Sunday 28th April 1968

Mark Donohue drove Roger Penske’s McLaren 6A-Chevy to victory in the United States Road Racing Championship Sports Car race at Riverside International Raceway. Jim Hall won the pole in his Chaparral 2G at a record 118.481 mph, but broke a halfshaft in final practice, badly damaging a new automatic transmission he was experimenting with. Hall later said he lost the half shaft in the pits “fooling around”. With his main opposition not making the start, Donohue took the lead on the green and immediately began stretching it. Donohue led by 4.5 seconds in 3 laps and 10 seconds after 7 laps. 3rd running Peter Revson retired on lap 21 with a bent shifting fork on his Shelby Racing Lola-Ford. Donohue’s run was not without incident, at one point spinning backwards through the tire markers after getting into turn 7A “too hot”. He was quickly able to restart his motor and be on his way. Leading by more than a minute with 2 laps to go, Donohue’s ignition failed and the 427 c.i., fuel injected Traco Chevy engine began misfiring. Donohue said he “just began flipping switches and the last one worked”. He went on to take the checkered flag 49 seconds ahead of Lothar Motschenbacher’s McLaren 6D-Gurney/Weslake-Ford. Sam Posey drove his Caldwell to 3rd, 1 lap down. Moises Solana finished 5th to hold a 1 point lead over Donohue in the USRRC standings after 2 races.