Mark Donohue, 917/30KL

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Can Am Series, Road Atlanta, 1973

M5, 50cron, Ektachrome.

 

What fine, ungodly powerful, road racing series!! Can Am’s peak years were 70-73, with the likes of Jody Scheckter – David Hobbs – Peter Gregg – Chris Amon – Dan Gurney –the novel-but-unreliable Chaparral 2J vacuum cleaner car that sucked to the ground so well and went so fast it was quickly outlawed – Jacky Oliver in the tiny ‘pancake’ Shadow that forever sniffed the tail pipes of the Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme M-cars – Jackie Stewart in the T260 Lola beating the perenial #1 McLarens twice in 71 – male-model Peter Revson driving a M8F Mclaren to victory that same year – George Fullmer’s powerful 917/10K taking down Hulme and his no-longer-powerful M20 by the end of the 72 season – and finally, the Porsche/Donohue-developed1580 bhp 917/30KL that swept the last six of eight 1973 races.

 

Factory Car 917/30KL#6 was thee hottest road race car of all time and Porsche had nothing more to prove. They withdrew and the 74 series had no where to go, and died.

 

So the 66-74 Canadian-American Challenge Cup Rests in Peace along with it’s very best drivers:

Bruce McLaren - crashed in 1970 while testing the new M8D Can Am car at the Goodwood Circuit

Peter Revson - in a practice run crash at the 1974 South African Grand Prix

Mark Donohue - from a hemorrhage after a minor crash in practice for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix

Peter Gregg - by suicide in 1980 at the age of 40, of dejection over a nerve disease that was stealing his considerable driving skill.

Dennis Hulme - while racing in 1992 at Mount Panorama in Australia. He pulled off the course before dying of a heart attack.

 

Sorry for the wordiness, but the whole of it was so beautiful, and so sad.

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[stuny]

Bruce -

 

I'm glad you unearthed this historical beauty, and I'm glad you stored it well. Mark was a fine engineer which allowed him to be very proactive in sorting out his cars, which was an integral part of his "winning ways". I miss him almost as much as Roger does. BTW: Peter Revson was not only a male model -- he was the heir to the Revlon empire.

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... BTW: Peter Revson was not only a male model -- he was the heir to the Revlon empire.

 

Thanks stunny. Yeah, maybe it was just that Revlon money that had the half-topless girls gasping to the point of passing out every time Peter stepped out of the trailer and made his way to the pit. So different with Mark: the guys gushing over the perfect driver/engineer, their girl friends and wives bored and unstirred.

 

So, what about the ‘aura’ that must have surrounded that other great driver/engineer, Bruce McLaren? I saw him just once, in his Mean Orange Machine.

 

AND (sorry, I get carried away with some of this ‘old’ stuff), AND, I’ll never forget seeing Bruce’s race mate Denny come down the long, straightish, Road Atlanta backstretch, climb a slight rise and takeoff nose-first 25’ up into the air, then complete a stern-first spin over the tarmac and land wheels-first back down on earth. The crowd that 'Oooooodd' during the car's flight was totally silent. Then Denny unhooked and nonchalantly stepped out of the cockpit and everybody absolutely roared – nobody really sure their shouts and claps were for his incredibaly fortunate survival, or for his beautiful, backward 360º.

 

Bruce

[elansprint72]

Bruce,

Thanks for posting this shot from the past and don't apologise about being "wordy" .

Can we expect to see some more oldies?

[Guest]

Can Am Series, Road Atlanta, 1973

M5, 50cron, Ektachrome.

 

What fine, ungodly powerful, road racing series!! Can Am’s peak years were 70-73, with the likes of Jody Scheckter – David Hobbs – Peter Gregg – Chris Amon – Dan Gurney –the novel-but-unreliable Chaparral 2J vacuum cleaner car that sucked to the ground so well and went so fast it was quickly outlawed – Jacky Oliver in the tiny ‘pancake’ Shadow that forever sniffed the tail pipes of the Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme M-cars – Jackie Stewart in the T260 Lola beating the perenial #1 McLarens twice in 71 – male-model Peter Revson driving a M8F Mclaren to victory that same year – George Fullmer’s powerful 917/10K taking down Hulme and his no-longer-powerful M20 by the end of the 72 season – and finally, the Porsche/Donohue-developed1580 bhp 917/30KL that swept the last six of eight 1973 races.

 

Factory Car 917/30KL#6 was thee hottest road race car of all time and Porsche had nothing more to prove. They withdrew and the 74 series had no where to go, and died.

 

So the 66-74 Canadian-American Challenge Cup Rests in Peace along with it’s very best drivers:

Bruce McLaren - crashed in 1970 while testing the new M8D Can Am car at the Goodwood Circuit

Peter Revson - in a practice run crash at the 1974 South African Grand Prix

Mark Donohue - from a hemorrhage after a minor crash in practice for the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix

Peter Gregg - by suicide in 1980 at the age of 40, of dejection over a nerve disease that was stealing his considerable driving skill.

Dennis Hulme - while racing in 1992 at Mount Panorama in Australia. He pulled off the course before dying of a heart attack.

 

Sorry for the wordiness, but the whole of it was so beautiful, and so sad.

 

Absolutly nothing to appologise for.A great post which brought back a lot of memories.I remember along with a small group af fans talking to Denny Hulme at the 1967 British grand prix as he spent about 20 mins showing us all around the car he had just competed in.It was a different age and things have changed for the better in lots of ways but it would never happen today.Thanks again for the post.

Brian

[due163]

That shot and the stories are fantastic!

[steed]

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I was, for lack of a better word, a Can-Am freak. I still have some of the pix I took in 1970 of the race at Riverside, which like almost every other race that year was a McLaren win. Detesting the McLarens because of their domination, I focused my Yashica Penta J more on Jackie Stewart's Lola T260 with a massive cantilevered wing out front. Chapparral was nowhere to be seen, and Dan Gurney couldn't finish a race (after leaving McLaren due to sponsorship conflicts), so there was nothing left to root for. But I still loved every second of it.

John W