Danny Ongais, who drove in the Indianapolis 500 11 times over three decades, has died at age 79.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced his death on Monday and said he died last week in Anaheim Hills, Calif. The track attributed his passing to congestive heart complications.
Danny Ongais, the Hawaiian driver admired for his speed and bravery in an #Indy500 career spanning three decades, died Feb. 26 in Anaheim Hills, California at 79.
The versatile Ongais made 11 #Indy500 starts, with four top-10 finishes.
Godspeed, racer. https://t.co/XNw7qFg86V
— Indianapolis Motor Speedway (@IMS) February 28, 2022
Ongais, known as “The Flyin’ Hawaiian,” drove his first Indy 500 in 1977 and his last in 1996, finishing in the top 10 four times. His top finish was fourth place in 1979.
He is the only native of Hawaii to start an Indianapolis 500 race.
Ongais won his first speed title as a teenager, winning the Hawaii state motorcycle racing title in 1960. He went on to compete in NHRA races, including Top Fuel and Funny Car.
Later, he drove the blue Ford March 1 Mustang of Mickey Thompson and set nearly 300 national and international speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
He was enshrined in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2000 for drag racing.
While serving overseas in the U.S. Army in the 1960s, Ongais also became a devotee of streetcar racing and competed in four Formula 1 races in 1977-78, finishing seventh in the 1977 Canadian Grand Prix.
Ongais survived some notable crashes, as well. He sustained serious injuries in a head-on crash in the Indianapolis 500 in 1981, survived a barrel roll at Michigan International Speedway in 1985 and missed the 1987 Indy 500 because of a concussion sustained in a crash.
–Field Level Media
