Danny Ongais

Danny Ongais

Nation:	United States
Automobile world championship
First start:	East US Grand Prix 1977
Last start:	1978 Brazilian Grand Prix
Constructors
1977  Interscope Racing 1978 Team Tissot Ensign
statistics
World Cup balance:	-
Starts Victories Poles SR 4th - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Daniel "Danny" Ongais (born May 21, 1942 in Kahului , Maui Island, Hawaii ) is a former American racing driver .

Career

The Hawaiian Danny Ongais joined the US SCCA racing series as a works driver from Parnelli in 1974 and switched to the United States' Formula 5000 series in 1975 . In 1976 he drove a Lola of the Interscope Racing Team in this championship . When Interscope entered the USAC series in 1976 , Ongais remained their regular driver and won his first race in Michigan. In parallel to his single- seater operations, he competed in sports car races and won two events in the IMSA series with a Porsche 935 .

Ongais made his Formula 1 debut at the end of 1977 . Interscope had purchased a Penske PC4 from Roger Penske , which the team had registered for Ongais for the Grand Prix races in the USA and Canada . At Watkins Glen he dropped out early in the race after a spin, at Mosport Park he finished seventh.

In 1978 he took part in the first two races for the Ensign team and tried twice over the course of the season to qualify for another Grand Prix with the unwieldy Shadow DN9 . Attempts to really gain a foothold in Formula 1 were half-hearted as Ongais became a top driver in the USAC. In 1978 he won five races for Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing , but this was not enough to take the title, although apart from Ongais no other driver won more than three races, because in the remaining races of the season he could only record two more finishings. So in the end it was only enough for eighth place overall.

In 1979 he won the Daytona 24-hour race and was third in the same race in 1980. After a serious accident in 1981 at the Indianapolis 500 , in which he sustained serious leg injuries, his career came to a standstill. He continued to drive in Indianapolis and the USAC series until 1987, but the time of great success was over and he resigned at the end of the year.

Completely surprisingly, he got back into the racing cockpit in 1996. After Scott Brayton's fatal accident during training for the 500-mile race, Ongais took over his racing car for the race. After a strong driving performance, he brought the Lola home in seventh place. Ongais found his passion for racing again, and although he was now 55 years old, he returned to Indianapolis in 1997. It was not a happy decision, because on the first lap he hit the wall after an engine failure. Ongais suffered minor injuries and after a night in hospital he gave up racing for good.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1980	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche 935K3	Jean-Louis Lafosse	Ted Field	failure	Engine failure
1982	Porsche Kremer Racing	Kremer CK5	Bill Whittington	Ted Field	failure	Engine failure
1988	Italya sport	March 88S	Michel Trollé	Toshio Suzuki	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1977	Vasek Polak Interscope Racing	Porsche 934/5	Ted Field	Hurley Haywood	Rank 5
1979	Interscope Racing	Porsche 935 / 77A	Ted Field		failure	suspension
1980	Interscope Racing	Porsche 935K3 / 80	Ted Field		Rank 2
1981	Interscope Racing	Porsche 935K3 / 80	Ted Field		failure	Electrics
1982	Interscope Racing	Porsche 935K3 / 80	Ted Field		failure	Engine failure
1987	Joest Racing	Porsche 962	Sarel van der Merwe	Louis Krages	Rank 4

literature

• Steve Small: Grand Prix Who's Who. 3rd edition. Travel Publishing, Reading 2000, ISBN 1-902007-46-8 .

Web links

Commons : Danny Ongais  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Danny Ongais in the oldracingcars.com database
• Danny Ongais - Full Biography ( Memento from March 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on F1 Rejects
• No. 39: Danny Ongais (July 6, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ) on the National Hot Rod Association website
• The drag star who turned a corner on motorsportmagazine.com , June 2004 (English)
• Robert Markus: Danny Ongais: Indy`s Mystery Man on the Chicago Tribune website , May 8, 1987 (English)
• Raphael Orlove: Remembering One Of The Most Terrifying Crashes In Indy 500 History on blackflag.jalopnik.com , from May 24, 2016 (English)