History was both made and remembered over the Labor Day holiday when a Porsche Carrera GT production car driven by racecar driver David Donohue and NBC television The Tonight Show host Jay Leno set a series of closed-course speed records at Talladega Superspeedway, where David’s father, Mark Donohue, set a similar series of records in a Porsche 917 30 years ago.
As the records were being set, Porsche decided to donate the car to an auction designed to raise funds to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Leno agreed to oversee the auction of the $440,000 record-setting Carrera GT. Details about the auction will be announced soon.
The younger Donohue set three flying-speed records in the production category with the Carrera GT, including a closed-course speed record for the 2.66-mile track of 196.301 mph. He also set records for the measured mile, 198.971 mph, and the measured kilometer, 195.755 mph. Leno set three standing-start speed records in the same car, the fastest being 156.603 miles per hour over the closed-course. Flying records are recorded from a rolling start, while standing-speed records are recorded from a complete stop.
“It amazes me that we were able to go nearly as fast in a 2005 street car as David’s father did in a 1,000-horsepower racecar,” said Leno, who is an avid automotive historian and collector. “This Carrera GT has air conditioning, a stereo, a navigation system, and a cockpit full of leather, and still goes almost 200 mph around this course. It’s outrageous.“
“This was an emotional day for me,” said Donohue, who races a Brumos Porsche-Fabcar prototype in the Grand American series. “I’ve driven on many of the tracks where my dad drove, but being able to set a record here at Talladega is special.”
The elder Donohue set a closed-course record for racing cars, driving a Porsche 917/30 to a speed of 221.120 mph at the track on August 9, 1975, just 10 days before he died while practicing for the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix.
