Toronto Star - January 20, 2002

Mark Donohue's tragic tale still a great read 27 years later

"A while ago, I was given a copy of The Unfair Advantage, by American racer Mark Donohue, a book published back in 1975 but recently updated and reworked.

This being an older volume, I have to admit I wasn't that interested, so I put it on the bottom of the list of my "to read" books.

Later, in a conversation with an old friend, Donohue's name came up.

As a result, I picked up the book to check on some of the things we had talked about. To my surprise, it proved to be a wealth of information - and very well written.

The book covers Donohue's career in racing from his modest beginning driving a '57 Corvette in a hill-climb event in 1958 to the start of his career as Formula 1 driver in 1975.

What makes this book unusual is that it chronicles his career by the cars he raced and, surprisingly, it works well.

The Unfair Advantage reveals what a versatile driver Donohue was. He drove a multitude of race cars - most of the very well.

Unfortunately, we will never really know how successful he could have been. Donohue's career ended tragically in 1975 during a fatal morning warm-up session for the Austrian Grand Prix.

No matter what type of motoring enthusiast you are, you will enjoy reading this book.

It has plenty of pictures and gives real insight into the world of professional autoracing.