Danny Ongais
Daniel " Danny" Ongais ( born May 21, 1942 in Kahului, Maui Iceland, Hawaii) is a former American race car driver.
The Hawaiians Danny Ongais came as a works driver Parnelli of 1974 in the American SCCA racing series and changed in 1975 in the Formula 5000 series in the United States. Also in 1976 he drove a Lola of Interscope Racing Team in this championship. As Interscope in 1976 went into the USAC series, Ongais remained their regular driver and won his first race in Michigan. In addition to his single-seater stakes he played sports car racing, winning two events at the IMSA series with a Porsche 935
The end of 1977 Ongais made his debut in Formula 1 Interscope had purchased from a Roger Penske Penske PC4, which the team had reported for Grand Prix race in the USA and Canada for Ongais. In Watkins Glen he fell after a spin early in the race from the Mosport Park he came in seventh place.
In 1978 he went in the first two races for the Ensign team at the start and tried twice more to qualify with the unwieldy Shadow DN9 for another Grand Prix during the season. The attempts to gain a foothold right in Formula 1, remained half-hearted because Ongais in the USAC became a top driver. In 1978, he won five races for Vel 's Parnelli Jones Racing.
In 1979, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona and was the same race 1980 III. After a serious accident in the 500 miles of Indianapolis, where he suffered severe leg injuries that career came to a halt. Although he went on to 1987 in Indianapolis and in the USAC series, but the time of the great successes was over and the end of the year he resigned.
Quite surprisingly, it increased again in 1996 into the cockpit. After the fatal accident of Scott Brayton in training for 500 - mile race Ongais took over for the race the race car. After a strong driving performance he brought the Lola in seventh place. Ongais again found pleasure in racing, and although he was now already 55 years old, he came back in 1997 to Indianapolis. It was not a happy decision because already in the first round he had an engine failure after a fierce strike into the wall. Ongais suffered minor injuries and after a night in the hospital, he was racing on final.