25 Years Ago... Remembering Mark Donohue
By R. Mark Stiles - CATCHFENCE.com News Editor &
Jay Adamczyk - Jayski

Editor's Note: This article was originally released here at Catchfence on the 25th Anniversary of Donohue's death. It's now been 28 years since his passing, and with our sport targeting the younger/"MTV Generation," I figured we give that generation a look into a driver of history, and one that not just touched the lives of Jay and myself, but the lives of many. To this day, Mark Donohue's contributions to this sport are still seen. Ask Randy LaJoie. The seats that LaJoie and his father use and distribute to other drivers as well, has it's history going back to the seats that Randy's Father got from Mark Donohue.

Some people ask, who is Mark Donohue?

When I am asked this question, sadly I have to respond, he WAS a great race car driver.

A lot of the so called "next generation" of young people have no idea who Mark Donohue was, or what accomplishment's Donohue achieved while he was among us. I recommend that the younger generation should check out ESPN2's "Glory Days" programs. Speedvision also has similar programs that go back to the vintage racing of yester-year as well, and can enlighten anyone to the early years of racing.

August 19th marks twenty-five years ago that Mark Donohue passed away from brain trauma, which was caused from an accident while practicing for a Formula 1 event.

Some of his most notable accomplishments included being the Indy 500 rookie-of-the-year, Trans AM champion and a winner in The 24 Hours of Daytona all in 1969. He was the 1972 Indy 500 winner, and a year later strapped himself into a Grand National stock car (NASCAR Winston Cup now) winning at Riverside. In 1974 Donohue won the inaugural IROC Championship. In 1975 (same year that he passed away) Donohue established the Worlds Closed Course Speed Record at Talladega.

In the 1974 IROC championship, Donohue won three of the four events that were run. Dale Earnhardt accomplished the same just this year, with winning three of the four events. The difference back then was that some of the IROC events included road courses.

Unfortunately I myself am too young to remember a lot about Mark Donohue. However; I did get to meet him in 1967 at the ripe young age of six months old. My Mother and I ran into Mark at a bank in New Jersey right after he won a race, where he had his winnings in a bag ready for deposit.

Before Donohue went full time as a professional driver for Roger Penske in the mid sixties, Donohue was an engineer for Pulverizing Machinery. Pulverizing Machinery provided machinery that liquefied products. Some of the contracts where with Hershey, Dupont, and makers of Palmolive to name a few. Donohue's job was to go out to these different clients, show them how to work the machinery and to assist when the clients had problems running the equipment.

One of his stories comes from visiting the Hershey Plant, and I am thankful that there are health inspections now. But back then things were different and not as regulated as they are now, and I am sure you can imagine (without me going into gross details) how sugar looked when it came in by train boxcars. All I will say is that I hope this is not how they came about with the crunchy type of chocolate bars.

My main source of information about Donohue's pre-professional racing years comes from my Mother, who was a friend and co-worker of Donohue's. According to my Mother, Donohue was a little shy, had a silly sense of humor (At Pulverizing Machinery, Donohue's sense of humor earned him the nickname of "Giggles") and was a keep to himself type of person. But one thing for sure was that he was hell on wheels with a heavy foot.

One story she shared was of Donohue losing his driver's license for too many speeding tickets, he would have lost his license sooner if it wasn't for playing musical car seats with his, at that time, wife to be Sue. Mark told Mom that he and Sue had gotten the procedure down where they would exchange seats before the pursuing officer caught up to them. Unfortunately Sue wasn't there when he got his last ticket that caused him to lose his license, and ended up having to get my Mother to drive him to and from work. At this time Mom got to know him well from their conversations, and even had the privilege of being invited to Donohue's wedding to Sue.

Donohue also shared with my Mother something that very few people knew (and is not well known to this day) which was his middle name Neary. Donohue was not very fond of his name, and at that time that she ran into him at the bank with me, he just shooked his head and rolled his eyes when she told him my name was Mark (at least she didn't name me Neary).

Donohue's charisma carried on over into his professional racing career as he was loved and liked by his fellow driving peers. He went from the "giggles" nickname at Pulverizing Machinery to "Captain Nice" in his professional racing endeavor.

I may not be old enough to remember Donohue and all of his accomplishments first hand, but unfortunately I do remember that day he wrecked while practicing for the Formula One Austrian GP.

While practicing for the Austrian GP, a tire thought to have deflated pitched Donohue's car into the catch fencing and over a barrier, killing a Marshall, injuring another. Although apparently unharmed, he later lapsed into unconsciousness. Due to swelling of the brain, Mark "Captain Nice" Neary Donohue died three days later in Gaz Hospital despite brain surgery.

To this day I am sure that Roger Penske owes a lot of gratitude towards the foundation that was laid by Mark Donohue with his accomplishments and success that he brought to Penske Racing.

Jay Remembers Donohue…

Hi, this is Jayski, I started following Mark Donohue in the late 1960's when I was a tyke. When he won the Indy 500 on May 29, 1972 with an average speed of 162.962mph, I was in heaven.

I met Mark in the Pocono's at the Split Rock Lodge not far from the Pocono International Raceway, where I was attending time trials for the now defunct Indy Pocono 500. He and Roger Penske stopped by to have dinner at Split Rock, where my family was staying. My Dad bought Mark and Roger a drink and they motioned me to come over. Mark signed my Pocono 500 brochure. It was very cool and he talked to me for a few minutes.

It was ironic that I was staying at Split Rock a few years later when he died after practicing an F-1 car for the Austrian Grand Prix on August 19, 1975. TV Auto Racing being sketchy at best in 1975, I hadn't even known he had an accident until after my Dad broke the news of his death. Mark Donohue was 38 and a sports car champion and 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner. He died from severe head injuries sustained August 16 in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix at Graz, Austria.

I never saw any of Mark's Winston Cup races as not many NASCAR races were seen on TV up here in NJ, except on ABC's Wide World of Sports in small tape delayed segments. I think of him often on his birthday, when the Indy 500 is run and when this date pops up.

From Paul Powell of www.unfairadvantageracing.com:

25 years ago... August 19th, 1975…I was sitting at a friends house talking to a couple of people not really paying attention to what was on the television when I heard Mark's name being mentioned that he had had a bad accident while practicing at the Austrian GP and he had died...They couldn't have been talking about my friend and mentor Mark Donohue could they?

That is what went thru my mind at that very instant...and it seems so fresh in my mind like it happened yesterday. As I sit and reflect right now I still get goose bumps and so many memories rush into my mind at once.

As a kid growing up, both of my parents were active Sports Car Club of America members and we as a family went to a lot of races. I had read a lot about Mark Donohue before I ever met him and he quickly became my favorite driver to watch. One Saturday night during the TransAm weekend at Elkart Lake we were having dinner at Millers Steakhouse with Don and Ruth Nixon from the sports car club. I did a double take as I saw Mark Donohue and Roger Penske walk in. I must have had my mouth wide open when they looked around the crowded restaurant and walked our way. Mark had known our friends when running in the Ford GT program at Lemans the year before in which they did the timing and scoring for Ford Motor Company. Mark sat next to me and I was in instant heaven, face to face with my idol. As everyone was talking about the weekend and racing Mark sat and talked to me the entire evening and listened intently of my plans to be a race driver some day. Little did I know at the time, but that dinner together made a life long bond that will never be forgotten.

Whenever we went to the races and Mark was there, he always made a point to say hi and he spoke to me even when I knew he was much too busy to talk to a silly teenager. I lived within an hour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Penske was running at the track with Mark. In 1971 they had the hot setup and were becoming known to the world. I had told some friends I knew Mark Donohue, and as typical kids they didn't take it very seriously. A few of us decided to ditch school one day and go watch practice at the track. I wanted to prove to them I knew Mark. We leaned against the fence for what seemed like hours as they worked on Mark's car dialing in more speed, with Mark never getting out of the car. I didn't think he would ever get out of the car and notice me. When he finally did, a couple of people behind me yelled his name for autographs. He looked our way and gave me this stern look as he walked towards us. I was so excited to finally get to see him, and all he wanted to know is why I was out of school and if my parents knew I was at the track. I was stunned and admitted I was ditching school. He was not happy with me. In fact my friends who were with me didn't much care for him after I told them what a neat guy he was before we arrived at the track. As it turned out I had to go home and tell on myself and we all got into big trouble.

In 1974 I was at Road Atlanta for the Sports Car Club of America run offs and Mark was there as the Grand Marshall. He had retired from racing and seemed quite unhappy when I saw him. He had taken a job with Penske Racing as the General Manager and did not like it all that much. I was having one of those weekends I would assume forget when Mark drove up in his 12 cylinder XKE that he was driving for the weekend. He talked and helped me with a couple of issues I had with the car that I was having trouble with. Mark invited me for dinner, which I had to decline. I had too much to do for the next day to prepare for my race. I remember him waving bye and having that silly grin of his face telling me to cheer up and he would be seeing me later. That would be the last time I ever saw Mark.

At the time of his death it had been almost a year since I had spoken to him. And I took it for granted that he would always be there. Now at 46 years old I still feel the same way. He was the best of the best and nobody will ever replace my friend and mentor. He made me realize how precious life can be and how fast it can be taken away.

From Another Donohue Fan:

I was with Mark and the Porsche team that Sunday in Riverside when he won the 1973 Can Am race/championship in the 917/30 and the inaugural IROC series finale in the Porsche 911 RSR....and announced his retirement from racing at the age of 36.

At the time I had just finished my Bachelor's degree at UC Riverside and was beginning law school. To finance my education I worked as a bartender at the Cask n Cleaver Restaurant on University Avenue. As an avid racing fan this job had one perk that was almost better than the money I earned: Cask n Cleaver was a favorite hangout of the racing crowd who were in town for the races being run at Riverside International Raceway, which was about 4-5 miles east of the University off of Hwy 60.

Over the year or so that I bartended at the Cask I was privileged to meet and/or serve the likes of Brian Redmond, Jim Hall, Bobby Unser, Cale Yarborough, Mario Andretti, Roger Penske and, most thrilling of all, Mark Donohue.

The Cask was a favorite after-race meeting place for Mark and Roger Penske.

On that memorable Sunday in '73 I had gone to the races and had witnessed Mark win first the IROC race in the RSR, and then later that afternoon the final Can Am race of the year in what I personally still consider the most awesome race car ever to run a track, the Porsche 917-30.

After the races were over I ran home to Redlands, showered and changed and drove over to the Cask n Cleaver. I was the only bartender on duty that evening.

Because he had done so many times in the past, we expected Roger and Mark to come in for dinner sometime that evening and we were all excited, especially given the historical events that had taken place at RIR that day.

However, neither Mark nor Roger showed up during the normal dinner hour. Just before I decided to close the restaurant (as bartender, I was also surrogate manager when he was gone, as was the case that evening) at around 10 P.M., the dinner rush being over and almost all the customers gone, Roger Penske came in looking for Mark. I told Penske that Mark had not shown up, and he then left to look elsewhere--driving of all things a giant motorhome.

After he left I locked the front door and began my cleanup. The waiters and cooks were doing their own clean up procedures when I heard a knock at the front door.

Opening the door I found myself facing Mark Donohue and several other men whom I did not recognize. I related that Penske had come and gone and that we were closed. Mark seemed quite disappointed and he and the others walked across the parking lot to the Bob's Big Boy restaurant which was next door.

A couple minutes later my assistant manager came in and I told him about Donohue going next door. Thankfully, he ran next door without hesitation and a few minutes later returned with Mark and the others following behind. We hurriedly turned the grill back on, took down some chairs from table in the dining room and I reopened the bar.

Mark was so appreciative of our doing this for him that he invited all of us who were still there to join him and his guests--the entire Porsche factory technical team--for dinner, on him.

We set several table together to make a long banquet-style table and brought out several flasks of wine which we passed around the table. As it turned out, Mark sat at the head of the table with Porsche personnel, cook, waiters and the assistant manager down either side, and I sat at the foot of the table, looking straight ahead at Mark.

The steaks were brought out and the wine flowed freely as we quickly were able to relax and have a great time with these people, and with my hero Mark Donohue. I have to say that it wasn't long before I was able to proclaim that I was drunk, right along with my hero. As you might imagine, most of the talk was of racing, the IROC, Can Am, and, given the fact that he'd just announced his retirement from racing a few hours before, reminiscences about Mark's career.

I asked him why, given his success in every major form of American racing, he hadn't tried Formula One, and he told me that he was 36 years old, and that to put together a competitive F1 team would probably take 2-4 years, and he just thought that by then he'd be too old to be racing at that level.

I didn't believe it; I thought he could do anything he set his mind to doing.

That he subsequently changed his mind and gave it a shot is, of course, tragic. For some years I had the irrational idea that I'd planted a seed and had some small part in his ultimate death. Given his competitive spirit, of course, I know he would have done exactly what he did, even had he appreciated that he might be putting his life at risk.

I still have the clipping from the L.A. Times announcing his death in the Formula race trials two years after my dinner with Mark Donohue.

I'll never forget how friendly and unassuming that man was, and how generous he was to a bunch of college-aged restaurant workers in Riverside in 1973.

In closing, Mark you may be gone, but with Jay, other Mark Donohue fans, and myself you are definitely not forgotten!

R. Mark Stiles can be reached at mstiles@catchfence.com
You can visit Jay at www.Jayski.com