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An example of Chevrolet's BAD ARSE Zed-28 Camaro
that Mark Donohue drove to Trans Am titles serves as the cover car for the '01
SOVREN Historics' at what is now once again Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA. (The
Tomaso Collection)
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As I noted previously this June during the Austrian
Grand Prix weekend, Team Penske's first "Hired Gun" Mark Donohue died
forty years ago from injuries suffered at the Ostereichring August 19, 1975...
Mark Neary Donohue, Jr. was born March 18,
1937 in Haddon
Township, New Jersey and graduated from Brown
University with a degree in Mechanical
Engineering and most likely is best known as the winner of the 1972
Indianapolis 500.
Yet for Mwah,
Donohue's name sparks thoughts upon those Nasty Camaro Zed-28 Trans Am racers and
the Killer Porsche 917/30 Panzerwagon -
along with his Indy 500 racecar.
As its A-L-L Foggy
Bottoms now, but I'm ARSE-sumin' that the No. 8 Bowtie T/A cover car belonged
to Issaquah, WA's Tom Armstrong? Who was part of the PacWest Racing Group's
Ownership.
Yet instead of
reinventing the wheel, since I've already previously chronicled (briefly) some
of Donohue's accomplishments, along with another fallen comrade known simply as
'Revvie. I'll defer Y'all to the following;
As the motor racing community has just spent
the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend commemorating the life of stricken Formula 1
driver Jules Bianchi, ironically, although motor racing has improved
tremendously overall in concerns regarding safety. Jules, like Mark Donohue,
albeit different circumstances, nevertheless both succumbed from head injuries.
1975 AUSTRIAN GP
Drivers who participated in the race and subsequently
died in another racing accident: Patrick Depailler, Ronnie Peterson, Tom
Pryce and Rolf
Stommelen. While Tony Brise, Stommelen's
team-mate at Graham Hill's Hill Embassy F1 Team and Carlos
Pace were killed in
subsequent plane crashes.
Yet the '75 Austrian Grand Prix entry list
reads like a veritable Who's Who with no less than five eventual world champions participating, with
"Niki-the-Rat," aka Niki Lauda the most successful with his three
championships: 1975, 1977 and 1984.
'EMMO, nee Emerson Fittipaldi who won two
titles in 1972 & 1974 was on the grid, while Lauda's '76 title protagonist,
and eventual world champion James Hunt finished runner-up.
Mario Andretti, America's last world champion
in '78 was racing for Vels Parnelli Jones, along with Jody Scheckter who won
the '79 title for la Scuderia.
OTHERS
Meanwhile, the races winner, Vittorio Brambilla, his
lone F1 victory scored that day, died from a heart attack in 2001 at the age of
63. While Hunt passed away in 1993 at the age of 45 and 'Regga, nee Clay Regazzoni died in 2006
- with all three being Formula 1 race winners.
As 'Regga was the most serious of two drivers
injured in Formula 1 from that grid, becoming paralyzed for life after his
massive shunt at Long Beach, CA. While the affable Frenchman Jacques Laffite
suffered a career ending crash at the 1986 British Grand Prix.
Ironically, Laffite's non-start
classification at Silverstone left him tied with then record holder Graham Hill
for most Formula 1 starts at 176-apiece, which has subsequently been smashed
several times since with 'Rubino, nee Rubens Barrichello holding the current
record at an 'Uber Amazing 322 starts!
Other Grand Prix winning drivers from this
race include: Carlos Reutmann, John Watson and the aforementioned 'Regga and Laffite to name a
few, being amongst a total of 14 winning F1 drivers overall. Along with Jochen
Mass who won the rain soaked '75 Spanish Grand Prix, where the sport's only
female racer to ever score points, Lella Lombardi were both taking part in Austria that fateful
weekend.
Alas, enough of the tragedy, as Y'all are
probably saying where's the Penske part in this story, besides the fact that
Roger Penske's hand chosen driver and friend perished from head injuries two
days after that fateful Austrian Grand Prix weekend. As I've never noticed
before that a track marshal also died from Donohue's accident before, a la the
late Jeff Krosnoff.
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| The "Real" ex-Mark Donohue '72 Indy 500 winner on display at the IMS Hall of Fame museum 'Wayback in 2010. (The Tomaso Collection) |
While arguably my All-time favourite IndyCar
is the very same one Mark drove to victory lane in 1972, that beautifully
prepared Sunoco blue McLaren M16B Offenhauser, which I've had the pleasure of
seeing many times at El Capitano's Penske Racing Museum in Scottsdale, AZ. I'm
always drawn to a lesser car of Donohue's, his '73 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR IROC
championship winner, while "Wattie's" (John Watson) Penske PC4 also
sits on display.
Yet if I think about it a little further,
Donohue, for whom always immediately conjures up the saying "The Unfair
Advantage" simply raced in a more dangerous time, possibly a bi-product of
drivers jumping into anything they could get their racing gloves upon.
While I tend to forget Donohue drove for
others besides Penske, along with competing in several disciplines, i.e.; SCCA
Sedans & Formula Cars, Trans Am, Sports Cars, NASCAR, Can Am, Formula 1,
IROC and Oh Yeah, Indy cars.
As the list of cars Donohue drove includes:
AMC Javelin, AMC Matador, Eagle-Offy, Elva Courier, Ford GT-40 Mk II & IV,
Ferrari 250LM, Ferrari 512M, Lola T70, Lola T330, McLaren M16B, Porsche 911,
Porsche 917/10, Porsche 917/30, Shelby Cobra and Shelby Mustang GT-350R - to name just a few!
As I've had the privilege
of seeing that Uber NASTY Porsche 917/30 Panzerwagon in action at Laguna Seca,
along with those BAD ARSE Camaro Zed-28's! Plus the aforementioned Porsche 911
Carrera RSR and two versions of the 1972 Indy 500 winner...
As
once again, "FoMoCo," nee Ford Motor Company let another prodigious
talent slip thru its grasp after "Captain Nice" won an SCCA B-Sedan championship aboard one of 'Ol
Schel's GT-350R's, along with tossing about a Cobra 289 before Roger Penske
plucked Messer Donohue from TVR Obscurity!
As
ironically, all three of Donohue's Ford GT-40 co-drivers: Walt Hansgen, Paul Hawkins
and Bruce McLaren also died in racing car accidents, albeit McLaren's death
came during testing his latest McLaren Can Am creation in '70. Hansgen's
came during Pre-race testing at Le Mans
in 1966 and Hawkins in the 1969 Tourist Trophy Sports Car race at Oulton
Park.
As
it was Hansgen who originally spotted Donohue's talent - including the pair
co-driving a Ferrari at the Sebring 12
Hours to an 11th place finish, as Hansgen had brought him on as team-mate.
With
Walt's input to Ford, Donohue was signed
to drive one of their brace 'O GT-40's at Circuit de la Sarthe upon Ford's 1966
assault, with Hansgen & Donohue originally slated to drive a Mark II GT-40
for renown NASCAR team Holman & Moody.
Donohue
subsequently drove with Hawkins upon Hansgen's death at Le Mans where the pair
retired after only 12-laps.
Yet
prior to le 24 Heurs du Mans, Hansgen & Donohue had netted third place and
runner-up finishes in the Daytona 24hrs and Sebring 12 Hours respectively
earlier that season.
The
following year, Mark was part of Shelby American's 1967 Ford GT-40 Mk IV squad
where he co-drove the No. 4 with McLaren to a fourth place finish.
And along with his notable triumphs in those
Uber NASTY Sunoco Trans Am Camaro Zed-28's, famous for their Acid Dipping
exploits, including the vinyl top roof chassis! Mark not only won the Trans Am
championship but also won the ` title
in a Chevrolet powered Lola T70 Spyder. Along with his latter Can Am success.
As another of my All-time favourite Sports
Car is
that 'Mega Sweet Ferrari 512M once again resplendent in Sunoco blue! For
which the highly modified Ferrari was co-driven by a current Formula 1 colour
commentator fondly known as 'Hobbo. As David Hobbs and Donohue, who started
from Pole, finished third in the 1971 Daytona 24 Hours, 14-laps behind the
winning Porsche 917 after spending an
hour in the Pits for accident repairs.
Ironically, Hobbs had co-driven to victory in the
Monza 1000km Sports Car race aboard a John Wyer Automotive Ford GT-40 with Paul
Hawkins in 1968.
And if Y'all delve deep enough into roger
Penske's legendous' racing exploits, you'll find that "The Captain's"
team, along with himself has raced just about everything with four wheels upon
I-T! Excluding his Moving Trucks Me Thinks; Hya!
And Mark Donohue's fingerprints, legacy and
DNA are all intertwined with Roger's early successes, be it in the United States Road Racing
Championship, (USRRC) Trans Am, Indianapolis 500 along with Indy Cars and Can
Am or International Race Of Champions.
Mark Donohue was instrumental in all of it, along
with F1, which I'd presume led to the
eventual establishment of Penske Cars IndyCar program abroad. Since after all,
the "Unfair Advantage" was
simply in pursuit of Engineering Excellence...