Unfortunately, Donohue lost a life after an accident during practice for 1975 Austrian Grand Prix. 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. The victory was the first for Penske in the Indy 500. The singleseat, opencockpit Formula One cars used in grand prix racing have been called torpedoes. Ferraris chief engineer Mauro Forghieri glared at it and said, Theyll never let you run that wing at Le Mans. Mark replied, Well, I wouldnt want to run this wing at Le Mans, would I?, Partly because we were both engineers, Mark and I hit it off, recalls Patrick Bedard. One track marshal was killed by the crash and another seriousy injured. 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. 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. It was always on to the next project.. The guy never gained that flashy status. Prior to a race, he would sit in the back of the transporter by himself in the dark and think about the race, Czarnecki said. Donohue had stepped out of driving retirement . 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 knew, maybe all along, that he would come back. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. 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. The only person to beat Donohue was his former Penske Trans-Am teammate, George Follmer. 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. In 1974, he quit driving and became president of Penske Racing. Donohue. The doctors in Graz, Austria, said yesterday that the racing driver would have been crippled for life had he survived. the email address you entered is invalid. David followed his father into sports car racing for Porsche. 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. This time, the interlopers would leave no doubt as they set out to prove their reputations for calculated dominance. 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. To those who work at the cemetery, Donohue is simply known as The Race Car Driver to visitors looking for his gravesite. He had one religion: testing. The lightweight car was featured on an episode of Dream Car Garage on Speed TV in 2005. He won many races for us and the first IROC championship with the Porsche. Mark Donohue was 38 and a sports car champion and 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner. This account has been suspended due to strange activity. And neither found what they expected. And Mark Donohue couldn't live with retirement. On his second lap he approached the Vst-Hgel very fast right-hander at the end of the main straight when, at about 162 mi/h (260 km/h), a rear tyre of his March 751-Ford Cosworth suddenly blew up. 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. [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. 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). Racing was Donohues obsession. Through racing and after more than four decades after the tragic death of his father, David Donohue believes he has found Mark Donohue. 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 I did everything I could to keep up. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. 12 and current Alltel decals) at the fall Rockingham, North Carolina, race. The email you entered is not registered with us. 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 real Mark came out.. (He was operated on at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta by Drs. The four-race schedule consisted of three races at Riverside and a finale on Daytonas road course. During the development of this motor, the German Porsche engineers often asked Donohue if the motor finally had enough power. In 1967, Penske contacted Donohue about driving Penske's brand new Lola T70 spyder in the United States Road Racing Championship. When Penske Racing took delivery of a Ferrari 512M, for instance, they immediately fabricated a bigger rear wing. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Donahue qualified fourth and passed Bobby Allison for the lead on Lap 10. The Griffith company closed its doors in November, 1966. Donohue won. That is where Mark Donohue often slept when he worked his way to near exhaustion at the race shop. The pressures of racing and designing the car took their toll on Donohue. Penske's new Penske Racing complex in Mooresville, North Carolina is decorated with various murals of Donohue and his racing cars, most notably the AMC stock car and the various Porsche prototypes that Donohue drove through his career. No one knew, but Mark Donohue had just 10 days to live. A track marshal was killed by debris from the accident, but Donohue did not appear to be injured significantly. Has Alonso made the right choice gambling on Aston Martin F1? I always said driving wasn't really a dangerous situation. The guy that is most like Mark that Ive ever met is David, said Don Cox. He just decided it was time to get out, and he wanted to do the Formula 1 program, Penske said. The original Penske Racing team included Penske, Donohue, chief mechanic and crew chief Karl Kainhofer. The Newtown Square facility was a small, 4,000 square-foot garage out back with a small bungalow in front of the shop. 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. Please try again. But supervising the Penske efforts in stock car and Indianapolistype racing did not agree with Donohue. Mark won the 1972 Indianapolis 500 when David was just five. 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 Why "grounded" Hamilton remains confident in Mercedes' F1 recovery. A full season of racing for the 1975 Formula One season was planned. As ADAM COOPER recalls, though, it ended in tragedy. See the article in its original context from. But his thinking man's approach to racing, while successful on the track, was difficult off. In his career, Donohue started 311 races and won 119 of them, a winning average of 38 percent. But if his father, Mark Sr., a successful patent lawyer, never envisaged a racing career for his son, neither cid young Mark. Mark Donohue began racing at the age of 22 in a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette . Donohue qualified his Penske midway the grid, and took it to the morning warm-up session before the start of the race. The search for Mark Donohue concludes in the upscale community of Summit, New Jersey just outside of New York City. Penske warned that any disqualification would have the potential of motivating Chevrolet to pull all support for the Trans-Am series. 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 Conversely, Mark had one of the greatest senses of humor of anybody I ever met. 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. Donohue, no matter what he accomplished, couldnt rest. When you see the car in real life, it becomes so much more real.. Donohue paced himself that day and took the lead for the first time with 12 laps to go. And, according to Cox, Roger certainly did his part in coming up with next projects.. The 917/30 generally is considered one of the most powerful and most dominant racing machines ever created. He knew racing drivers couldn't come back. 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. . 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. He won the Can Am championship in 197, the TransAm title in 1968, 1969 and 1971. He was just 22 years old when he had won his first race, a local hill climb. Mark wasnt an emotional guy. In 1967 he became the USRRC champion, winning six out of eight races. Directing other drivers, making suggestions, helping mechanicseven sweeping up around the garagewere not enough. Donohues degree from Brown in Mechanical Engineering got him a job designing filters for air conditioners -- not quite what he had in mind. Mark returned [a year later] because he realized he wasnt good at anything else. 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 had been a national amateur champion and the Sports Car Club of America driver of the year in 1965. 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. 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. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/20/archives/donohue-38-dead-of-racing-injuries-mark-donohue-is-dead-of-racing.html. racing was concerned, he had done it all. Every time David Donohue sees that car, he sees his father. Had there been a Drivers' Championship in place at the time, he would have won three of them (his last in 1971) while driving Camaros in 1968 and 1969, and an AMC Javelin in 1971, all for Roger Penske Racing. In the 1971 Indianapolis 500, Donohue started second and led 52 of the first 66 laps before breaking a gearbox. Revson's death made it almost inevitable that Donohue would come out of retirement. But Donohue knew that time was running short and his skills and reflexes weren't getting any better. The driver must accept the risks involved, which I didand I spent my time in the hospital as a result.. Donohue finished fourth at Daytona and won the Trans-Am class at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Our car experts choose every product we feature. He was so key in the operation when he was there its something we had to rebuild. With Roger Penske, you are always going to have good equipment. 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. 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. Mark Donohue races to the win at the the 1972 Indy 500. Donohue began working with cars while growing up in the nineteenfifties in a comfortable neighborhood in Summit, N. J. [4] He was survived by his wife and two sons from his first marriage. 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. 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. He also gave us our first NASCAR win. The trip to the airport was like the Mille Miglia. Most of Donohues wins (28) came in Trans-Am, the United States Road Racing Championship (12) and Can-Am (10). 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. Mark Robert Bonhag, 56, of the Highland, Md., area was driving north on New Hampshire Avenue in the . Every dime I had I put into cars, he said. 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. Donohue finished in 12th place at the Canadian Grand Prix, but failed to finish at the United States Grand Prix. It was, as they say in racing, a freak accident. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. His true passion was racing.
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