little time to grieve, as his own Le Mans debut was looming. He was just 22 years old when he had won his first race, a local hill climb. 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. Sponsored by Ancestry. Donohue was about to have his race victory taken away for cheating, but Roger Penske stepped in. Mark Donohue at the 1971 Canadian Grand Prix, Today, we have specialists, but Mark was such a versatile guy, he drove everything for us.. I think at that point we started to bring the sport to a higher level, Penske said. Maybe it was some Austrian rock, but whatever it was, one of Donohue's tires blew at 160 miles an hour. It would have really been great watching those two together in the later years if it had gotten that far. But there was one phase of racing that he had never really taken part in, what he called his personal missing link. This was in the Formula One cars, perhaps this dangerous sport's most dangerous, which run on the grand prix circuit.
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