Page 27 - One Last Turn

night session but then it failed five hours into the race while we were running second. By the way, our Traco engine was loaned to another Ferrari team for their 512 and driven by Tony Adamowicz and Sam Posey, and they completed the race and finished third.”
More on that 1971 Le Mans weekend: “We were exhausted after having worked 36 hours straight and Donohue gave us the keys to his car and told us to go back to our hotel and get some sleep. He added, ‘Whenever you wake up, go to the front desk for messages.’ When we checked, there were two First Class tickets home on Air France paid for by Mark Donohue.”
Woody was involved with other Penske projects in that 1971 year as well, including their entry in the famous Questor Grand Prix, at Ontario, California. It was American F-5000 cars against European Formula One. “We could have won that race with our Lola, which I had built. I think Jackie Stewart won it, but we were running a strong third and gaining when the engine died due to fuel starvation. We could not figure it out. We later discovered the fuel tank vent had clogged due to flakes from the chrome plating of the roll bar.”
Also, in 1971 the team found time to prepare and race a McLaren GP car at the Mosport Formula One race in September. People said that Donohue
Woody and the crew are helped by Mark Donohue as they push Donohue’s 917/10 out for the start of the 1972 Mosport Can-Am race. From left, Woody, Heinz Hofer, Greg Syfert, Mark Donohue, and Helmut Flegl, Porsche engineer and liaison with the team. (Paul Nemy collection)
ONE LAST TURN
John “Woody” Woodard
375
was the only driver who managed to get that particular McLaren Formula One car to handle. Woody Woodard had something to do with that, “Karl Kainhofer and I were with Donohue, and it was a rainy, wet race. We ran third at that race and we got the car to handle by simply disconnecting the sway bars.”
Donohue would probably have won the prestigious Watkins Glen Six Hour Race that year in the Ferrari, but the
car broke down just a few laps from the finish. They fixed the suspension and ran the Can-Am the next day at the same location. They qualified fourth, but the engine failed during the race.
Now the short but sweet Can-Am Penske-Porsche 917 era began.
Porsche had debuted their 917 model in the 1969 season. They had designed and built the car specifically to win
© DALTON WATSON FINE B
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS © DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS TON WATSON FINE B