He was transported by an ambulance to a nearby hospital in a critical condition. Ongais had always expressed a desire to drive an Indianapolis 500 car. He was 79. Facebook gives people the power to share and No information regarding his funeral ceremony has come out yet from the side of his family. How much does an F1 car weigh in 2023 and what's included in the limit? Driving for Mickey Thompson, he once put two dragsters into the finals, turned one of them over to Thompson and then beat his mentor. Get email updates about Daniel Ongais delivered directly to your inbox. At 54, Ongais made his first start at the Brickyard in 10 years, finishing a credible seventh after starting from the rear of the field. Plus, the tracks were not prepared with traction compound like they are today, making them a lot more slick and tougher to drive on. He first raced at the Arizona Republic/Jimmy Bryan 150 at Phoenix International Raceway where he qualified 4th and led for several laps only to drop out after 128 laps due to engine problems. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The only native of Hawaii to start the Indianapolis 500, Ongais was nicknamed Danny On-The-Gas and the Flyin Hawaiian for his bravery and commitment in overpowered late 70s Indy cars, but his love of speed had shown itself far earlier. He was always kind of a private person. During a recent episode of his Off Track podcast, Rossi noted the Thermal test hit some snags as the IndyCar team learned to communicate with McLarens software systems in England. A head-on shunt in the 1981 Indy 500 left him recuperating for the remainder of the season while four years later at Michigan he went into a barrel-roll after launching off the back of another car. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker. The team also has been aggressive outside racing. In the same way the rodeo champion could break anything on four legs, Ongais could tame anything on four wheels. He was 79 His total assets include stocks, houses, and luxury things like personal luxury boats and planes. Ongais scored a best finish of 5th place at the Escort Warning Radars 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Thompson, the onetime land speed record-holder, was campaigning a team at Indianapolis and promised to give Ongais a ride. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway detailed his death two days after the fact. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. There probably has never been a driver who hit the wall harder more often and was able to survive than Danny Ongais (who died earlier this year). (The fact that we share the same birthday albeit 16 years apart has nothing to do with it.). Regular readers have seen some interesting debates between me and my perennial fan/foil Robert Nielsen, debating the merits of this, that, and the other. Was Danny Ongais married? We were running a race and about 25 laps from the end, there was a caution. He was 79. In the unlikeliest alliance since Rocky joined forces with Apollo Creed, Ongais had contracted to drive a single race for Penske, the May 24 Indianapolis 500. Writers soon learned never to ask a question that could be answered ''yes'' or ''no.'' The versatile Ongais made 11 Indianapolis 500 starts between 1977 and 1996, with four top-10 finishes. Except Ongais, and he wasn`t talking. WebVersatile American racing driver Danny Ongais died on February 26 of congestive heart complications at age 79, it was announced Monday. He defeated Don Prudhomme at the 1966 HHRA Nationals Top Fuel semifinals. There are no visitors to Danny Ongais` world. Nigel Mansells greatest F1 and Indycar drives, How Marcus Ericsson finally unlocked his potential in IndyCar, How Ericsson unlocked his potential Good grief, who can forget Jim Crawford (1990)? Ongais started, but his drive line broke immediately. View their obituary at Legacy.com flowers and lei are welcomed He is survived by wife, Patricia P. Ongais of Keaau; He did win one legendary race that year, however, joining forces with Field and Hurley Haywood to win the Daytona 24 Hours in an Interscope Porsche 935. Godspeed, racer. In 1985, he also survived a spectacular barrel roll at Michigan International Speedway after hitting the back of the slower car of Phil Krueger on the backstretch. A writer who had followed his career closely and thought he knew Ongais fairly well visited him in the track hospital. Since arriving in the fall of 2019 at the former Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, she said she has watched Arrow McLaren grow while maintaining its gritty origins. That is still here fueling this and educating all the new people coming in to continue that mentality. A fearless figure on the racing circuit, Ongais was nicknamed "On-Gas" and "The Flyin' Hawaiian."[1]. Weve expanded our operations pretty significantly, she said. He made a late pass going into turn 3. Danny Ongais, the Hawaiian driver admired by fans and competitors for his speed and bravery in an Indianapolis 500 career spanning three decades, died Feb. 26 of congestive heart complications in Anaheim Hills, California. Danny Ongais, by any measure, was one of the all-time greatest race car drivers! [2], Ongais was born in Kahului, Hawaii, on May 21, 1942. Weve really tried to stretch ourselves to find the best and the brightest no matter where they live, Scott said. He suffered a lot of serious crashes. Danny Ongais (May 21, 1942 February 26, 2022) was an American racing driver. The tragic circumstances of an accident also led to Ongais final start at Indianapolis, in 1996. In 1978 he won five races and was the hottest driver on the circuit. 32 seat vacated by the late Scott Brayton, Danny Ongais made his last start in the Indy 500 with Team Menard (IndyCar). In fact, even his closest associates have little insight into his own life, as he doesnt talk about his family or his youth in Hawaii. Don Prudhomme, who met Ongais through his old pal Leong, called me early last week to weigh in on Ongais, a guy with which he carried on a relationship even after Ongais left drag racing, thanks to Prudhommes interest in and friends within IndyCar racing. He was the oldest driver to compete in that field, at age 54. Sadly, Ongais crashed in practice and suffered a concussion that sidelined him. He was as smooth they get. WebFormer Indy car and drag racing star Danny Ongais has died of congestive heart complications in Anaheim Hills, Calif., the Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced on He was the only guy that spoke less at functions than I did. Ongais ended the season in 15th place in points. Im new to this role; hes lived it before. Ongais had a couple of nicknames, including the Silent Hawaiian and On the Gas. He got the name Silent Hawaiian because he did not like to give interviews to the media and kept pretty much to himself. Super positive. Press Esc to cancel. Ongais and Field teamed up with success in Formula 5000 and the IndyCar Series in the late 1970s. Service in the U.S. Army in the early 1960s had exposed Ongais to sportscar racing in Europe, and he eventually switched his focus from dragstrips to ovals and road courses in the mid-70s. I personally liked the On the Gas nickname more because it was a play on his last name, and more importantly, that was the way he drove. One long-running debate we had was: Who was Hawaiis greatest drag racer?, I was/am still solidly in the Roland Leong camp. Indianapolis became his bete noir. F4 Thailand Boys Over Flowers Season 1 Episode 13 Release Date and Time, Countdown, When Is It Coming Out. He was fearless, Mears said. So thats infectious for everybody.. Rosenqvist, driver of the No. Arrow McLaren still has done much of its hiring through the paddocks traditional word of mouth manner. While Ongais was known for his blazing speed at Indianapolis and elsewhere, he also attracted attention for surviving some of the most violent crashes of his era. Join Facebook to connect with Danny N Patsy Ongais and others you may know. Thompson and Ongais also teamed up to set nearly 300 national and international speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in a Mach 1 Mustang during the 1960s. Ongais, racing at age 54 in his first 500 since 1986, finished a creditable seventh after starting from the rear of the field. Tommy Ivo and the five-second Top Fuel run that ignited a controversy, Wheelie neat! Jim Chapman, race boss for Interscope Racing, said no one was very familiar with him. After losing Saturdays AA/Dragster class final to Thompson, he beat Thompson in the final of the eliminator on Sunday, 8.39 to 8.53, to claim the big prize, then a few months later, he won the Hot Rod Magazine Championships at Riverside Raceway. The 1970 season didnt go as well, haunted by parts attrition and at least one fire that burned Ongais. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()), Skip Bayless Wife Ernestine Sclafani Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Net Worth, Fast Facts. Danny Ongais, the Hawaiian driver admired by fans and competitors for his speed and bravery in an Indianapolis 500 career spanning three decades, died Feb. 26 of congestive heart complications in Anaheim Hills, California. Sulley Muntari, Agyeman Badu, Asamoah Gyan, others visit Christian Atsus family home, VIDEO: Government will be fully involved in providing Christian Atsu a befitting burial Dr. Bawumia, Christian Atsus mortal remains arrive in Ghana via Turkish Airlines, Maybe I created enemies along the line Kofi Amoabeng on UT Banks collapse, Christian Atsu was one of Ghanas finest personnel Akufo-Addo, This is some food chain story Archipalago shamed for chasing clout with Christian Atsus death. At the Indianapolis 500 Ongais crashed in practice and this put Ongais in jeopardy of not being able to compete. Hardwick slams flawed IMSA BoP, announces WEC plans, Honda reveals Civic Type R pace car for IndyCar events, Honda's new Civic Type R pace car I think thatll grow into a bigger, better version of a big team than there is. I think Gavin kind of feeds off that and has a similar style as well.. If he was running at the end, you couldnt count him out. All we can do is look across what corporations and companies are doing when people tell us we could do better in one space or another, she said. Weve got to take care of our people through those hard stretches, but for the most part, its a little less time away, the travels not quite so far. And Penske said he would have a car ready for him. In this week's Dragster Insider, friends and fellow racers remember the guy nicknamed On the Gas.. Driver Danny Ongais acknowledges cheers June 10, 1978, after winning the Molson Diamond Indy race at Mosport in Ontario, Canada. Click to reveal He decided to remain private regarding her life and Usually, however, he spent words as if they were pearls. The caution wasnt that long, but we started side-by-side to finish the race. With sponsorship dollars generally on the rise in IndyCar, and manufacturer money pouring into rival series such as IMSA and F1, it likely never has been harder for hiring across U.S. motorsports. Ongais ability to drive these cars near their performance limits unfortunately resulted in a couple of spectacular crashes in Indy. The best season for Ongais and the Interscope team came in 1978, when he won five races and eight poles en route to an eighth-place finish in the USAC standings. The arduous task took nearly two minutes but was met with rousing cheers from the crowd. She tried so hard for him, but he wouldn`t cooperate.''. Whether its grabbing a badass mechanic out of World of Outlaws and introducing them to IndyCar. The Terrifying Crash of Danny "Flyin' Hawaiian" Ongais at the 1981 Indy 500 | How Did He Survive? Ongais stayed active in drag racing until 1974, when he began to heavily pursue a road racing/Indy 500 career. Danny Ongais was known as "The The Estimated Net worth is $80K USD $85k. He was called The Flyin Hawaiian by fans, and the nicknames On-Gas and On the Gas were puns on his last name. Born May 21, 1942 in Kahului, Hawaii, Ongais began one of the most versatile careers of any driver in his era as a teenager, earning a Hawaii state title in motorcycle racing in 1960. Ward said the schedule was among the reasons that engineer Ryan Kelly chose to join Rossis car after multiple seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series. Danny was a great guy. Danny let his racing do his talking for him, thats for sure., Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500. In 1962, Ongais was part of Leongs dragster crew at the Winternationals, where they won the Long Distance and Best Appearing awards. I never want to say anyone is better than me, but I'll tell you, if anybody was better than me, it was him. Usually its me calling him for comment on someone whos passed, but this time he called me (he was, in fact, the first person to tell me of Ongais passing). There are some inherent advantages for a team in IndyCar, whose 17-race schedule is more manageable than NASCAR (36 races in 37 weeks) and Formula One (which has expanded to 24 races around the globe). For Penske the hiring of Ongais was an aberration, a minor breach of his own immutable rules. Kate Gundlach, a performance engineer at Arrow McLaren, was leafing through a sports car magazine a couple years ago when she stumbled upon a story about Grace Hackenberg, an Oregon-based racing engineer. His most notable years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were with Interscope Racing and their handsome No. But also building a machine of a race team that can develop all year round, not sort of go racing in the season and do development in the offseason. He had that natural ability to drive anything he climbed into. For the 1980 season Interscope was intending to use their own chassis with a Porsche V6 engine. Wife: The blogger is not married. Thats racing. Though rivals such as Penske, Ganassi and Andretti Autosport hold pretty tight to their total rewards packages, Scott said Arrow McLaren annually surveys its employees about benefits. pic.twitter.com/X4ZqLkQY4w, Tony Stewart (@TonyStewart) February 28, 2022. ''That`s his life, racing.''. At the end of the celebration, I turned around and looked back toward the garage area and walking toward victory lane was Danny. Ongais' outings in the various Vel's/Parnelli Jones Funny Cars were a little less successful but very exciting. Arrow McLaren uses applicant tracking software to determine the best matches on background, education and experience. He was intense and good. Getting Zak more plugged into the team has been a fantastic side effect of this change, Ward said. Hes happy to be here; were happy to have him.. It takes some investment.. He was there to do a job. That earned him such nicknames as The Flyin Hawaiian and Danny On-The-Gas.. Upon joining Arrow McLaren, Ward said his No. They are in relation from previous few years of a strong relationship. In Sundays Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Gundlach and Hackenberg (a damper specialist who also works on pit stops) will begin their third year together in the engineering department of Arrow McLaren as the team enters its most critical season yet in trying to become a perennial powerhouse championship contender. No matter how fast Ongais drove his race car, he always wanted to go even faster. He was 79. He was later discharged and returned to Hawaii for motor racing. Great guy. A driver cannot let skill alone speak for him. In addition to Grace Hackenberg, Gundlach also played a role in the teams acquisition of systems engineer Lizzie Todd, who came from previous roles at Andretti and Penske. He might show up and talk to you for a while and then youd look around and hed be gone. He crashed again in 1982, and then came Thursday`s wrenching collision with the wall. That comes from a focus on the culture of the team. By 1963, Ongais had his own gas dragster, a supercharged 371 Chevy-powered budget machine cobbled together from castoff parts from other teams and manufacturers and won the AHRA Winter Championships in both 1963 and 1964. His expansive Rolodex comes in handy but hasnt been key in expanding to a third car. A semi-serious look at the points battles heading to Pomona, T.V. He also recorded the fastest lap of the race, 192.678 mph, as a rookie in 1977. He qualified well over the season, earning three poles, and he finished 12th in the standings. He also raced in Formula One, in 1977-78, in six Grands Prix, recording a best result of seventh. When is Danny Ongais funeral? The IndyCar team since has been integrated with McLaren Racings F1 operations, which naturally led to some growing pains. Even his closest friends know little of Al Unser was named as Ongais replacement and drove to his fourth Indy 500 victory in a backup car that previously had been used as a show car earlier in May at a hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania. We needed to fill the car communicator role, and Alex was pretty happy with (Barnhart) previously, Ward said. His death was announced by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway two days later. ''His whole heart is in racing,'' said Roger Penske, whose auto racing empire had never before embraced such a prince of darkness. Its a big focus to get the McLaren brand out in the world and do good content, which I think were probably the leading team in that sense now. Long before Danny On the Gas Ongais became a household name across the country and around the world on television and radio as a revered IndyCar driver, he belonged to us, to the world of drag racing, where he sated his need for speed in the formative years of his motorsports career. This is certainly an exciting company to work for because the brand is quite well known globally, and that certainly helps from a recruitment perspective. He also competed in four Formula One races in 1977 and 1978, including two starts with Interscope, with a best finish of seventh in 1977 at the Canadian Grand Prix. How much does an F1 car weigh in 2023 and what's included in the limit? He also competed in four Formula 1 races in 1977 and 1978, including two starts with Interscope, with a best finish of seventh in the 77 Canadian Grand Prix. The head count was up to 94 by mid-February and is expected to be at least 100 by the end of March. Faster than he could whip a motorcycle through a turn, Ongais became a drag racer and an instant winner. He was 79. Ongais and Field teamed up with success in Formula 5000 and the Indy car Series in the late 1970s. Ongais dominated in SCCA competition in 1974, catching the eye of media mogul Ted Field, who had recently founded the Interscope Records label. At the 1981 Indianapolis 500, he was involved in a near-fatal accident that caused him to miss almost a year of racing. But we are trying hard to collect all the information about him and will update you soon. He drove with bravado and advocated unlimited rules at the Indianapolis 500. For the 1987 season Interscope Racing teamed up with Team Penske getting Ongais in the #25 Panavision Penske PC-16-Ilmor-Chevrolet Indy V8 for the Indianapolis 500, however Ongais crashed in practice and suffered a concussion. Burial site and Find a Grave details, Ricou Browning funeral, burial service, pictures, date, time, venue. After a 9-year hiatus from racing, Ongais was asked by John Menard to fill in for Scott Brayton who was killed during Friday Practice for the 1996 Indianapolis 500. Thats just his makeup, the way he was. 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