Morning Qualifying – Brave Captain
Mark Neary Donohue, Jr. at Riverside, 1973. ©Schlegelmilch
The theatrical release of the new Senna documentary has had me thinking about heroes. If most of you are like me, you first fell in love with motor sports when you were young. The younger you are when that bug bites, the greater the attachment you form with your first racing hero. If you’re now in your 30’s and you followed Formula 1 as a child, you probably know exactly where you were when you heard about Aryton Senna’s death. For you, watching Senna and Prost duke it out on the big screen brings those childhood memories roaring back along with an inescapable twinge of loss. You never forget losing your childhood hero. I’ve never forgotten the day, 36 years ago today, when I lost mine.
Donohue at the 1970 Mission Bell 200 at Riverside. Photo by Mike Parris
The racing bug bit me hard as the 1970’s dawned. Thanks to a serious childhood asthmatic condition, I spent a lot of my boyhood inside in front of the TV. Every weekend afternoon was spent watching racing on ABC’s Wide World of Sports or the CBS Sports Spectacular. And no matter which show was on, there was always the inescapable presence of Mark Donohue. Between 1970 and 1974, there was arguably no greater star in American racing than “Captain Nice”.
Donohue and the all conquering Porsche 917/30 at Road Atlanta, 1973.
Whether it was his Trans-Am Javelin, the Indy winning McLaren-Offy M16B, the mighty Porsche 917/30 or one of the multi-colored IROC Porsche 911 Carrera RSR’s, Mark Donohue was always the man. More to the point, Mark Donohue was my man. To my young, car-addled brain, there wasn’t anything that Mark couldn’t drive to victory. He even got a NASCAR win (Penske Racing’s 1st) in an AMC Matador! When he announced his retirement in 1974, I was crestfallen. Heroes didn’t retire.
Mark Donohue in the winning Sunoco-Penske McLaren M16B at the 1972 Indianapolis 500.
So, when Roger Penske lured Mark back to join his new F1 team in ‘74, it felt like Christmas, my birthday, that time Kim Crouse held my hand while we watched a film strip in Ms. Policano’s class, and 10 Godzilla movies rolled into one. My hero, Captain Nice, was back! he vagaries of 70’s TV programming kept my exposure with Formula 1 to a minimum, so I made sure to check the latest issue of Road and Track for the latest Donohue news when I went to get my monthly haircut at Mr. Hines’ barber shop. While F1 success eluded him, Mark Donohue still upped his cool points when he set the closed course speed record at Talledega Superspeedway in August of ‘75.
Mark Donohue leads the field at the inaugural International Race of Champions at Riverside in 1974. ©Schlegelmilch
Just 10 days later, while helping my Mom with the dinner dishes, I heard the newsman say Mark Donohue died. I walked into the living room and stood in front of the tv in dumbstruck silence. How could this happen? The newsman grimly explained that Donohue spun out and crashed in a practice session two days before, striking his head on a metal post supporting a track side billboard. Initially, the doctors thought he was ok, until Mark started complaining about headaches. They rushed Mark to the hospital, where he died of something I’d never heard of ……an aneurysm. I walked outside and sat on the stone steps in front of our house. Tears rolled down my face as I stared at the passing traffic on the street below. Mark Donohue was gone.
Related posts:
Mark Donohue was a racing superman. He engineered his rides from start to finish and understood every vehicle dynamic that could come into play in a race vehicle. One top of that, he was one of the all time smoothest and most consistent drivers that ever graced the sport.
Agreed. My adult self knows that he left his mark, racing the right way for his entire life, and that he went out doing what he loved… but I wouldn't have seen it that way as a kid, had I been around then.
Mark Donohue was a true sportsman, gentleman, and an extreme talent. I was born after he died, so I never got to watch him live. However, everything I've ever read about him makes me admire him.
My boyhood racing hero was Dale Earnhardt Sr. I would wake up early on Sunday mornings so I could watch recaps of the previous week's race. I remember watching him in the blue and yellow Thunderbird. I remember when the black #3 debuted. I was fascinated by how he would patiently stalk the leaders, waiting for them to make even the slightest mistake, then pounce.
I cried on that day in February when he hit the wall. That was also the beginning of the end of my NASCAR fandom.
He was also a great man. While at a Chevy dealership in Toledo for an autograph session, he noticed a VERY pregnant woman waiting in line. She was approximately 10th in line when her water broke. Dale Sr. noticed and rushed over to see if she was ok. She told him how her husband was at work and she'd been waiting for hours for an autograph. Dale took off his jacket, gave it to the woman and said "This should keep your newborn warm, and if you haven't decided on a name, I like the name 'Dale'."
Many of those OG stock car drivers were gentlemen. Chalk it up to their southern upbringing or whatever, but I look at the current crop of drivers and feel a twinge of sadness. Yes, the flash and celebrity that comes with NASCAR's meteoric rise in popularity has a lot to do with it. But just because you make millions per race doesn't mean you have to be a douchebag.
I agree with the feeling of loss to all of the greats mentioned above, and would also like to add Greg Moore to that list. His absolute dominance in Indy cars at the time made me an instant fan. I saw his crash at Fontana as it happened (on TV, not in person). That was another sad day in racing.
What made it even sadder was that he had signed with Penske for 2000. Someone even made this neat "what if" model.
<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w-ppV2QMnW4/Smfg_FjazBI/AAAAAAAAAA0/5P8kHTFRDE0/s1600/greg_fantasy%2Bpenske.jpg" width="500" />
Who knows how many titles and Indy 500s he would have won. He was only 24 when he died, so you know he would have had at least another dozen years of racing in him.
Mark Donohue, along with Bruce McLaren, drove this Ford GT40 MkIV at the 24-Hour LeMans in 1967. According to what I read, this car had some problems, and at one point the rear deck lid flew off while McLaren was at the wheel. McLaren managed to bring it back to the pits where they grabbed duct tape and some of their own belts to hold it down. After putting it back together, he brought it back to the pits so they could secure it even further. After all of this, he and Donohue brought the car to a 4th place finish.
Mr. Scroggs, your story was very touching. I have something in my eye.
<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzr05gNoTu1qb4pobo1_500.jpg"width="500"/>
I don't remember where I was when I learned of Donohue's or Senna's deaths, but I vividly remember watching the initial TV coverage of Niki Lauda's fiery crash on the Nordschliefe circuit in '76. I was 13 at the time.
The news coverage of his struggle to survive over the next few days was fairly constant, which I thought odd for a nation that largely ignored F1 prior to his crash.
I was a huge Lauda fan, too. Of course I ran right out (okay, I had to ride the bus into downtown Dallas) and bought his autobiography, "My Years With Ferrari" (which I still have).
Scroggs, as a kid, Mark Donohue was my favorite racing driver, too. He and Roger Penske were truly the Dynamic Duo. I was stunned when I heard about his death. He was a racing superman, from his Trans Am days and his work with Porsche, to his Indy Car driving and his closed course record at Talledega.
As a kid whose parents owned a Rambler American, of course I rooted for the underdogs at AMC. Who could forget that wild spoiler on the Mark Donohue Javelin?
<img src="IMAGE URL" width="600">
<img src="http://www.planethoustonamx.com/amc_ads/70_mark_donohue_ad.jpg">
Great writeup…getting choked up here.
If it's any consolation, my day job is designing the medical devices that fix aneurysms.
Seated along with Donohue in the list of fellows that bring a tear to my eye for our loss of their brilliance is Al Holbert. He died in a plane crash during a race weekend. I was a big fan of IMSA as a kid and always rooted for #14.
one disadvantage of being… older.
i was a huge jim clark fan, and still remember that day.
i was a huge jarno saarinen fan, and still remember that day.
i was a huge mark donahue fan, and still remember that day.
i was a huge senna fan…
I do alot of roundy poundy (3/8 mile paved oval) and have watch alot of my hero's go out in a giant flame of glory and every time I watch a NASCAR race I am always amazed by the amount of "Oh Fu€k" the cars can take nowadays it's truly amazing
bastard. made me get all teary-eyed at work.