Black weekend: 40 years ago
Background:
I was working my way thru college and offered a job for the weekend as a "security guard" at an event the then 1971 and inaugural Schaefer 500 at a new facility, the Pocono International Raceway which was about 40 miles from my home - I was given to use a bright yellow jacket with "SECURITY" on the back and assigned to a garage to make sure only those with the proper credentials were allowed to pass - the garage was for Penske Racing with driver Mark Donohue - I watched them work on the car recall I saw this strange tool working on the wheels an tires (now known to me as Dunlop Gauges) for what is seemed like hours - another one of my tasks was to escort the car to the front straightway grid and while there to keep prying hands off the car - It was there I took an old business card from some repaire shop from my wallet borrowed a pen and received an autograph from Mark ! He won that day and the "party hardy" was their garage post race - I then followed his career in a new magazine for me, Road & Track but continued mine in drag racing.
Fast forward to 1974 - I left for grad school and during the following summer my brother on the 4th of July took me to a place called " ...The Glen" for the 6 Hours, WC of Makes, F5000 and Super Vee Trans Am - I was in shock - I was amazed by what I saw - the next weekend went to AutoWorld in Scranton PA saw my first formula ford, bought an AutoWeek and the hook was set --- sold all my drag racing stuff (car and all) a planned for a post grad school racing .............
Went back to grad school that mid August and after the long drive (lots of it pre interstate I-95) from PA to Fla entered ny dorm room, turned on my 'ole B&W tv and heard on the NBC news Mark was dead - - gone - I was crushed - my eyes welled up and yes, there were tears
For Christmas 1975 my brother gave me Unfair Advantage and I cannot tell you how many times I have read this book - If you hav'nt then it is your loss - All we hope to achieve in our sport - the alignment, the development, the tinker'ing the driving and hopefully winning is exposed therein -
I have a framed photo of Mark standing in his 1972 McLaren at Indy framed with that 1971 business card autograph in my home office.
So I remember Mark this weekend, An Ivy Mechanical Engineer. NYU MBA, a racer, a champion, ................ and my racing inspiration :checkered:
Here it is clean .........
One of the most important things for a race driver is to know what he wants, and to have the courage to try and get it, even if it means making mistakes along the way. That's the only way to learn how to win. Ultimately, only the driver knows what is right or wrong about his car
When the going gets rough is when you usually have to spend the most money. You do everything possible to accomplish your goals
"Maybe if I ignore the problem, it will go away." I've had that idea many times, and it has always been wrong. In racing, problems don't just go away when you ignore them
Once the preparation is done, its done. No amount of worrying is going to make you or the car work any better. Put all the technical details completely out of your mind before a race. Put full concentration into driving, and enjoy that part of racing
I have always looked forward to the moment when I could get into the car and get on with the job of racing. I felt that once I was in the car and on the grid, finally all the hassles of preparation were over. I could be left alone to the simple problem of me, the car, and the race
You never can predict the right people to be hooked up with from one year to the next
There's an old theory in racing that when you know you're going to hit another car, hit it square head on
Friction circle: you get max performance when you pass from one condition to the other without going through the center of the circle. The fastest way into a corner is to gradually trade off braking traction for cornering traction. I still think that "filling the circle" is one of the hardest things a racing driver has to do
I learned to establish a suspension baseline, make simple step changes in the car, and always go back to the baseline to make sure any changes we saw (good or bad) were really there
Mark D recommends a skidpad with an inner diameter of 200 feet and 20 feet wide. Porsche's skidpads were 100 ft and 400 ft
Successful racing is not in the basic materials you have to work with, its all in the team and the preparation
It can be very risky to get in a car you know absolutely nothing about
Eagle-Chevrolet (non-winged USAC road racer with high-output motor): The hard part was in trying to sense how much understeer was best, for I was able to induce oversteer at any time with the throttle. This is complicated by the changing aerodynamics between low speed and high-speed corners. It is very difficult for a neophyte to distinguish the difference between aerodynamic and mechanical effects
In a long-distance race, ultimate driver ability doesn't make that much difference anyhow
It takes time and effort to make a successful race car. That's all there is to it. There is no easy way out We weren't analyzing, we weren't learning, and we weren't gaining. We didn't do a geometry study, we didn't experiment with wings, we never understood the chassis, and the engines were too complicated. It was a good example of how not to run a racing program
You can only expect maybe 30% of the new things you try to work right. If you stop trying, you'll end up being a few steps behind - a copier
Because of our locked differential, I was able to use the brakes more than they could
There are certain things we like to do for rain races. We put all the wings us to their maximum downforce angle, we put rain tires on and lowered the car as much as we could, we adjusted the camber so that the tires ran on their inside corners, we took the front anti-roll bar off to reduce understeer, and we taped up the front brake ducts.
