Mark Donohue

Diver

• Born: March 18, 1937
• Birthplace: Summit, New Jersey
• Died: August 19, 1975
• Place of death: Graz, Austria

Sport: Auto racing

Early Life

Mark Neary Donohue, Jr., born on March 18, 1937, grew up in Summit, New Jersey. Before the age of ten, he was able to drive the family car along the awkward and difficult driveway into the garage. The family barn became his auto shop. Once when the barn caught fire, Mark ran for help, then rushed back into the barn to put out the fire. This act was not sheer recklessness: He knew exactly the location of the fire extinguisher, the path the burning gasoline would take, and how to escape if he could not douse the fire. The flames were extinguished before the fire department arrived.

Mark was also a survivor; he was not stopped by scarlet fever, a tonsillectomy, vein cauterizations, an appendectomy, or even polio. These early traumas taught him to adopt a stoic attitude, which freed him to think rationally and sensibly even in the midst of pain and confusion.

The Road to Excellence

In 1959, Mark graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Brown University. Soon after, Mark sold his souped-up Corvette and, with this money, bought an Elva Courier with an Morris Garages (MG) engine. While working as a mechanical engineer, he entered the Elva in various regional amateur races. By 1961, he was racing all over the country and winning frequently. He won three national amateur sports car championships before turning professional in 1966.

Mark joined the team headed by Roger Penske, a former amateur driving champion. Mark began by test-driving cars for Penske but soon was racing for him. In 1967 and 1968, Mark won the United States Road Racing Championship. When that series of races was discontinued, Mark successfully raced a modified Chevrolet Camaro in the Trans-American Sedan Series for small, sporty cars. He also competed successfully in a different arena: the Canadian-American Challenge Series (Can-Am). The Formula Seven cars in these races were “technically unlimited”: virtually no rules governed the engine or bodywork, allowing creativity in the design.

The Emerging Champion

By 1969, Penske had convinced Mark that the new goal was the Indianapolis 500. Indy-type cars, unlike Can-Am cars, have defined maximum engine sizes and other technical restrictions and run on a mixture of methanol and nitromethane. The Indianapolis 500 is the biggest event in American auto racing and one of the most widely attended annual events in the country. At Indianapolis, Mark’s quiet disposition earned him a new nickname: Captain Nice. Mark finished seventh and was voted rookie of the year.

Mark and Penske concentrated their efforts on the Indianapolis 500 the next year, but a disappointed Mark finished a distant second, behind Al Unser, who had led nearly the entire race. By this time, however, the long hours Mark spent preparing for races had taken a toll on his personal life. He separated from his wife and two children.

Mark set his sights on the Indianapolis 500 for 1971. During a practice run, he broke the track record by going 177 miles per hour, and, about a week later, he ran 180 miles per hour. Winning the Indianapolis 500, however, did not depend solely on speed; it also entailed completing the race. Mark had built up an almost unbeatable lead when a gearbox broke and he had to drop out of the race. Worse yet, his car, a McLaren M16, was soon destroyed in a freak accident. Later that year, Mark won the first Schaefer 500-mile race, and the experience of winning a long, Indy-type race helped him the following year.

In 1972, Mark and Penske were ready. Their plan was to race with an “underpowered” car that would give them good speed but, more important, was reliable enough to endure the grueling 500 miles. Mark finally succeeded in winning the Indianapolis 500, setting a new Indy record at more than 163 miles per hour.

A few weeks later, Mark was testing a new Porsche prototype at Road Atlanta when the steering disintegrated on the track. He badly injured his left knee. While he recuperated, he kept thinking of racing. In particular, he wanted to challenge Team McLaren, which had dominated the past five or six years of the Can-Am series. The next season, Mark returned to racing and won most of the Can-Am races and the overall championship, then abruptly retired. As far as American auto racing was concerned, Mark had done it all.

Continuing the Story

In February, 1974, Mark briefly emerged from retirement for the International Race of Champions designed to determine who was the greatest of the great drivers. The competitors in this race were each given a Porsche Carrera to drive. Mark won it easily, beating Bobby Unser, A. J. Foyt, Peter Revson, David Pearson, and George Follmer.

Mark retired from driving again to engineer a Grand Prix—Formula One—car for young driver Peter Revson. Engines of Grand Prix cars are smaller than those of Indy-type cars, run on ordinary gasoline, and are rear-mounted in cigar-shaped cars. When Revson was killed in a crash, Mark came out of retirement and began racing the Formula One car that he had helped design. Grand Prix racing—dominated by Europeans such as Jackie Stewart—was the “missing link,” the racing category that Mark had yet to master. Mark’s best Grand Prix showing with this new car was fifth, but he was looking forward to a better season the following year.

While he was doing 160-mile-per-hour practice laps for the Austrian Grand Prix, his left front tire lost air and his Penske March 751 crashed. Mark died in a hospital two days later, on August 19, 1975. At his bedside were his father, Mark, Sr.; Penske; and his second wife of eight months, Eden. Mark was a champion to the end—two weeks before his death, he had set a world speed record on a closed track in a turbocharged Porsche, driving at more than 221 miles per hour.

Summary

Some race-car drivers, many of whom never finished high school, complained that Mark Donohue had an unfair advantage because he was trained in engineering. Despite his technical expertise, he showed that champions win because of careful planning, precise execution, cool nerves, and, above all, driving instinct. Mark was the consummate race-car driver and a champion in all racing categories.

Bibliography

Arron, Simon, and Mark Hughes. The Complete Book of Formula One. St. Paul, Minn.: Motorbooks International, 2003.

Reed, Terry. Indy: The Race and Ritual of the Indianapolis 500. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2005.

Rusz, Joe. “Mark Donohue.” Road and Track 51, no. 11 (July, 2000): 103-104.

Smith, Steven Cole. “A Trip Down Memory Lane at 198 mph.” Motor Trend 57, no. 12 (December, 2005): 138-142.