Mark
Donohue

Mark Donohue was born on 18 March 1937 in Haddon Township, New Jersey, and grew up in Summit. He studied mechanical engineering at Brown University, graduating in 1959. He began racing his Corvette at the age of 22, while still a student. In 1961 he won the SCCA national championship in an Elva Courier, and from 1966 he drove for Roger Penske.

In sports car racing, Donohue won six of the seven rounds of the 1967 United States Road Racing Championship that he entered, in Penske's Lola T70. In 1968 he won ten of 13 races in the Trans-Am series in a Chevrolet Camaro. He won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1969 and was named rookie of the year at the Indianapolis 500 that same year. In 1972 he won the Indianapolis 500 in a McLaren for Penske. He played a major part in developing the Porsche 917-30 for Can-Am, and in 1975 set a closed-circuit world speed record of 221.120 mph (355.858 km/h) in it at Talladega. He was the first champion of the IROC series in 1973-74.

Donohue made his Formula One debut on 19 September 1971 at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport. Driving a McLaren, he finished third to reach the podium, and ended the championship 16th. After announcing his retirement, he returned when Penske set up its own Formula One team. In 1974 he contested the final two races for Penske, finishing 12th in Canada and retiring in the United States. In 1975 he came fifth in both Sweden and Britain. The new Penske PC1 proved troublesome, so the team switched to the March 751 midway through the season. Donohue finished the championship 15th, his best result, and started 14 Grands Prix in total.

During practice for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix, Donohue lost control of his March after a tyre failure. He died on 19 August 1975 as a result of the accident. He recorded his career in the book The Unfair Advantage, which describes his engineering approach to setting up cars. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990. His son David Donohue is also a racing driver.

Source: Wikipedia, “Mark Donohue”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.