When Roger Penske bought a dealership in Philadelphia, part of the financing package included a prohibition against him continuing to drive in races as it was too dangerous. Yet racing was in his blood, and he was determined to continue to participate. When the 1965 season started, Penske was manning the pits for the team of Jim Hall and Hal Sharp in the 12-hour Sebring endurance race. He wasn’t content long term to be in the pits and he started Penske Racing, now known as Team Penske.

Penske had seen Mark Donohue race a sports car at Lime Rock and knew Mark had the skills to be a champion. Mark, like Roger, had started driving sports cars during college. Driving his 1957 Corvette, Mark won the first race he entered, a hill climb in New Hampshire. After earning an engineering degree from Brown University, Mark continued to race as a hobby which is parallel to Roger who held a fulltime job and raced on the weekends. In 1961, Mark won a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) national championship racing a Elva Courier. Walt Hansgen recognized Mark’s ability and arranged for him to drive a MBG in which he won the 500-mile Bridgehampton race in 1964. In 1965, Mark won the SCCA Class B and Class C championships.

It was after the funeral of Walt Hansgen in April 1966 when Roger mentioned to Mark that he was looking for someone to drive his Ford GT and Lola on a part time basis for $50 per day. Mark showed his racing skills in his first race for Penske.  He led the 1966 sports car Grand Prix at Watkins Glen for several laps and then his fuel filler cap opened, spilling fuel onto his rear tires. After getting that issue fixed in the pits, he returned to the race. Going over a hill, he saw one racer sitting off to his side and another directly ahead. He hit John Cannon’s Lola and his fuel cap again popped open causing a fire. Donohue was hospitalized with burns.

Returning to the track a month later, he won the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) Pacific Northwest Grand Prix. He also won the inaugural SCCA Canadian-American Challenge Cup race at Mosport Park having taken the lead on lap 76 of the 85 lap race. He was in contention to win the Canadian-American championship when his car ran out of gas on the last lap of the Stardust Grand Prix for a third place finish after coasting across the finish line. He placed second in the championship.

The Donohue-Penske duo also won the 252-mile Nassau Trophy race with a unique strategy. The race required a mandatory pit stop and the team installed a fuel cell which would give them enough fuel to finish the race without stopping for fuel. To comply with the race regulations, Donohue came into the pits, jumped out of the car with his feet touching the ground and jumped back in. This, combined with a spin by a competitor, handed the team a victory.

At the end of the season, Donohue told Penske that he had been approached by Kar Kraft, Ford’s private R & D racing shop, with a fulltime job and that he felt the $50 per day racing or testing wasn’t enough money for the work required. After being offered $3,000 plus a 25 percent share of the earnings, Donohue agreed to work for Penske fulltime.

In his career with Team Penske, Donohue won 59 races out of his 180 starts. He gave Team Penske its first national championship (USRRC in 1967). In 1969, he was the first Penske driver to enter the Indianapolis 500 where he was named the “Rookie of the Year.” In 1972, he also brought home Team Penske’s first of eighteen Indianapolis 500 victories. He won the team’s first NASCAR race (1973 at Riverside). He tragically died while practicing for a Formula 1 race in Austria in 1974.