A tribute to Mark Donohue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw-HyrvPXeo

[h=1](Edited and Produced by Robert Lavigne. Footage via Paul Powell)[/h]

 

Mark Donohue and the Indy 500 1972

REWIND: Miller on Mark Donohue and the Indy 500

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emailBy Robin Miller | September 8, 2021 3:08 AM ET

Back in 1972, Mark Donohue delivered Roger Penske the first of his 18 (and counting) Indianapolis 500 wins. Yet the New Jersey-born, Brown University engineering grad couldn’t have been more different in his background and approach from most of the guys he headed home at the Brickyard that day.

An outstanding road racer who approached his craft in an unusually cerebral way, his 1969 Indy 500 debut for fellow Brickyard neophyte Penske was his first race on any oval. But despite their collective lack of experience on one of the world’s most unforgiving race tracks, a second-row starting position and a seventh-place finish was a potent statement of intent.

Donohue’s “500” win came in his and Penske’s fourth start. By then, the combo had redefined how a driver and team could and should approach the Month of May – an approach that would earn Roger a further 17 Indy wins over the next five decades.

As our man Robin Miller noted in the June 2017 issue of RACER, 45 years after “Captain Nice’s” win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, “When discussing the great ones at Indy, Donohue’s name is seldom mentioned.” But from the story he wrote, it’s obvious that the unassuming, yet devastatingly effective Donohue had not only earned the respect of his Indy peers, but of Robin, too.

Laurence Foster, RACER Editor-in-chief



Mark Donohue’s career at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was much like the man: understated and somewhat underappreciated, while being overshadowed by his trendsetting car owner and the magnificent machine that took him to victory in the 1972 Indy 500.

When discussing the great ones at Indy, Donohue’s name is seldom mentioned, and that ’72 triumph is more remembered for his teammate’s domination and another team’s faux pas. But make no mistake, Donohue was a quick learner who adapted to ovals, high speeds and walls as easily as he got to grips with the aggressive USAC mentality, all while ushering in a more cerebral approach to racing at the Brickyard.

“Mark brought a different level to the sport with his technical mind, and he showed it wasn’t just brute force that could get you into Victory Lane,” says Roger Penske of the hand-picked protege who delivered “The Captain” the first of his record 16 Indy wins. “But whenever it was time to go, he did a helluva job.”

Three-time Indy 500 winner Bobby Unser, who had the field well and truly covered in 1972 in Dan Gurney’s Eagle before breaking down, likens the soft-spoken Donohue to his younger brother, Al.

“Mark wasn’t a Parnelli [Jones] or [an A.J.] Foyt,” he says. “Not much of a charger. He was more like my brother, Al, in that he was a little on the conservative side. But he got all that attention for being an engineer when the fact is, he was a damn good racecar driver.”

To appreciate what went down in 1972, it’s important to retrace the steps of the Brown University grad’s ascension that began with a hill climb in 1957 and ended tragically in Formula 1 in 1975.

Partnered with team owner Penske in 1967, Donohue captured the United States Road Racing Championship, then drove the Sunoco Chevy Camaro to the ’68 Trans-Am title while also making his Indy car debut at Mosport. When Penske brought him to Indianapolis the following year, the accomplished road racer had never competed on an oval and only tested once, at Hanford, Calif. Yet he breezed through his rookie test, qualified fourth fastest in an all-wheel-drive Lola-Offy, and finished seventh to earn Rookie of the Year honors.

“Mark felt that Indianapolis was like a four-corner road course,” recalls Penske, whose crew wore identical shirts (tucked into their pants), polished the race car’s wheels and washed the garage floor every night – all to much mockery from the USAC establishment. “He was very smooth, very calculating and adapted real well, even though it was all foreign to him.”

Bobby Unser wasn’t surprised at how well Donohue adapted to the Speedway.

“I had an all-wheel-drive Lola that year, too,” he recalls. “We tested together at Hanford and Mark really, really understood what was going on with that car. He’s the one who suggested they move the turbocharger forward and down to make the center of gravity lower. Very smart.”
Penske perfect. Another finely-tuned pit stop for Donohue’s McLaren-Offy M16B. Image via IMS Archive

Donohue’s second oval start came in the 1970 Indianapolis 500, where he qualified fifth and ran second, behind Al Unser and ahead of Dan Gurney.

“I had an appreciation for him because I knew his background,” says Mario Andretti, whose lone Indy triumph had come in Donohue’s rookie year. “But it still impressed me, how well he took to Indy even though it was the only oval he’d ever run.”

Up to this point, Indy car racing for Penske had only been the Indy 500 and a few road races sprinkled in between Can-Am and Trans-Am, but in 1971 the team got serious. The Captain struck a deal with Teddy Mayer to buy a new factory McLaren, which didn’t really frighten any USAC regulars at the time.

“To be honest, McLaren was just another entry,” recalls Johnny Rutherford, whose life and career would change forever a couple years later with McLaren. “They were brand new and hadn’t won anything – and neither had Roger, at least in open-wheel. He’d been successful in sports cars and road racing, but it takes a while to figure out how to get around at Indianapolis.”

Still, considering how well Donohue and Penske had run in their first two attempts at IMS, it was hard to imagine why McLaren would sell a couple cars to “R.P.” when it was fielding its own two-car effort for Peter Revson and Denis Hulme.

“Bruce [McLaren] was a good friend and we had a long history together – I sold him my Xerex Special sports car,” says Penske of the well-respected F1 and sports car winner who died in a 1970 Can-Am testing accident. “I wanted to go to Indy with Revson and Mark, but Teddy was going to run Revson, so he sold me a couple cars.”

Penske didn’t unveil his newly acquired McLaren M16 until May, having Donohue run a Lola-Offy and a Lola-Ford at Phoenix and Trenton, respectively.

“We tested the M16 at Phoenix,” recalls Penske. “We took off the wings to see what it was like, then we put them back on and it was a rocket ship. Mark couldn’t believe how well it went around the corners, and we couldn’t wait to get to Indianapolis.”

First glimpse of the Gordon Coppuck-penned, Offy-powered M16, with its sleek shape and wings fore and aft, brought a collective gasp from the opposition.

“The first time I saw it I said, ‘This is it, it’s all over,’ and it was the most deflating feeling,” admits Andretti, whose McNamara-Ford looked like a garden tractor next to the svelte McLaren.

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.

“We had stop watches back then, with a timing chart taped on the back that converted seconds to miles per hour, but 180mph didn’t exist on the timing chart.”

 

He was an all-round good racer and a great guy who earned everyone’s respect.”

REWIND: Miller on Mark Donohue

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emailBy Robin Miller | September 8, 2021 3:08 AM ET

Even though Revson stole the pole at 178.969mph, to Donohue’s 177.087 average, it was all Mark at the green flag. He easily and comfortably led the first 50 laps, before a gearbox issue KO’d him on lap 66.

“It was so good. I was barely using the brakes and preserving power and it was just a dream,” said Donohue as he walked back to his garage. Defending winner Al Unser, driving a reworked Colt chassis, beat Revson to the checkered flag by 22sec in what had to be considered a major upset.

Donohue headed to the next 500-miler at Pocono and earned his first Indy car win, then followed it up with another victory on Michigan’s high banks.

“I still can’t believe we beat them at Indianapolis that year,” shrugs Al Unser, “because you could see how strong they were after May, and you could see that Mark was getting comfortable on ovals.”

In 1972, Penske added USAC stalwart Gary Bettenhausen to his lineup, reaping immediate rewards when the second-generation star won the Trenton 200.

When Indy opened for business, there were a couple obvious favorites – Gurney’s new Eagle for Bobby Unser and Jerry Grant, and the tweaked M16B for factory drivers Gordon Johncock and Revson and Penske pair Bettenhausen and Donohue.

Unser annihilated the track record by 17mph and was 3mph quicker than front-row mates Revson and Donohue in qualifying. He built an enormous lead during the first 30 laps of the race, before being sidelined by a faulty rotor cap.

Bettenhausen, whose sprint car street smarts meshed nicely with Donohue’s engineering aptitude, was then the class of the field, leading 138 of the next 145 laps, before stopping on lap 176 with ignition problems created by an overheating engine.

“It was a shame. Gary had it won and it would have changed his life,” says Penske, who fired his stubborn driver in 1974 when he was badly injured at Syracuse, N.Y. after being asked to give up dirt racing…

Grant’s Eagle then inherited the top spot and owned a 15-second lead on Donohue, who immediately got a “GO” command from Penske on his pit board at the same time Grant was being shown “EZY” by his crew. In 10 laps, Donohue had closed to within a few car lengths of Grant when the Mystery Eagle darted into the pits on Lap 188 with a deflating tire. But Grant overshot his pit, took on fuel from Unser’s tank and fell a lap behind.

Game, set and match to Donohue, who breezed under the checkered flag a lap ahead of Al Unser’s Parnelli-Offy after Grant was dropped to 12th for his pit violation. Afterward, Penske’s humble, 35-year-old talisman reacted like the consummate team player he always was.

“I didn’t lead many laps or have the strongest car, and Gary should probably be standing here,” he said. “We went with a smaller turbo, turned the boost down to be as reliable as possible, and it worked. It’s a great team; I’m just the guy who turns left.”
Owner Roger Penske and driver Donohue brought their exacting standards to the Speedway for the first time in 1969. Image via IMS Archive

Forty-five years later, Penske still disagrees. “Mark worked so hard and deserved to win that race, and that was one of my proudest days,” he says. “He was such a pro and helped start this team and made us better and better. We had a three-year plan to win Indianapolis and it took us four, but those are great memories. Mark was a great driver as well as a great friend.”

The McLaren was replaced with an Eagle for ’73, but Donohue dropped out with a burned piston after starting third at Indy. It was to be his final “500” appearance.

After dominating the 1973 Can-Am season, Donohue retired from driving, but was lured back by a fresh challenge when Penske targeted Formula 1.

Based out of the UK, the team ran the last two grands prix of 1974 as a precursor to a full season with its first in-house design, the PC1. But in August ’75, Donohue died of a cerebral hemorrhage following a crash in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Four decades on, Mario Andretti, who was driving for another U.S. F1 team that year, Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, says of Donohue: “Mark was very versatile; a complete driver. As a racer, he was as good as anyone. His face is on the Borg-Warner Trophy, and that’s all the confirmation he needs.”

EARNING THE RESPECT OF HIS PEERS

A quiet, almost shy, unfailingly polite young man with a college education who didn’t cuss, carouse or love dirt-track racing wasn’t just an outsider in the late 1960s in USAC racing – he was an anomaly.

But Mark Donohue, aka “Captain Nice,” won over his hard-driving, hard-assed Indy car racing brethren with his smarts, ability and good nature.

“Mark didn’t chase girls like some of us, and he wasn’t out all night drinking and causing trouble, but I liked the guy the first time I met him,” says Bobby Unser, who possibly knows of what he speaks. “He was very intelligent and a straight shooter and way too honest to ever tell a lie. But he sure understood race cars, and was a very good driver.”

Four-time Indy winner A.J. Foyt liked Donohue’s demeanor, in and out of a car.

“He didn’t do anything crazy,” says Super Tex. “He wasn’t a killer, but he was a good racer and I respected him. Plus, he was a nice guy, good to people.”

Three-time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford says he had no preconceived opinion about the sports car veteran.

“I never judged anybody until I raced against them, and you knew immediately that you could race wheel-to-wheel with Mark,” he says. “And I always appreciated how he could figure out what to do if his car wasn’t working.”

Mario Andretti first met Donohue when he beat him in a road race at Lime Rock – driving a midget! But he admired how the smooth-driving road racer adapted to cut-throat oval racing.

“Mark was very clean, very proper and he was never going to give you some big, nasty slide job,” he says. “And he wasn’t really going to fight you for a corner like A.J. or Bobby or Gordy [Johncock]. But he was very technical, very versatile. He was an all-round good racer and a great guy who earned everyone’s respect.”