In 75 years of Formula 1 history, only one driver has been crowned World Champion after his death. In 1970, Austrian racer Jochen Rindt was so dominant behind the wheel of an exceptional car built by Colin Chapman of Team Lotus that no driver could bridge the gap to his place on the top of the championship standings despite there being four races remaining in the season after Rindt's death.

Most F1 fans with any interest in the history of the sport know this — but fewer know the cloud of tragedy that followed Rindt throughout his life, casting dark, dramatic shadows over his every move. 

Orphaned at just over a year old, and seemingly powerless against his team bosses when it came time to advocate for greater safety, Rindt was a prickly competitor who was nevertheless fondly remembered by so many of his competitors, and who completely changed the name of the game when it came to professionalizing motorsport. Today on Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys, we're going to dig into the ill-fated story of Jochen Rindt's life, the shock of his death, and the legacy he left in his wake.

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Episode Bibliography: 

Jochen Rindt: The Uncrowned King by David Tremayne

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-f1-driver-who-didnt-want-to-be-champion-5114105/5114105/ 

August 17, 1975. In warm-up for the Austrian Grand Prix, American icon Mark Donohue loses control of his March 751 after a tire fails. He careens through a metal Armco barrier and trackside signage and is knocked briefly unconscious in the wreckage. Against all odds, Donohue seems fine and heads back to the garage — where he begins to complain of a worsening headache. He's rushed to a local hospital, doctors urgent to operate on what has been diagnosed as a brain hemorrhage. 

It's not enough. Two days later, on August 19, Mark Donohue dies from injuries he sustained driving a Formula 1 car run by his longtime friend and racing team partner Roger Penske.

For many motorsport fans here in the United States. Penske Racing's foray into Formula 1 remains one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ of all time, for so many reasons. What if Mark Donohue hadn't come out of retirement to race and develop the F1 car? What if Donohue had won Penske's first race? What if John Watson had been able to win more, to entice more sponsors, to give the team a reason to continue? What would Formula 1 look like today with a stronger American presence back in the late 1970s?

We won't ever know. But this week on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're going to dig into what we do know about Penske Racing in Formula 1, Mark Donohue's death, and John Watson's triumph — which remains the most recent Grand Prix win by an American team.

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Episode Bibliography: 

The Unfair Advantage by Mark Donohue

Interview with John Watson

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/04/09/Settlement-reached-in-Donohue-case/7324513406800/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/july-1998/73/professional/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-1975/35/austrian-grand-prix-16/

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=a61VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J-ADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6311%2C5102237

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/20/archives/donohue-38-dead-of-racing-injuries-mark-donohue-is-dead-of-racing.html

https://www.historicracing.com/driverDetail.cfm?driverID=2759

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-2005/16/nigel-roebucks-legends-7/ 

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-2021/51/roger-penske-the-motor-sport-interview/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/november-1974/42/canadian-grand-prix-13/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/february-1975/26/the-formula-one-situation/ 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/398676916/?match=1&terms=%22eden%20donohue%22 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/115605105/?match=1&terms=eden%20donohue%2C%20goodyear&_gl=1%2abwy9fu%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://www.newspapers.com/image/622389810/?match=1&terms=%22eden%20donohue%22%2C%20goodyear&_gl=1%2a2uh6x%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://www.newspapers.com/image/437277431/?match=1&terms=%22eden%20donohue%22%2C%20goodyear&_gl=1%2a2uh6x%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Unlike the NFL, MLB, or even Formula 1, NASCAR has never had a drivers’ union, but not for lack of trying. In the early 1960s, Hall of Famer Curtis Turner joined forces with the Teamsters in a bold push to organize the garage area — a move that got him blacklisted by the sport he helped build. Over the years, similar efforts were quietly floated and just as quickly shut down.

Why has unionization never gained a foothold in stock car racing? What were the drivers asking for — and what is NASCAR so afraid of?

In this episode, we’ll trace the roots of NASCAR’s labor resistance, and unpack how the sport’s Southern identity, family-owned governance, and rapid commercialization combined to make organizing nearly impossible.

This is the story of the union that never was.

To find out more about Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys: https://linktr.ee/deadlypassionsterriblejoys 

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Episode Bibliography: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcB2WLxDdk8

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregengle/2021/07/24/nascar-reacts-differently-as-talk-of-drivers-organizing-surfaces-once-more/

https://www.nbcsports.com/nascar/news/curtis-turner-from-nascar-banishment-to-celebrated-hall-of-famer 

https://www.goupstate.com/story/news/1998/04/16/rooted-littlejohn-built-spartanburg-heart-stock-racing-34back-those-spartanburg-capital-racing34/29600325007/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-columbia-record-speedway-spasm/146339838/

https://www.cottonowens.com/archives/Spartanburg_Racing.php 

https://apnews.com/article/sports-automobile-racing-daytona-beach-500-504f947c60e5d6409910cb15e692cee0 

https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/talladega-1969-when-nascars-star-drivers-boycotted-a-race/

https://teamsters174.net/how-jimmy-hoffa-tried-to-give-unions-the-green-flag-at-nascar/

https://web.archive.org/web/20141216130458/http://speedzone70.tripod.com/VolII.html

https://uniontrack.com/blog/labor-american-south#:~:text=Many%20Southerners%20saw%20industrialization%20and,from%20unionizing%20in%20the%20South.

https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/talladega-1969-when-nascars-star-drivers-boycotted-a-race/10660205/#:~:text=Dozens%20of%20drivers%20stood%20up%20against%20NASCAR,but%20it%20didn't%20quite%20stop%20the%20show.&text=Among%20the%20many%20lower%2Dlevel%20drivers%20who%20filled,Fame%20team%20owner%20and%20then%2Ddriver%20Richard%20Childress.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1130060825/?match=1&terms=%22professional%20drivers%20association%22&_gl=1%2at79p53%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/936556509/?match=1&terms=%22professional%20drivers%20association%22&_gl=1%2at79p53%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/915999051/?match=1&terms=%22professional%20drivers%20association%22&_gl=1%2a14h13lc%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

If Bernd Rosemeyer had not existed, historian Anthony Pritchard remarked, then the National Socialist Party would have had to invent him.

Tall, blond, strong, and domineering, Rosemeyer became the pride of Adolf Hitler's motorsport program, and the epitome of its goals. The press couldn't get enough of him, hailing him a “radiant boy,” a “bold fighter.” “Beautiful blond Bernd,” they gushed, as they linked him to the true superiority of Aryan blood and praised his overt willingness to compete with a swastika armband, to attribute his success to the glory of his mother country.

Rosemeyer burst onto the Grand Prix scene with Auto Union just a few years after the company brought together four automakers on the verge of bankruptcy in a last-ditch effort to avoid fading into obscurity, and he instantly elevated the outfit to immortality. 

Of course, Auto Union was one of two German automakers heavily funded by Hitler as a covert way to bolster the country's weakened military. Building aircraft was illegal, but building state-of-the-art racing machines with engines that could be easily installed in an aircraft? Well, Europe never blinked an eye. Add in a superstar like Rosemeyer behind the wheel, with his Grand Prix victories and his world speed records, and you had a potent recipe for the kind of rampant German pride that could be easily mobilized into the war effort.

This week on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're continuing our discussion of the Nazi party's impact on motorsport. In the previous episode, we covered all things Mercedes as well as the complex ways the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the vacuum of power that allowed genocidal Nazi ideals to flourish.

In this episode, we'll turn our attention to Mercedes’ biggest rival, Auto Union, with an eye to ultimately pinpointing the exact ways these Grand Prix teams directly contributed to the deadliest war in all of human history. Let's dig in.

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Episode Bibliography: 

• Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best by Neal Bascomb

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190821-how-germany-became-the-country-of-cars 

https://www.audi-mediacenter.com/en/motorsport-history-3646

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/racing-tech/porsches-first-grand-prix-car-the-auto-union-v16/

https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/ic90uta1/release/4

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-2013/109/villeneuve-thirties/

In the build-up to the 1934 German Grand Prix, the already formidable Nürburgring was transformed. Gone were the days of packing a race track with nothing but enthusiasts; under the control of new chancellor Adolf Hitler, motorsport was the ideal venue in which to display the might of his new, robust Germany under the Third Reich.

Track facilities were draped in swastika flags, while a regiment of brownshirts had marched for weeks from Berlin to be present at the July event. Over 150,000 spectators had descended on the rural track, keen to lay eyes on the new German racing machines that promised to be unstoppable — The Mercedes W25, and the Auto Union P-Wagen. 

Marvels of automotive innovation, these Grand Prix cars were heavily funded by the German government and looked set to dominate the European racing scene in just the same way that Hitler was hoping to dominate the entire continent: Resoundingly, quickly, and packed with pageantry designed to inspire a nationalistic zeal.

This month on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're digging deep into Nazi participation in Grand Prix racing with a two-part series, with each episode focusing on one of the two state-funded automotive programs. We'll be starting off with Mercedes, then dig deeper into the exploits of Auto Union in the next show with an eye to understanding the complex and often uncomfortable role that motorsport played in the revitalization of the German military after the country was devastated by the First World War. 

Over the next two episodes, we'll trace the origins of the automobile in Germany and investigate the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on both industry and national image in order to link Hitler's ascension to power with his emphasis on revitalizing the automotive and motorsport industries. Naturally, we're going to begin with a titan: Mercedes.

To find out more about Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys: https://linktr.ee/deadlypassionsterriblejoys 

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Order Racing with Rich Energy: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/racing-with-rich-energy

Episode Bibliography: 

• Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best by Neal Bascomb

• A Race with Love and Death: The Story of Britain's First Great Grand Prix Driver, Richard Seaman by Richard Williams

• Grand Prix Driver by Hermann Lang

In the late 1950s, the folks in charge of The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza had to face a harsh reality: They had spent millions to revitalize the banked oval that had been an original feature of the track back in the 1920s, but that had been destroyed prior to World War II. They had thought the Italian Grand Prix would be made all the more compelling with a flat-out banked section to challenge the drivers.

But Grand Prix cars weren't built to withstand the high speeds and g forces of oval racing, and the European drivers hated the addition. Hoping to get the most out of its investment, Monza called upon the only drivers that did know how to race an oval: The Americans.

What resulted was the Race of Two Worlds — an exhibition event with a huge prize purse designed to pit the Americans against the Europeans in a friendly competition that soon got feisty. This week on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're exploring the long-term implications of this event, and how it very well may have contributed to the ongoing ill will between two very distinct forms of motorsport.

To find out more about Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys: https://linktr.ee/deadlypassionsterriblejoys 

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Order Racing with Rich Energy: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/racing-with-rich-energy

Episode Bibliography: 

Cars at Speed: The Grand Prix Circuit by Robert Daley

Monza: A Glorious History by Paolo Montagna

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fords-assembly-line-starts-rolling 

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-1955/22/26th-gran-premio-ditala/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-1957/31/the-monza-500-mile-race-2/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-1958/15/the-monza-500-mile-race/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-1958/36/another-monza-500-miles/

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/f1-vs-indycar-monzanapolis/

Camille du Gast wasn't the first woman to get behind the wheel of a race car, but she was the first woman who gained international recognition for doing so when she began taking part in grand epreuves as early as 1901. She was the first woman in France to earn a driver's license, the first woman to hold an official role in the Automobile Club de France.

But to call Camille du Gast a racer and nothing else would be to diminish a lifetime of accomplishments. She donned the title of exploratrice, traveling the world while also competing in motor boat racing, fencing, skiing, tobogganing, fencing, and hot air ballooning. She was the controversial subject of a pornographic scandal, and the intended target of a failed murder plot hatched by none other than her only daughter. And while that might have been enough to push a person into hiding for the remainder of her life, Camille du Gast wouldn't be silenced. Instead, she became a prominent activist campaigning for the rights and dignified treatment of both women and animals. 

This week on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're delving deeper into the remarkable life of Camille du Gast and situating her turn-of-the-century accomplishments within the greater context of women in motorsport.

To find out more about Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys: https://linktr.ee/deadlypassionsterriblejoys 

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Order Racing with Rich Energy: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/racing-with-rich-energy

Episode Bibliography: 

Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris — The Adventure that Accelerated the Twentieth Century by Kassia St. Clair

Cars at Speed: The Grand Prix Circuit by Robert Daley

https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/news/women-in-motorsport-social-history-camille-du-gast/

https://guides.loc.gov/feminism-french-women-history/famous/camille-du-gast

https://web.archive.org/web/20150608201218/http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/racing/wiwc/bios/pioneers/CamilleDuGast.pdf

https://www.vintag.es/2023/05/camille-du-gast.html

https://blog.imagesmusicales.be/camille-du-gast-the-valkyrie-of-motorsports/

https://speedqueens.blogspot.com/2010/01/camille-du-gast.html 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjd61.7?seq=12 

https://annehelen.substack.com/p/the-fascinating-and-surprising-history?r=3mpdgy&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true 

https://gettingaround.substack.com/p/dufayel-paris-had-the-most-beautiful-staircase 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/80620267/?match=1&terms=%22Camille%20du%20gast%22&_gl=1%2akg4h9y%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds 

https://www.newspapers.com/image/41522580/?match=1&terms=%22Camille%20du%20gast%22&_gl=1%2akg4h9y%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-paris-berlin-motor-carriage-rac/

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19020920.2.64.36

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68721163

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68721181

If you're a fan of the Indianapolis 500, then there's a good chance you know who won the first race back in 1911: It was Ray Harroun behind the wheel of a Marmon Wasp, the only driver in the field to opt against using a riding mechanic and running solo — albeit with a little help from a relief driver.

What if I told you that might not be true? What if I told you that we don't actually know with 100% certainty who won the inaugural Indy 500?

Today on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're going to continue our discussion from last week concerning the founding of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the chaotic first races held at the track in its first three years of existence. This week, it's all about the inaugural Indy 500 — and about trying to track down who it was that really won the first edition of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

To find out more about Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys: https://linktr.ee/deadlypassionsterriblejoys 

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Order Racing with Rich Energy: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/racing-with-rich-energy

Episode Bibliography: 

• Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Birth of the Indy 500 by Charles Leerhsen

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/one-hundred-years-of-the-indy-500-158836397/

• https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/expert-sets/105790/#:~:text=The%20first%20Indianapolis%20500%2DMile,Indy%20500%20from%20the%20grandstand. 

On August 21st, 1909, the 300-mile Wheeler-Schebler race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was waved off — not because that weekend's racing had claimed the lives of five drivers, mechanics, and spectators, but because, after the racing had continued, yet another car crashed into a pedestrian bridge crossing the racing surface.

No one was killed in that crash. No; the real reason the race was being flagged was because so many spectators had flocked to the pedestrian bridge to gape at the wreckage that the whole structure was sagging. That, finally, gave Speedway personnel a reason to call things off.

In the days that followed, newspapers erupted with condemnations about auto racing — but before we can really understand the outcry and its impact on the motorsport scene in America, we need to understand more about the man who concocted the audacious scheme to build a 2.5-mile race track in Indiana within the first decade of the 20th century.

Today on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're going to delve into the life of Speedway founder and confidence man Carl Fisher, and how his harebrained marketing schemes brought to life a track that still hosts one of the world's greatest motorsport events. Over the next two episodes, we're looking at the early history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and how, against all odds, it became an American institution.

To find out more about Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys: https://linktr.ee/deadlypassionsterriblejoys 

Subscribe on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deadlypassionsterriblejoys

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Order Racing with Rich Energy: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/racing-with-rich-energy

Episode Bibliography: 

• Blood and Smoke: A True Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and the Indy 500 by Charles Leerhsen

• https://web.archive.org/web/20120920022310/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/library-and-archives/notable-hoosiers/carl-fisher 

• https://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/articles/prest-o-lite 

On May 12, 1957, a group of locals from Guidizzolo, Italy gathered in front of their homes to watch some of the world's finest sports cars flash by en route to the finish line that would mark the end of the grueling Mille Miglia. For 30 years, other locals and previous generations stood alongside that very same ribbon of road, watching that very same race.

But on May 12, a Ferrari 335 S scythed through the crowd, and in an instant, nine spectators were dead — cut down just outside their homes. This was the crash that would kill the Mille Miglia, Italy's iconic 1,000-mile race from Brescia to Rome. Ask around, though, and you might find that the tragedy of civilian deaths was nothing compared to the horror of that Ferrari's driver, Spanish nobleman Alfonso de Portago.

If you watched the 2023 film Ferrari starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, then you're likely familiar with this incident; the crash shown at the end of the movie is the very one that ended the Mille Miglia. Today on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” though, we're going to turn our gaze to the driver in question, Alfonso de Portago, in order to better understand how some motorsport accidents are deemed more tragic than others thanks to the mythic status drivers like Portago held. 

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Episode Bibliography: 

• Cars at Speed by Robert Daley

• The Limit by Michael Cannell

• Enzo Ferrari by Brock Yates

• https://vault.si.com/vault/1957/05/20/horror-in-italy 

• https://www.history.com/news/the-horrific-1957-ferrari-crash-that-ended-the-mille-miglia-race 

• https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-1956/26/another-mille-miglia-with-moss/ 

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/503267169/?match=1&terms=%22de%20portago%22&_gl=1%2adnjufr%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds 

• https://www.newspapers.com/image/717878577/?match=1&terms=%22de%20portago%22&_gl=1%2a1x6c31p%2a_up%2aMQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAqrG9BhAVEiwAaPu5zinarN6sTwRXIAG8BQ7n5kyw7AKyBsnsc1bFahJmRyS6Uh9Oub71ohoCHcgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

• https://archive.org/details/sim_car-and-driver_1957-08_3/page/n70/mode/1up 

  https://www.newspapers.com/image/70006822/?match=1&terms=mille%20miglia