Danny Ongais

phew. saw the thread title and thought he passed away.

 

Ahhh yes...The "Flyin Hawaian". How a good driver and a good mechanic ( Phil Casey) could do marvelous things with a race car. The "Batmobile" and the Parnelli chassis in his hands was fun to watch. Racing at its best!

 

Saw Danny Ongais race sports cars with Ted Field numerous times at Sebring and Daytona
most memorably winning in the 24 Hours of Daytona with Field and Hurley Haywood as their
935 died in the final moments and crawled across the finish line.

He is a big dude, a barrel chested Hawaiian surfer, could drive anything flat out when Field was
entering his Interscope cars in IMSA GTX and Indy Cars. Great times, beautiful cars.

BHW

 

'79. 'Saw him too that year, mostly from behind going away (GTU 911 rent-a seat). We broke.

'Had a semi-healthy cracked "interscope" windshield from his pole winning 934 at the '77 Finale. 'T'was leaning on the fence on pit road after qually so I asked what they were gonna do with it. "Get it outa here...it's yours". It was in my car in minutes and became a coffee table in my apartment atop a wide GoodYear. (OO is the 934 from whence it came. For the unenlightened, O is a 935)
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

awesome cars. nice coffee table, too

 

Yes, I remember Ongais being a stout dude.

Whatever he got in, he was fast too.

BHW

 

The image of his leg dragging on the indy track will always haunt me.

 

Thought of that earlier but wasn't going to mention it.
How about the one that could have been his and Al acknowledging it in the Winner's Circle '87?
Not the best of luck at Indy for Danny.

 

Remember another race driver referring to Ongais as if he had had a lobotomy to remove all fear.

The only on I remember as having successfully gone from straight line to road racing.

 

I sure as heck can't think of any at all let alone even 1/10 successful. "On The Gas" was damn good, for sure.

 

Art Malone was successful at both drag racing and Indycar racing; he often worked with Don Garlits at the dragstrip. But I don't recall Malone doing any road racing. And I don't recall which one he did first.

In the other direction, Doug Kalitta went from a successful career on dirt ovals to the dragstrip, running for his uncle Connie Kalitta.

 

I recollect the name but not the success. 'Was just a tad before I was digesting all I could find on racing. When, where did he win or whatever?

 

Is there another Danny Ongais? He wasn't seriously injured? I think a few here might disagree. I know I do. I guess it's what one's definition of serious is.

"The front end of the car was ripped away, leaving an unconscious Ongais completely exposed in the cockpit as the car continued around turn 3, trailing a long tongue of orange fire from burning oil. Safety crews quickly surrounded the car and used the Jaws of Life to rescue Ongais, who suffered a concussion and badly broken feet and legs."

 

Malone was a drag racer first, and won the AHRA Top Fuel championship in 1963. He raced 10 times in Indycars from 1962-65, including 2 Indy 500s, where he placed 11th in 1964. Not a brilliant career, but at least he was respectable.

 

A different sort of crossover driver was Bill Cantrell, who raced in the Indy 500 from 1948 to 1950. But his other sport was unlimited hydroplane racing, where he raced from the late '30s to 1964. During 1949, one of the years he started at Indy, he also won the national hydroplane championship and the prestigious Gold Cup race. Imagine racing Indycars and hydroplanes in the same year!

 

A lot of really smart "egghead" types thought that was not possible...

Ongais started out racing motorcycles, and was the Hawaii champion in 1960. An expert road racer, he also competed in a number of Formula 1 events.

Some other notable racers from Hawaii are Roland Leong , and John DeSoto.

 

And as we veer off topic, how about another island dweller, poor up and comer Fillipino Jovy Marcello?
Formula Atlantic champ before stepping up to CART. Sadly, another that Indy took from us.

 

Very cool stuff.

Jim Busby was another 70s era sports car driver who came out of the California
drag racing scene.

BHW

 

It just occurred to me that they used to call Ongais "Danny On-the-Gas".

As racing nicknames go, that had to have been one of the best ones.

BHW