Friday evening before the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix, over dinner in a quiet countryside hotel, Mark Donohue told us about setting a 221-mph speed record the week before with his old Can-Am Porsche. “It’s the only thing I’ve accomplished this year,” he remarked with a small grin.
By his high standards, Mark’s first full season in Formula One had been disappointing. He’d put in several strong, aggressive drives, but only for midfield places. The Penske PC-1 car had handled badly and broken often, and Donohue had made driving errors. His best finishes were a couple of fifths. Overall, it was not the performance we were used to seeing from Mark Donohue and Roger Penske, an already legendary partnership that had mastered almost every other form of racing.
