Hi Phil,
Agreed, he was always great fun to watch. When he crashed at Indy in '81, I really though he had bought it right in front of me, couldn't see any way that someone could survive that. But he was back next spring, a little hitch in his walk, but still crazy as ever. A vivid Ongais memory was from the Sept. 1982 Mid-Ohio 6 Hr IMSA race. A few of us were standing along the fencing at the bottom of the esses, just before the bridge, watching John Paul Jr try to get his stopped Porsche 935 back up and running, he had pulled over right next to the spectator fencing, and he was chatting with us as he's trying to fix the car, all of the sudden Ongais pulls off, across the track from him, the back of his Interscope Lola Chevy-turbo totally engulfed in flames, Danny bails out and watches the car go up in smoke while the fire crews try to douse it. JPJ looks over at us bemused and say's "I got problems, but nothing like his!"
Fax
