THE RACERS, PART V.

By Peter M. DeLorenzo

Detroit. Racing a car, motorcycle or anything with some sort of power is a pursuit like no other. It is a passionate endeavor requiring an obsessive single-mindedness that consumes the people involved to a degree that outsiders find hard to understand. Ask any driver who has competed at the top level, and they will tell you that there is nothing half-assed about what they do, because the focus required is almost incomprehensible. Drivers talk about being in "the zone" - a strange state of mind that takes over their entire being while they're racing - when the faster they go the more things seem to slow down for them. They're aware of everything around them, but at the same time their focus at the task at hand is impenetrable, because anything less can result in a mistake that will likely have severe consequences. Racers are indeed a rare breed, willing to sacrifice everything for the pursuit of what they love to do, to the detriment of everything else. These racers have left an indelible mark on the sport. Drivers who were fierce competitors, flawed heroes and incredible, gifted talents. Their legacies are what make the sport of motor racing so fascinating. This week, we take a look back at the careers of all-time greats Graham Hill, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Jack Brabham and Mark Donohue.
Norman Graham Hill (with Jackie Stewart and Lola's Eric Broadley at Indianapolis in this photo) was one of Britain's greatest racing drivers. With a quintessential look out of central casting for a British Grand Prix driver, Hill won the World Championship in 1962 (BRM) and 1968 (Lotus), and finished second in 1963, 1964 and 1965. To date, he is the only driver to have won the Indianapolis 500 (1966), the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1972) and an F1 World Championship. Hill was precise, consistent and very quick, which was aptly demonstrated by the fact that he won the Monaco Grand Prix five times (1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969). Hill set up his own F1 Team in 1973 called Embassy Hill, and even though he continued to race, he retired from driving after failing to qualify for the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix. Hill and five of his team members were tragically killed on November 29, 1975, when the plane Hill was piloting crashed in the fog on the Arkley golf course while on approach to the Elstree Airfield in North London. When Graham's son Damon won the F1 World Championship in 1996 for Williams Grand Prix Engineering, they became the first father and son to win the World Championship.
Denis Clive "Denny" Hulme was a New Zealand racing driver who won the 1967 F1 World Championship driving for Brabham (who is also in the picture above). Hulme won a total of eight F1 races in 112 Grand Prix starts, but he endeared himself to U.S racing fans by driving for Team McLaren in the Can-Am series. The dominant McLaren team won five straight Can-Am titles (1967 - 1971), and Hulme was magnificent, winning the driver's championship twice during that streak and also finishing second four times. Hulme was instrumental in pulling the McLaren team together after the sudden death of team leader Bruce McLaren, which happened two weeks before the beginning of the 1970 Can-Am season. Hulme also competed in the Indianapolis 500 four times (1967, 1968, 1969, 1971), finishing fourth in 1967 and 1968. Hulme died from a heart attack on October 4, 1992, while driving a BMW M3 in the Bathurst 1000 in Australia at the age of 56.
Bruce Leslie McLaren is one of the most legendary figures in motor racing. A superb designer, engineer, development driver and racing driver, the New Zealander raced for Cooper, Eagle and his own team in F1, winning four races. McLaren's first F1 win was in the 1959 U.S. Grand Prix at Sebring; his fourth and last win came in the Belgian Grand Prix in 1968, which was also the first win for McLaren as a manufacturer in F1. Bruce also raced for Ford at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965 and 1966. McLaren and co-driver Chris Amon won at Le Mans in 1966 in a controversial finish, after the leading Ford Mk II driven by Ken Miles and Denny Hulme was ruled finishing second in a botched photo finish arranged by Ford operatives. But McLaren's reputation as a driver and talented engineer was burnished in the Can-Am series here in the U.S. when his team dominated the series from 1967-1971. McLaren won the driver's title twice in those years (1967, 1969), but it was his series of McLaren Can-Am machines that were most impressive and remain so to this day. Jim Hall's Chaparrals may have been more innovative, but McLaren's cars were superbly prepared and showed up at the first race every season with thousands of development miles on them, and it showed. They were blistering fast with impeccable reliability, and McLaren and Hulme simply crushed the opposition. Bruce McLaren was killed while testing a McLaren M8D Chevrolet for the upcoming Can-Am season at the Goodwood Circuit in England on June 2, 1970. He was 32 (watch a tribute video here). The cause of the crash was due to the rear bodywork coming loose on the Lavant Straight, which was just before Woodcote corner. The McLaren M8D became unstable, spun and went off the track impacting a bunker used as a flagging station. McLaren died instantly. Eoin Young said that Bruce McLaren had "virtually penned his own epitaph" in his 1964 book From the Cockpit. Referring to the death of teammate Timmy Mayer, McLaren had written: The news that he had died instantly was a terrible shock to all of us, but who is to say that he had not seen more, done more and learned more in his few years than many people do in a lifetime? To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone. McLaren's legacy lives on in the F1 team - Team McLaren - which has had eight Constructor's championships and twelve Driver's championships.
Australian Jack Brabham sits in the mid-engined No. 17 Cooper-Climax in the pit lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 1961. Brabham previewed the "mid-engine revolution" two years before the Lotus-Ford appeared at The Speedway; he finished ninth. Brabham contributed immeasurably to the design and engineering of Cooper-Climax F1 cars, and he won the World Championship driving Coopers in 1959 and 1961. But "Black Jack" Brabham wasn't satisfied with the pace of development of the Cooper F1 machines, so he left to form his own Brabham Racing Organization, with key assistance from his longtime friend and designer, Ron Tauranac. Brabham commissioned Repco, an Australian engineering company, to develop a racing V8 for the new 3.0-liter engine rules for the 1966 F1 season. Since Repco had zero experience in designing complete engines, Brabham identified the 215-cu. in. aluminum V8 that GM had used in production Oldsmobiles as a suitable starting point. He was right. The combination of Brabham, his BT19 chassis and the lightweight aluminum Repco V8 - using many production parts - resulted in Brabham's third and final World Championship in 1966. Brabham's last F1 win was at the 1970 South African Grand Prix. He retired at the end of the 1970 season at the age of 44. Brabham's three sons - Geoff, Gary and David - all had racing careers of their own. Matthew, Jack's grandson (son of Geoff), also has a racing career. Jack Brabham died on May 19, 2014, at the age of 88.
Mark Neary Donohue Jr. sits in his No. 6 Penske Racing Sunoco/Porsche+Audi Porsche 917/30 Turbo in the pit lane at Mid-Ohio, August 1973. Mark was a gifted development driver/engineer and an exceptional talent behind the wheel. Mark drove for the Ford factory team at Le Mans in 1966 and 1967. Mark's partnership with Roger Penske in the early days forged the blueprint for Penske Racing's success that lives on to this day in Team Penske. Mark won the USRRC Championship in 1967 (Penske Lola T70 Mk.3B Chevrolet) and 1968 (Penske McLaren M6A Chevrolet). Donohue and Penske started racing the Chevrolet Camaro in the 1967 Trans-Am series, with Mark winning three races. In 1968, Mark won the Championship for Chevrolet in his No. 6 Penske Sunoco Camaro, winning ten of thirteen races. He won again in a Camaro in 1969, finished second to the Ford Mustang driven by Parnelli Jones in 1970 (Mark was driving a Penske AMC Javelin), and won the Trans-Am Championship again in 1971 driving a Javelin. Donohue's engineering talent was legendary, and many of the innovations pioneered on Penske racing machines in the early years came directly from Mark. Once when asked what a particular piece on one of Penske's race cars was made out of, Mark replied, "unobtainium." But Mark's driving talent was prodigious. He delivered the first win for Penske in the Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway driving his No. 66 McLaren M16-Offenhauser, setting a record average speed of 162 mph, which stood for twelve years. Donohue also gave Roger his first win in NASCAR, winning the 1972 season opener in his AMC Matador at Riverside. In 1971, Penske and Donohue went to the Porsche factory to discuss the possibility of running a factory Porsche 917 in the Can-Am series. But what Donohue and Penske found upon closer inspection of the Porsche was that it was shockingly ill-prepared for the task at hand. Donohue took it as his personal project to turn the proposed Porsche 917 Turbo into a proper, competitive Can-Am machine. He re-engineered the chassis in its entirety, he had the bodywork completely revised, and a thorough rework of the engine was undertaken. By the time the No. 6 Penske Racing L&M Porsche 917/10 Turbo was rolled of the hauler for the 1972 Can-Am at Road Atlanta, it was a formidable machine. Except that things didn't go as planned, because during the first practice session, the rear bodywork of the Porsche came loose coming out of Turn 7 at 150 mph, and the car flipped down the track. Mark was lucky to survive with only knee and ligament damage, but he was out until further notice. Penske called up George Follmer to take the reins of the No. 6 Porsche, and George promptly went out and won the 1972 Can-Am Championship. Mark returned at the end of the season to drive a second Penske Porsche 917/10 Turbo, but he had already begun work on an all-new car for the 1973 season: The long-tail Porsche 917/30 Turbo, which would be powered by a turbocharged flat twelve that delivered between 1100 and 1500 horsepower, depending on the boost setting that could be adjusted in the cockpit. Donohue flat dominated the 1973 Can-Am Championship, winning all but two races, and setting race and lap records along the way. I was at Road America that year when Donohue set the absolute track record (1:57), which lasted for fourteen years. It was incredible and something I will never forget. The Can-Am faded after that, with many people saying that the Porsche 917/30 Turbo had "killed" the series, and Donohue announced his retirement at the end of that season. But Donohue returned in that same car - modified for high-speed work - and set a closed course speed record of 221.120 mph at the Talladega Superspeedway on August 9, 1975, which stood for eleven years. Mark also returned to race in the inaugural 1973-1974 IROC series - Porsche 911 RSRs developed by Donohue were used - and won two of the races and the Championship. When Roger announced an F1 effort for the 1975 season, Mark came out of retirement to drive the Penske PC-1, but it was problematic and the team switched to a March 751 midway through the F1 season. After setting the closed-course record at Talladega, Mark arrived to compete in the Austrian Grand Prix at the Österreichring. During practice, Mark lost control of the March after a tire failed at the fastest corner at the track - the Vöest Hügel Kurve - and the car veered into catch fencing. A track marshal was killed by debris from the accident, but Mark did not appear to be injured significantly. It was determined, however, that Donohue's helmet had struck either a catch fencing post or the bottom of the wood frame for an advertising billboard located alongside of the racetrack. He returned to the pits and was talking to Roger and the team, but he soon complained of a severe headache that quickly worsened. Donohue went to a hospital in Graz the next day, but he lapsed into a coma from a cerebral hemorrhage and died on August 19, 1975. Mark was the heart and soul of Penske racing and his enduring legacy lives on.