:: I think that Donahue was a much better driver
: than Mears. Well, I think MD was a more
: "all-around" driver than Mears,
: although Mears was a great off-road racer
: too.
I respected Mears and he was very good at the oval thing, but I think that most of it had to do with how good the Penske team was then. And Donahue helped build that. BTW, Donahue went to Brown.

: I put Donahue in the category with Andretti
: and Gurney as the greatest American road
: racers ever. And I would put A.J. Foyt in
: that league as well [Phil Hill and Carrol
: Shelby probably as well].

I have to disagree with you. Andretti was the World Champion.
Gurney was a contender, built his own car and won races with it, and Jim Clark said he was the only driver he feared or some such.
Phil deserves much respect for winning the championship and I'd elevate him for that.
But Foyt? Sure, he won LeMans. But partnered with Gurney. I don't think that Foyt was world champion material or even close. Then again, I always hated his guts.
I never got the impression that Shelby was a really great driver, at least on the level with those two.

I'd put the pantheon of American road racers (in that order, with the emphasis on F1) as such: Andretti. Gurney. HIll. Revson. Donahue............... Eddie Cheever.

Revson was an underrated driver. He was as fast as Hulme andJ Jody Scheckter, his teammate and a former world champion. And he won races over the likes of Stewart and Fittipaldi. Very sad. The darn Shadow at Kylamai

The last race of the first IROC was run at Daytona--Donahue set up a perfect last turn slipstream pass for the win. The earlier rounds may have been at Riverside.

It is pretty amazing to me that we haven't had an American win an F1 race in 30 years, since 1978.

At that moment, no American had even competed in the tour de france (jock boyer did so a couple years later IIRC) and we've had two American champions and nine wins since. Americans have enjoyed sporadic success in European soccer.
But in F1 it's been Eddie Cheever and Scott Speed.

(I guess Jacques Villeneuve is a North American.)

best
Allen