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Background
Sullivan one of the many US vs Europe crossover stories |
Few arguments in motor racing are as bitchy and long-running as the feud between the equally parochial Americans and Europeans as to which continent produces the better racing drivers. And, as a corollary, whether or not either type could hack it across the Atlantic. With the exception of Jacques Villeneuve and Mario Andretti, Indy car drivers have become notorious in F1 circles for their inability to adapt to Formula One regardless of whatever success they had across the Atlantic.
The at-times laughable efforts of the oft-ridiculed Michael Andretti with McLaren in 1993, and the sadly conspicuous failure of Alessandro Zanardi with Williams in 1999 have been well documented. And while the name Danny Sullivan ranks with the likes of Andretti and Zanardi in terms of Indy stardom, he too made little impression in Grand Prix racing. So much so that few even remember his 1983 season spent trundling around in one of Ken Tyrrell's machines, getting trounced by team-mate Michele Alboreto. |
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1971-77
2nd in British F3 for one-time taxi driver, sod cutter and ranch hand |
Daniel John Sullivan III, the son of a general contractor from Louisville, Kentucky, originally studied business at university before heading to the Big Apple. There he struggled to support himself and he spent his teens working variously as a janitor, cab driver, waiter, lumberjack, sod cutter, chicken ranch hand and even as a part-time model. Come his 21st birthday, though, that all changed, when Dr Frank Faulkner paid his tuition fees to attend the famous Jim Russell School of Motor Racing in England.
A year later, he made his debut in British FF1600, and for the next few years continued to race in junior categories. In 1974 he was 2nd in the British F2 championship, and in 1975, he took 5 wins and 4 poles in the British BP Super Visco F3 championship, claiming 59 points and joint-2nd in the standings. But with finances a strain, his 1976 was limited to a solitary failure to qualify in the European F2 round at Mugello in a Modus M3 Hart, before returning for 5 more entries in 1977. |
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1977-1980
Can-Am Rookie of the Year with whisky heir's help upon return to US |
Driving a Netherton & Worth Boxer PR276 Hart, he was mainly confined to the midfield, but did manage a 5th at Donington, scoring two points which left him equal 18th at year's end. Unable to climb any higher, in 1978 he took a path well-trodden at the time, moving to New Zealand to compete in Formula Atlantic, in which he came 4th overall. He also competed in the same category in America that year, but could do no better than 8th overall.
His single-seater career almost at a dead end, he returned to the USA full time, working as an instructor at the Skip Barber racing school. But his career got going again when he linked up with affluent Jack Daniels whisky heir Garvin Brown - together they formed a team for which Sullivan raced in Can-Am in 1980. After some up-and-down results in an Intrepid GB1, including a 2nd at Watkins Glen, he switched to a Lola T530 and came 2nd again, this time at Road Atlanta. 6th overall saw Danny awarded Rookie of the Year. |
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1981-82
Takes wins in Las Vegas, while picking up a podium in CART |
In 1981, as well as racing in Atlantics again, in Can-Am Sullivan stayed with Garvin Brown Racing, and with the Lola scored a number of top-5 results, although he could have won at Chicago had his car not run out of fuel. A late-season switch to a Frissbee, though, saw him claim a great victory at Las Vegas and 4th place overall. Then in 1982 he moved to the Newman/Budweiser team to drive a March 827. With another win at Las Vegas in addition to 6 other podium finishes, he managed to improve to 3rd in the final standings.
But by 1982, Sullivan's single-seater career had been well and truly resurrected. Not only was he still competing in Atlantics, but he also got himself an Indy car ride in a Forsythe-Newman March 82C Cosworth. 3rd at Atlanta showed that he could compete at this level, but his Indianapolis 500 debut ended ignominiously against the turn 4 wall after 148 laps. And although the opulent Hector Rebaque had bought Sullivan's drive before season's end, Danny had greater things yet on the horizon. |
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1983 Tyrrell Danny a surprise in Ken's lineup, as Benetton comes on board |
When the 1983 F1 season got underway in Rio de Janeiro, Sullivan had just turned 33, and was no youngster. After his stop-start single-seater career, it came as a surprise when he was included in the Tyrrell line-up (and late enough for Danny to have to compete in a blank helmet in the season opener), alongside an in-form Michele Alboreto, fresh from victory in the last race of 1982 in Las Vegas. For 1983, Tyrrell would be using their 1982 011 chassis until the 012 came for the last two races, but significantly they would have a new sponsor: Benetton, making their landmark entry into F1.
It proved to be an inauspicious debut for Danny in Brazil, as the American qualified 21st and finished a lap down in 11th. He would have been classified in the top ten had the rest of the field been promoted up a place after the disqualification of World Champion Keke Rosberg, who had crossed the line in 2nd. This was followed by an excellent 9th place on the grid at Long Beach, where local knowledge obviously helped, but a severe tyre vibration in the race saw Sullivan make it no higher than 8th in the race, 2 laps down. |
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1983
Hounds Rosberg all the way to take a great 2nd place in ROC |
After this came the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, the first time the event had been held for three years, but also the last time that it ever took place. This was undoubtedly the highlight of Danny's F1 career. In a truncated field of 13, his was the only Tyrrell in the event. Rosberg took the lead on lap 7 of the 40-lap race and never relinquished it, but Sullivan hounded him right to the death, sitting on the tail of the Williams. Unable to get past, he took a fantastic 2nd place, just 0.5s behind the Finn.
But if this was going to be the fillip to take Danny to greater things, then he was to be sorely disappointed. Both Alboreto and Sullivan found their normally-aspirated Tyrrells being blown away more and more by the ever-increasing hordes of turbos, but on top of that, Michele was easily getting the better of his rookie team-mate. After the Race of Champions, Sullivan only qualified in the top 20 on four occasions, in 20th at Monaco and the European GP (also at Brands Hatch), in 19th at Kyalami, and in 16th at Detroit. |
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1983
An eventful year for Sullivan, but Michele had the upper hand |
To prove the point, Alboreto qualified 6th in Detroit, and then proceeded to take Tyrrell's last ever victory. Sullivan, in contrast, retired with electrical problems. It was symptomatic of a season in which he dropped out as often as he finished, suffering a clutch problem in France, and engine failure in Holland, a fuel pump drive problem in Italy, and a fire due to a broken fuel line at the European GP. He also spun out at Imola, and was caught up in a multiple collision on the first lap in Austria.
On top of that, Sullivan was also disqualified in Canada having finished 9th after his Cosworth-powered machine was found to be underweight. When he did make it to the line with a legal car, after his 11th at Rio and his 8th at Long Beach he came 12th at Zolder and Hockenheim, 14th at Silverstone, and 7th in South Africa. On the streets of Monaco, however, there were two points for Danny (his only points in F1). He finished 5th in the usual Monte Carlo attrition, despite being two laps behind Rosberg the winner. |
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1983
Season's end sees Sullivan make the choice to leave Tyrrell for CART |
Those two points left him 17th in the World Championship, but in truth, Sullivan had not been that impressive. Having said that, Ken Tyrrell was left with some difficult choices for 1984. Alboreto was moving to Ferrari, and the valuable Benetton sponsorship was going off to Alfa Romeo. Might he have to take a paying driver? He would still have to use Cosworth engines, but they were increasingly off the pace. If Danny stayed on, he could have provided much-needed stability.
In the end, Danny made the decision for Ken himself. Tyrrell was never going to be able to finalise his 1984 line-up until the last minute anyway, so during the off-season Sullivan could never be sure that he had a place in the team. But after visiting an Indy car race the end of 1983, he was offered a CART drive for 1984. For Danny, it was the safe (and probably best) thing to do to accept the offer. And for Tyrrell it was probably a good thing too, as it allowed him to take on the talents of both Martin Brundle and Stefan Bellof. |
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1984-85
Danny makes his mark with three wins and 4th overall in first full CART season |
The team that had thrown Sullivan this lifeline was Team Shierson, and after starting the 1984 CART season in their own DSR-1 chassis, once they switched to a Lola T800 Danny unleashed all the potential that he had shown back in 1982. Taking three wins at Cleveland, Montreal and the Pocono 500, as well as a string of top-ten finishes, Sullivan came an excellent 4th overall, and his time in Europe was quickly forgotten. Better still, for 1985 he had a contract with the crack outfit run by Roger Penske.
Driving a March 85C Cosworth, in his second race for the team Sullivan etched his name into American motor racing folklore by taking his 'Spin and Win' Indianapolis 500 victory. Having started in the middle of the third row in 8th spot, by lap 120 of 200 he had clawed his way up to 2nd, and was challenging Mario Andretti for the lead. He pulled alongside going into turn one and went in front, only for his car's back end to immediately go lose, pitching Sullivan into a lurid spin. |
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Hear a great clip of commentary just at the moment Sullivan spins his Penske en route to Indy glory in 1985.
"And Sullivan has the lead! Danny Sullivan ... OHHHHHH NO!! Just at that moment, losing control of the car!" |
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1985
Sensational save from big spin, going on to win a famous Indy 500 |
In Danny's own words: "For some reason, I thought there were only 12 laps left. That's why I was anxious to get by Mario. I thought that's all she wrote, but it spun around and I didn't hit anything. And all of a sudden the smoke cleared and I was facing Turn 2. So I just stuck it down and took off." His amazing 370-degree spin and save had brought out the yellows, and he took the opportunity to put on fresh tyres before chasing down Andretti once again.
On lap 139 he was back on Mario's tail, and went for the turn one pass yet again. This time he pulled it off, and held on for the remaining laps to take the Borg-Warner Trophy, ahead of Mario, Roberto Guerrero, Al Unser Sr, Johnny Parsons, Johnny Rutherford, Arie Luyendyk and Michael Andretti, in what must surely rank as one of the most talented finishing orders in the history of the Indy 500. For his efforts, Danny pocketed a cool US$517,662. |
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1985
Prost was impressed, as Danny enters Indy racing parlance! |
The images of Danny's spin, accompanied by an incredible squeal of locked tyres caught by track-side microphones, were still receiving airplay years later. What made his save so amazing was that normally, once you lose control at the Brickyard, it's all over red rover. You simply never got out of a spin like that unscathed. As a result, Sullivan's remarkable recovery has earned him a place in American racing parlance; a spin followed by a similar save has since become known as doing 'a Danny'.
Sullivan himself didn't fully grasp the significance of what he had done until a few weeks later. Whilst working as a television analyst at a the Detroit Grand Prix, he met up with old F1 rival Alain Prost. In later years Sullivan remarked: "Prost won more Grand Prix races than anybody, he was a world champion three times, etc. etc. He saw me and says, 'Danny, great win.' He says, 'I'll trade you some of my Grand Prix wins for that. It's the greatest race in the world. Don't ever lose sight of that'." |
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1985-87
A couple of tough years with Penske, preparing the PC17 |
Although the Indy 500 was Sullivan's highlight for 1985 (and possibly for his whole career), it was easy to forget the fact that he also won at Miami and came 4th overall again. It cemented his relationship with Penske that would last until the end of 1990. In 1986, driving a new March 86C, Sullivan took two more wins at Cleveland and Meadowlands, and came 3rd in the points. But significantly, though, towards the end of the year Penske had started developing his own chassis, the PC15, which made its debut at year's end.
The plan was to race Penske's own PC16 with a Chevrolet engine in 1987, but the task of building their own car initially proved harder than expected, and coupled with Sullivan enjoying some off-track show-business distractions, results were hard to come by. So much so that the team reverted to an old March 86C in a bid to perfect the new PC17 for 1988 away from the track, and despite Sullivan coming 2nd in the non-championship Marlboro Challenge, in the CART series he slipped to 9th place with only 87 points to his name. |
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1988-90
Danny dominates the season, with 9 poles and 4 wins to become CART champion |
The extra effort that went into preparing the PC17 worked. In 1988, Danny blitzed the opposition, taking 9 poles, 4 wins at Portland, Michigan, Nazareth and Laguna Seca, and 11 top-five finishes in all, plus he was also part of an all-Penske front-row at Indy. With 182 points on the board, he comfortably took the title. Naturally, he looked to repeat the dose in 1989, when he would have a new PC18 at his disposal, but things came unstuck at Indy when he crashed and broke his right arm.
That he eventually raced in the 500 with a steel plate and screws in his arm was a miracle, but undoubtedly it affected his performance for the rest of the year as he dropped to 7th overall, although he did take two wins at Pocono and Road America. Another two wins followed in 1990, Danny taking his PC19 to victory lane at Cleveland and Laguna Seca, where he led from start to finish, and collecting 6th spot in the table. But at the end of the season, looking for a new challenge, Sullivan and Penske parted company. |
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1991-92
Alfa engine didn't have what it took, a move to Galles sees a win at Long Beach |
Having just witnessed the birth of his son Daniel O'Driscoll, 1991 was perhaps a good time for something new. But the Patrick Racing Lola T91/00 with the Alfa Romeo engine was probably not what he was after. A 4th place in the season opener on the Gold Coast flattered to deceive; the struggling Alfa Romeo engine project never really came good, and Sullivan ended the season a disappointing 11th. Not surprisingly, he was on the move again for 1992, joining Rick Galles' team.
Galles was also going down the self-made chassis path for 1992 with his Galmer 92 for both Sullivan and Al Unser Jr. With the car showing promise, Sullivan recaptured some of his old form by winning at Long Beach, before surviving an incident-packed Indy 500 to place 5th, his best result at the Brickyard since 1985, although Unser Jr in the other Galmer managed to take the win. Third place at Toronto helped Danny secure 7th in the overall standings. |
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1993-95
Out of a full time CART seat, Sullivan dabbles in DTM and NASCAR |
1993 would then prove to be his last full season of CART racing. He remained with Galles, who dumped the Galmer after just one season and changed to Lola T93/07s, but Sullivan found the car difficult. Only a win in Detroit salvaged a season in which he slipped to 12th with only 43 points. Out of a full-time drive, the best Danny could do in 1994 was two DTM races in an Alfa Romeo 155 at Donington, where he came 10th and 4th, and a single NASCAR start in a Chevy at the Brickyard 400, where he came 33rd.
But his heart still lay with the CART scene, and an end-of-season test for the fledgling PacWest team saw Sullivan taken on board for the 1995 season to drive their Reynard 951 Ford, providing much-needed experience to the team. However, Danny had perhaps lost his touch a little, and 5th places at Surfers Paradise and Michigan were the most he could manage. A nasty testing crash at Michigan then left him with a broken pelvis, ending his season in 19th place with 32 points, and also his CART career. |
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1977-87
A decade with more than the odd sports car event, including success at Daytona |
What we haven't said so far is that throughout his career Danny also dabbled in sports cars, although, by his own admission, not as much as he would have liked. Even before he made it to F1, in 1977 he had driven a Porsche Carrera RSR in a World Championship event at Brands Hatch; in 1979 he had raced a Lancia Stratos at the Daytona 24hrs and the Sebring 12hrs; in 1981 he had driven at the Road America 500 miles in a Porsche 935 K3 Turbo; and in 1982 he had again competed at Daytona in a Rondeau M382.
In his post-F1 career, he could often be found racing in the odd sports car event, and in particular he became something of a Daytona 24hrs stalwart. In 1986, he shared a Porsche 962 with Luyendyk and A.J. Foyt to 2nd at Daytona, and with Foyt also came 2nd at the Miami 3hrs. He even made a one-off return to Europe, racing a Joest Porsche 956 in a Supercup event at the Nurburgring, finishing 3rd. Then in 1987, he drove in Foyt's own Porsche 962, coming 4th at Daytona, 6th at Miami but retiring at Sebring. |
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1988-96
Always competitive, including a win in the IROC, and a 3rd at Le Mans |
In 1988 he was drafted into the famous TWR Jaguar outfit, but he retired at Daytona in the XJR-9 he shared with Jan Lammers and Davy Jones, before bouncing back at Sebring to claim 7th. But at the Le Mans 24hrs, Sullivan, Jones and Price Cobb could only finish 16th. After that, Sullivan also took part in the IROC series, winning the Nazareth round in 1989. His next sports car appearance was then in 1993 at Daytona, where his Joest Porsche 962C retired with engine failure.
At Daytona in 1994 he drove a Porsche 911 Turbo with Hans-Joachim Stuck, ex-rally ace Walter Röhrl and Hurley Haywood. 1994 also saw Sullivan make his second Le Mans start, driving a Dauer 962 Porsche with Stuck and Thierry Boutsen, taking a fine 3rd place. Two years later, Danny was back at La Sarthe, although by 1996, he was semi-retired. Still, driving a Bigazzi McLaren F1 GTR with ex-F1 World Champ Nelson Piquet and Johnny Cecotto, Sullivan managed to secure an 8th place finish. |
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1997-99
Equal best ever effort at Daytona comes with McNish and company |
In 1997 Danny had yet another crack at Daytona and Sebring, this time in an MSI Racing Riley & Scott Mk III Chevrolet, but was only classified 72nd at Daytona after gearbox problems and 16th at Sebring. 1998, though, saw his joint-most successful attempt at Daytona yet, when he came 2nd (and 1st in class) in a Rohr Motorsport Porsche 911 GT1 with current Toyota F1 driver Allan McNish, German star Uwe Alzen, ex-F1 tester Jörg Müller and his namesake Dirk Müller.
Danny made his last sports car outing to date in 1999 when he came 23rd at Daytona, but he has maintained his connections with motor racing in other capacities. He has done some Indy car commentary work, as well as being assistant clerk of the course in several 1999 American Le Mans Series events. In 1999, he also attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he demonstrated a Tyrrell 019, and also shared a Honda with Damon Hill. |
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2000-02
Ice-racing hopeful teams up with Red Bull to get US youngsters into F1 |
Then in 2000 he was then cajoled into taking up ice racing, competing in Formula France, a support series to the Andros Trophy involving 4WDs with motorcycle engines. That year he was also part of the American team at the Race of Champions event in the Canary Islands (not the same as the ex-F1 race of the same name). In addition to regular stints in the motor racing commentary box, in 2002 he has taken up a young driver program in conjunction with Red Bull in an attempt to find the next American F1 driver, and the program will run two cars in British F3 next year.
This profile would not be complete, though, without mentioning Sullivan's Thespian aspirations. Whereas Paul Newman went from acting to motor racing, Danny went in the reverse direction and also took up acting. As early as 1977 he had had a brief role in The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, but it was in 1986 that he really got serious about it. Through influential ex-Can-Am team boss Garvin Brown, he met Michael Mann, the Executive Producer of the TV series Miami Vice, who offered Sullivan a guest spot on the cult show. |
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Personal
Landmark acting debut comes in Miami Vice, type-cast as a racing driver!! |
Sure enough, Danny made his TV debut in episode 38, entitled 'Florence, Italy' in which he played a grand-prix racer suspected of murdering a prostitute. In 1987, he then became a familiar face on the talk-show circuit, and made appearances in several fashion magazine layouts. Another screen role came in the film Campus Man, before doing further TV guest spots in All My Children and Probe. Since then, he has played a cop in 1991's The Doors and telemovie Sweet Poison. In 1993, he was in another telemovie, called Telling Secrets, where he played a TV anchorman.
Danny returned to the screen recently, starring in Outlaw Justice in 1999, and finally, in 2000 he had another small role in a film called Love, Honour and Obey. Perhaps it should be come as no surprise that Danny has had a mildly fruitful acting career for a racing driver - after all, he was named by People magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world back in 1990! On a personal note, away from the track Danny enjoys swimming, skiing, playing tennis and racquetball, and driving snowmobiles. |
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