It was bound to happen sooner or later. David Donohue has driven on most of the important tracks and circuits that his father, the legendary Mark Donohue, competed on. Except Indianapolis. All of that changed when the Formula One circus hit town last October, bringing along the Pirelli Porsche Supercup as a curtain raiser.
David Donohue has one of the most impressive resumes of any American driver of the last decade. IMSA Supercar champion, North American Touring Car champion, FIA Championship with the factory Oreca Viper team, Le Mans winner in 1998, and numerous podiums and victories in the American Le Mans Series. Toss in his guest instructor duties for Porsche Cars North America, and the finance major from Malvern, PA is uniquely qualified to describe his adventure at the Brickyard.
KM: So how did this all come about?
DD: It came about pretty quickly. I was at Mosport driving for AVR, and I'm real good friends with Bob Carlson [Porsche's North American PR manager] and know everyone at Porsche. I just stopped by to say hello, and they mentioned to me there was an opportunity at Indy. Then I got the invite from Germany.
KM: For a seat fitting and testing of the car?
DD: Yes, but it almost didn't happen. No one was sure if the event would happen due to the September 11th tragedy .The cars had to get on their way to Indy from Germany.
KM: Was that your first trip to Weissach??
DD: Yes. I'd always really admired Porsche, I guess since my dad did a lot of work for them and held them in high regards as well. Just going there, let alone getting the inside visuals and driving on the test track, was just an experience and a half.
KM: You know the Can-Am course at Weissach was laid out purely for your father.?
DD: Yes, it was very interesting, because I learned the track with Roland Kussmaul, who took me out in one of the new GT2s, which is a fantastic car, and we're running around the track and he's just having a good old time. I commented, 'Boy, it seems like you're going very early in this corner here.' And he says, 'Oh, that's a line your father showed us years ago, and it's definitely faster.' Then he went through a little explanation of it. Up to that point he hadn't even mentioned that he knew who I was or who my father was.
KM: When you got to drive the course, did you try the same line?
DD: Of course. I'm not going to argue.
KM: Sure, its worked well for all these years. Were you only in the GT2 or did they put you in the Cup Car?
DD: No, I drove the Cup Car that I ended up racing.
KM: The actual car?
DD: Yes. They had an accident in the other guest car, and they pretty much had that one retried. Then on Wednesday I got into the car for a couple of hours in the morning. So it was a very good time.
KM: You had been invited to come to Indianapolis to drive the car your father won the Indy 500 with, true?
DD: No. I drove PC1, which was the Formula One car. Roger Penske has a collection of cars that are constantly being restored and kept up. They were taken to Indy for some parade laps. That was just an extra bonus. And it was unfortunate that the cars were on the track right after our session in the Porsche Cup. But where there's a will there's a way. I raced a motorscooter one time and a golf cart another time...
KM: Did you have a chance to put your foot in it?
DD: Yes, mostly on the straights. A lot of the guys in the F1 cars hadn't been on the race track other than on the parade laps, so they weren't really sure where to go. And some of those cars needed to be sorted out. Some of them were dumping oil, and you needed to be sure what was going on.
KM: Did that give you a completely different perspective on the track after having been in a Cup Car, and then jumping into a proper single seater?
DD: It was a different perspective, but it didn't change the way I drove the Super Cup car, because it's such a different animal altogether.
KM: Did you take the track on Thursday or were you out only on Friday?
DD: Only on Friday; it was only one practice and then we had two qualifyings.
KM: The guys that have been running the Supercup all series long are pretty quick. It seems that the wins rotate among the top three or four guys and that traditionally the guest drivers kind of fall in the middle of the mix regardless of what you've been driving before. Did you find the same situation?
DD: Definitely. I went out and I was just having a total blast by myself, because I had never driven a Cup car before. I'd driven 911s, but not race cars. They're kind of a cross between a full race car and a road car. But I was having a good old time and really getting a good feeling for the car as far as sliding it around. Then I saw my sign board and I was on P 13. I needed to get some work done, but I already had ruined my tires.
KM: Did you find that it was characteristic of the car or the circuit?
DD: I think the circuit; everyone was complaining of oversteering, of being loose. That I think was part of the circuit conditions. But, for me, just getting in that car for the first time, it was hard for me to really sort out how to adjust the car, and it is not very adjustable. But Roland was my engineer and he knew what to do.
KM: So it comes down to the driver. It's interesting that you say a compromise between the road car and the race car, because you've been an instructor for Porsche Cars North America with their road cars, so it's not like you don't have 911 experience.
DD: You're right there. That's different, because we're really showcasing road cars. And we don't have any stopwatches, so I never do any personal research and development to figure out what I have to do to the car. If you put a watch on somebody, that changes the whole mentality and the whole approach, because there are certain things that might not feel right that should be and vice-versa.
KM: You're not alone in that category. As quick as Allan McNish is, when he guest drove a SuperCup Car, I believe he finished 13th.
DD: I can easily believe it. Really, it comes down to the guys wearing the cars, the ones who are really intimate with them. They know exactly how to make them work. I was figuring it out mentally, but I hadn't really figured out how to get the time out of it.
KM: How did the other drivers handle the Indy scene?
DD: I tell you, the atmosphere around the series, and the drivers' meeting in general, I wish they had a video camera in there it was so funny...the drivers giving the officials such a hard time and vice versa, and then everybody getting onto the racetrack and getting all gritty and going at one another. All in good sportsmanship. It looked like a fun family to go racing with all the time.
KM: After the practice stuff with Roland, did you have one qualifying or two?
DD: Two different qualifyings. One for each race, both in the same day. They're relatively close together and really what that comes down to is a tire management issue. You get a certain number of tires, and for qualifying the tires are the best stickers, so you want to try to get your physique sorted out if you will, and get your best time out there.
KM: How fast on the straight; did you look down at the tach?
DD: I'm guessing 260km.
KM: When watching the F1 guys, it seems like they have their foot on the gas for an eternity.
DD: We shift sixth gear just coming out of the last corner to the straight. You really should be shifting into sixth in the middle of it, but you really don't want to.
KM: Does that remind you, distance-wise, of Mulsanne between the chicanes at Le Mans?
DD: True. I even walked the track, which I rarely ever do. But I walked the track with some friends, and when I got down the track and looked down the straight-away, it's like going to Le Mans again.
KM: So take us through your race.
DD: I qualified 12th in the first one and 13th in the second one. The guys on the crew were really helpful. They told me how to do the start: Take it to six thousand, dump the clutch, manage the wheels, pick up the throttle. But right before I did, he said to line up a bit from the back of the line and spin the tires across the line, and then when you come around the second time for the actual start, line up in your track so that you have rubber to launch from off, because you don't want to shoot off of cleaned tires. That was pretty helpful, and I was able to do that pretty well in both races.
Everyone got a really good start in the first race, but as you'll see on TV, it'll get to be total chaos in the first couple of turns. That seemed to be where people were making the worst decisions, in the first two laps.
KM: It must have looked like a Porsche club event in turn one.
DD: It was pretty chaotic, and I could see long before things happened what was going to happen. It was the case where one driver didn't anticipate what the other driver was going to do what he should. Everything that I saw happen was completely expected. I saw a lot happen. I even went off myself, because in the second race a car went around the outside of me in turn one, which put in on the inside, and he nailed me on the inside coming around the second turn.
KM: You got hit?
DD: Knocked the toe out pretty significantly. Then I went into the grass. I only lost one position, which I ended up gaining back due to another mistake by the guys in front of me.
KM: You finished eighth in both races?
DD: Right. I really had hoped to finish higher, but the front runners were long gone. It's what they do all season.
KM: Where were you making your passes? On the straight?
DD: I actually made a pass coming out onto the oval. I made passes at different places on the racetrack. It all depended on what the cars did in front of me. I played the patience game, and a lot of the passes were because of spins. I passed a lot of cars because I could see two cars that were about to get together, I anticipated it, and started to make a move before they actually spun and that set me up to drive by just before the accident. That happened in both races, really almost in the same area. The first three, four corners were all kind of in a row. I would somewhat try to get an advantage going into turn one, and that would mix it up for the next couple of turns. And the guys would eventually come into contact with each other.
KM: It sounds like when you go and play with bumper cars. You're going to see a whole variety of different lines and different approaches and different attempts. If the race had been a few laps longer, maybe 20 laps or 25 laps, you may have finished fifth.
DD: Yeah, who knows? It was just a fantastic experience in general. It's been a long time since I've raced without the pressure of being on a factory team and so forth, and all the people at Porsche emphasize that we're there to have fun and a good time, which is exactly what I did.
KM: So obviously you'd go back and do it in a heartbeat?
DD: Sure! I'd really love to get this sorted out so I can run with the guys up front and go for a win!