5/1/2010
The web
site is up again
This web site is dedicated to the memory of
Mark Donohue. Mark was a multiple SCCA National Champion, as well as the 1972
Indy 500 winner, 1968-69-71 SCCA Trans Am Champion, 1973 SCCA Can Am Champion,
and inaugural IROC Champion. There are many pictures of cars that Mark Donohue
was involved with, so please take your time and browse thru the galleries below
and reminisce. You can see and read how a nice guy finished first, many times.
Unfair Advantage Racing and Road America,announce the Mark Donohue
Reunion 2010, to be held at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on July
15-18 in conjunction with the Kohler International Challenge with Brian Redman,
Presented by Ford . The Reunion will celebrate the cars and career of an
American racing legend, witha paddock display of many of the most famous cars
raced by Mark Donohue.Confirmed cars include: the 1972 Indy-winning
McLaren-Offy; the ’73 Eagle-Offy Indy car; the 1972 Can-Am dominating
L&M Porsche 917-10; the 1973 Can-Am champion Sunoco Porsche 917-30; all of
the Donohue-driven, Penske Racing, Camaros and Javelins from the Trans-Am in
the 1960s and early 1970s; the Ferrari 275 LM that Donohue co-drove with Walter
Hansgen in the 1965 Sebring 12 hour; the Sunoco LolaT70 coupe that won the 1969
Daytona 24 Hour race driven by Donohue and Chuck Parsons; and the Lola T70
Spyder which brought Donohue the 1967 United States Road Racing Championship;
the First National City Traveler Checks Penske PC-1 which was Donohue's last F1
car. Many of Mark's teammates from Penske Racing will be attending,including
Karl Kainhofer, Indy Hall-of-Fame crew chief; John “Woody” Woodard,
crew chief on the Porsche 917-10 and 917-30; Ron Fournier, Trans -Am builder;
Chuck Cantwell, team manager and Judy Stropus, Penske timer and scorer. Another
highlight will be a release of a new book from David Bull Publishing,
“Mark Donohue: His Life in Photographs,” by Michael
Argetsinger.
We have great news
that George Follmer will be at the reunion. Mark and George were good friends
and it is a great addition to the event.
The
Mark Donohue Tribute breakfast at Road America 2010 will be held in the RA
Center at the track on July 18, 2010 at 7:15am. This should be an exciting
event and we expect it to be sold out very quickly.
Michael Argetsinger the
author of "Mark Donohue, His Life in Photographs" will be there to introduce
his new book along with publisher David Bull. Enjoy Breakfast and great
discussion led by a panel of Mark Donohue contemporaries and experts on his
amazing career. We are working on a special guest who was probably Marks
greatest competitor throughout his entire career. The price for this breakfast
is $15.00 per person. You need to call 1-800-365-RACE to reserve your
tickets
There is still more than a dozen
rooms left in Sheboygan, WI Comfort Inn on July 15-18, 2010. for KIC Call them
at (920) 457-7724 and tell them you would like to reserve a room for the "Mark
Donohue Reunion" rate and someone will be happy to help you. I did this just to
help fans find a place because Elkhart Lake is very limited in places to stay
and is basically sold out now except for a few rooms like this. These rooms are
only blocked until June 15, and then they are gone.
Mark Knopfler from the group Dire Straits recently made it known that
Mark Donohue was an inspiration to a recent song in his new Album "Get Lucky".
Mark DiIonno from PRNewsFoto wrote the following.
As a boy, Mark Knopfler
spent class time at Gosforth Grammar School in Newcastle, England, drawing race
cars, motorcycles and guitars, and dreaming. At about the same time, Mark
Donohue was at Brown University, where his car drawings were more elaborate. He
was an engineer, and his dream was to make race cars go infinitely faster, with
his foot on the pedal and hands on the wheel. Mark Donohue died 35 years ago at
the height of his career, a few years before Mark Knopfler became a success.
The two men never met, but share much. Artistic drive. Technical perfection.
All the things that boost talent into the highest strata of accomplishment. A
new song by Knopfler captures the essence of Donohue’s life in a way
described as "amazingly intuitive" by one of Donohue’s sons. "The Car was
The One" is the seventh track on Knopfler’s latest release, an album
titled "Get Lucky." "For my father, the car was the one," said David Donohue, a
race car driver whose Brumos Porsche team won the "24 Hours at Daytona" last
year, 40 years after his father won on the same track. "The car was the one,
racing was the one, winning meant everything. And that came with a price. In
the end, a tragic price. I think an artist like Mark Knopfler must understand
that kind of singular focus, and probably has paid some prices of his own."
Mark Knopfler’s guitar drawings came to life with his dreams. Whatever he
drew, he mastered. The iconic photographs of Knopfler, show him slinging any
number of Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters, or Gibson Les Pauls. Posed or
playing, the guitar is always there. When he was leading Dire Straits, when he
went "Neck and Neck" with Chet Atkins, and still today as he builds his legend
as a songsmith and storyteller, with new releases every bit as good as the
last. The iconic photographs of Mark Donohue show him with winner’s
wreaths round his neck and sterling trophies in his hands. At Indianapolis and
Daytona, and Watkins-Glen and Talladega and Riverside, and any number of places
in between. Whatever he drove, he made faster. The No. 66 Indy Car. The AMC
Matador stock car. The Porche 917-30, unbeatable on the Can-Am circuit. On that
one, he helped engineer a booster which jumped horsepower from 1,100 to 1,580
instantly. The song, however, is about none of those images. It is about a
young racer trying to get a break, on the outside looking in, his dreams out of
reach. It was inspired by a short piece in Donohue’s autobiography "Unfair
Advantage." "That passage jumped out at me, really, because of the frustration
he felt," Knopfler said this week before a show in Denver, heading east to our
area for a handful of dates in early May. "He was young and trying to get
noticed as a driver, and was so frustrated. And I related it to when I was
young, and desperate to play music. And how do I get my hands on a good guitar?
And the proper amps? And get a band together? You’re dying to get going,
but you just can’t." The loneliness of such dreams is reflected in the
opening notes of "The Car was The One," played on a 1954 Stratocaster. They are
powerful and isolated, like a muscle car on a desert highway; hot, stark, and
uniquely American. "The twang’s the thang," Knopfler said referring to a
1959 Duane Eddy record. They bring an image of a crew-cut Mark Donohue leaning
on a Cobra in a fireproof suit splashed with logos. "Mark Donohue was the
catalyst for all that we have achieved at Penske Racing," Roger Penske said "It
was Mark who set the standard." A standard driven by that singular focus. "He
lived above the offices at Newtown Square (the Penske Racing shop)," Penske
said. "He was a guy who would work day and night to be certain the car was
completely prepared for the race." Mark Donohue died on Aug. 19, 1975, after a
practice run crash for the Austrian Grand Prix. At that time, Mark Knopfler was
in a band called Cafe Racers, three years away from "Sultans of Swing" becoming
an international hit, and the man who riffed it became rock’s next great
guitarist. Among Knopfler fans are David Donohue and his brother, Michael, who
were not aware of the genesis of "The Car was The One" until contacted for this
column. "My son Mark plays guitar, and he grew up on Mark Knopfler’s
music," said David, who lives in Pennsylvania. "To know Mark Knopfler found my
father’s life inspirational, well, frankly, it’s an honor." "This is
a thrill. My dad would be proud his legacy is remembered like this," said
Michael, who lives in Texas. Mark Donohue is buried in St. Teresa’s
Cemetery in Summit. Fans still come. Three Matchbox race cars have been left on
the headstone shelf -- one a Porsche 917 replica -- and an Indy 500 souvenir
checkered flag sticks out of the flower bed. "One guy drives up in a red
Lamborghini with Pennsylvania plates," said Martin Maulbeck, who maintains the
grounds.
As many of you know Mark was very special in my life and I have
always tried to keep his memory alive thru my website for many years, for
others to remember and share there memorys thru, then we had the 2003 Donohue
Reunion at Watkins Glen where I think everyone had a great and memorable time.
We also did a Donohue Tribute at Watkins Glen Research Center and WGI in April
2009 for the release of Michael Argetsingers book, Mark Donohue, Technical
Excellence at Speed that was a huge success.
This event at Road
America will be my final effort for a Mark Donohue Reunion, so I want to make
it special for everyone involved. There are so many people that are making this
happen but I must thank Rick & Jacques Dresang and Michael Argetsinger for
all the help and work they have done to make this event the best ever. Also a
special thank you to George Bruggenthies and Julie Sebranek from Road America.
Also I havent met him yet, but look forward to meeting Michael Callahan who
will be the "official photographer" for the event. I have to also thank a
special anonymous person who just wants to be known as a "race fan" who has
been more help than he know. Thanks!!! Many of the crew guys are like many of
us, we aren't getting any younger and we think it is important to have another
event while everyone involved is able and willing to travel.
If you are on Facebook, you can find us there at "Mark Donohue Reunion 2010 at
Road America"
I have a few Mark Donohue t shirts left. They
are blue with many of Marks cars on the front, you may purchase them thru
PayPal, under the name of PPowell6@msn.com. Email me for more details if your
interested in one.
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