William L. (Bill) Doner
In today’s world, Bill Doner would be referred to as “Uber-Promoter”, but over 40 years ago when the charismatic dragstrip entrepreneur was just getting started, he was just another racer promoter. Today, after’s staging as many as a thousand events a year at various tracks up and down the West Coast, he is considered by many as being the king of race promoters.
Bill Doner is a brash talking, big dealing kind of person who loved providing ground-poundin’ excitement for the race fans. When the veterans of the past drag race wars huddled together to chop old jackpots, it’s usually not long before talk turns back around to memories of “Fox Hunts”, “spectacular nighttime fire burnouts, “ (how many?) 64 funny cars!”, And the epic high-volume “Saturday Night!/Sunday Afternoon!” saturation commercials which trademark Donner’s innovative International Raceway Park’s promotion of the halcyon, pre-ESPN 1970s.
How long ago was all that? Fuel funny car driving legend Jon Force, 16-time funny car champion, was a rookie at Orange County in 1978 when Doner ran it and that was near the end of the Doner Decade. However, from the very beginning, he always had a knack for luring the big names. His first five figure crowd at then debt ridden Seattle International Raceway in 1970 saw Don Prudhomme set a new track record of 6.62 ET in route to the top fuel title in an unprecedented mid-March season opener. Doner defied the proverbial Pacific Northwest rainy season and won. With Evel Knievel jumping 18 and 19 cars, respectively, on his “comeback” tour, Doner’s first couple high dollar shows attracted a fleet a future Hall of Famers including race director Steve Evans-a long time Doner ally in the IRP saga. Not only Prudhomme, but Ed McAuliffe, Jerry Ruth, Gary Beck, Herm Petersen, Dick Landy, Shirley Strahan, Roland Leong’s Hawaiian, John Weibe, Mike Snively, and Dave Uyehara ignited imaginations at SIR, with Doner quickly installing lights to usher in night drags at the Northwest premier facility, which soon was solidly in the black ink.
Over his 10 years at the helm of IRP, fully five dozen of the Hall of Famers crowded into the Doner orbit and established an unforgettable brand of drag racing seen never before or since.
Doner has never been a stranger to icons. There are even those who argue the Harvey Wallbanger a cocktail was invented in his bathtub; for certain, when NHRA president Wally Parks was among the celebrities who went to Terlingua,Texas in 1967 for the inaugural International Chili Cookoff, Doner was there stirring the sauce along with one of his many compatriots, serving legend JJ Moon who could “hang 11” because he had six toes on his right foot.
Besides his prowess as a king of race promoters, in 1967 Carol Shelby put the one-time Newport Beach California’s sportswriter in charge of the introduction of the classic Ford Cammer powered Shelby/Benny/Prudhomme “Super Snake” AA/Fuel dragster which debuted by winning the 1968 Winternationals.
After an extraordinarily demanding 11 years, running as many as eight; Washington, Oregon, and California tracks Doner sold off at the end of 1979. He emerged in Baja California, for six years, skippering the seven boat Tortuga fishing fleet, and put himself into the headlines by catching a record 1234-pound black marlin. After this Caesars Palace Hotel/Casino succeeded in luring him back to Stateside Promotions as the casino’s Vice President of Marketing. As such, he shepherded world-class events such as the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvin Hagler “Super Fight” and attended-rather flamboyantly-to the needs of thousands of Las Vegas high-rollers. This was followed by a four-year term as commissioner of the unlimited hydroplane circuit, which he grew from 6 to 11 races. Yes, there were even some of those ear popping commercials for thunder boat racing crowds across North America.
Also, he never actually quit voicing his distinctive radio ads, serving as many as 15 other drag strips, in addition to his own promotions. Not ready to totally relax, he also added stints as a collegiate play-by-play basketball announcer, television pitch man for new car dealerships, advertising executive, global football promoter (Gary Davidson offered him a World Football League franchise in 1974), pro tennis promoter, thoroughbred horse owner/breeder, major league sports consultant, and creator of the Rose Bowl’s first hospitality concourse at the 1989 1990 New Year’s classic.
Today, Donner lives with his wife Lori and two dogs, Rocky and Rusty, in the Southern California desert community of La Quinta however his links to drag racing have never really ceased; he teamed up with longtime racer promoter, Don Rackemann as the president of the Fuel Saver Group whose products paid contingency money at the Bakersfield California Hot Rod Reunion, and their MPG3 Fuel Enhancer sponsored Corey Lees top fuel funny car which participated at the NHRA World Finals at Pomona in 2011.