27 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

More sad news I am afraid - Doug Shierson - of past driver, entrant and team patron fame, finally lost his long battle against cancer yesterday...

DCN

[Twin Window]

A sad loss to our sport...

[Don Capps]

Very sad news...

[Henri Greuter]

That is very sad news, one day short of exactly 14 years after his greatest moment in racing as a team owner.
Rest in peace Doug, and thanks for the memories.


Henri Greuter

[eldougo]

Sad news indeed .Doug Shierson team always presented a great looking cars and a good person to work for i was told by a old friend many years ago . Last saw him at Long Beach 1983/4.

[John B]

Very nearly a champion in Indy cars in 1985, and a 500 winner with Luyendyk. Sad news

[Slyder]

Terribly sad news

His 1990 win with Arie Luyendyk will always be remembered.

[Arturo Pereira]

A really sad loss

[petefenelon]

Wasn't Doug also behind the F5000 Chevron that Peter Gethin won the RoC in?

Sad loss, one of the great teams of the golden age of CART.

[Doug Nye]

Indeed - sponsored by Marathon Oil in which the Shierson family, I believe, has/had a substantial interest.

DCN

[MCS]

Originally posted by petefenelon
Wasn't Doug also behind the F5000 Chevron that Peter Gethin won the RoC in?

Sad loss, one of the great teams of the golden age of CART.

Yes, he was. Apparently he was over to see the car at Brands before it was shipped to the US. Bet he was pretty impressed

I think the car ran on different tyres in the States though and never really flew and Shierson then did a deal with March...

MCS

[WGD706]

The man who fielded highly successful Champ Car teams for the likes of Al Unser Jr., Danny Sullivan, Raul Boesel and Arie Luyendyk lost a long battle with cancer Wednesday as long-time car owner Doug Shierson passed away near his North Carolina home. Shierson burst on to the Champ Car scene in 1982, moving up after winning three consecutive Formula Atlantic championships as a team owner. He scored his first series victory as an owner in 1984 when Sullivan won in Cleveland, carrying the Domino’s Pizza #30 car to Victory Lane in a sight that would become commonplace in the series for the remainder of the decade.

The team went on the next year to finish second in the championship with Al Unser Jr. at the wheel, losing the title fight by a single point. The team would finish in the top five in the Champ Car standings in each of the four years between 1984-87 and would continue on through the early 1990s, driving Luyendyk to a win in the 1990 Indianapolis 500. He stayed with Champ Car after retiring as a team owner, becoming one of the first series protest judges, which are used by the series to provide on-the-spot resolution of competition-related conflicts.

Shierson was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and through treatment and sheer force of will, lived more than two years longer than the physicians had projected for him. In addition to his racing legacy, Shierson donated many of his resources to cancer research through hospitals and medical facilities in his previous home of Adrian, Michigan.

“I am very saddened to hear of this news,” said Forsythe Championship Racing Vice-President of Operations Neil Micklewright, who was the chief mechanic for many of the Shierson team Champ Car victories. “Doug was a wonderful man, had a wonderful sense of humor and was an absolute devotee of the sport. He didn’t make a lot of noise about what he did but he was responsible for bringing many of the future stars into the sport. This is a great loss to the racing community.”

Memorial services will be held on June 2nd, at 4:00 P.M. at the First United Methodist Church in Adrian, Michigan, (visitation on June 1st, 5-7:00 P.M. at the Braun Everiss Wagley Funeral Home also in Adrian), and at the Davidson College Presbyterian Church in Davidson, N.C. on June 8th at 2:00 P.M.

Memorial donations in Michigan may be made to Hospice of Lenawee, The First United Methodist Church in Adrian, the Hickman Oncology Center, Siena Heights University, Adrian College (Shierson Scholarship Fund) or the donor's choice. In North Carolina, Hospice of Charlotte has been very helpful during the last months.

[JacnGille]

Sad news. I've know of Doug since his Formula Atlantic team days.

[diego]

May he rest in peace.

I met him in the early 90's, and he was kind enough to try and get this freshly-minted mechanical engineer a job with Penske Racing. That effort never came to fruition, but his generosity made a lasting impression on me.

He really, really loved automobiles and racing.

[Gert]

Didn't he build his own car at least one year?

DSR-1 or something like that?

[FLB]

There's also one thing that's always intrigued me about Shierson. The 1987 Indy 500 Yearbook by Hungness mentions that Frank Weiss worked on a turbocharged Renault V6, commissoned by Shierson, but that was never raced (p. 168).

Does anybody know anything about that?

[FLB]

Also, IIRC, Shierson ran Jacques Villeneuve (Gilles's brother) in both Atlantics and Can Am (1983). There was a major contractual dispute between the two of them concerning sponsorship from Canadian Tire (i.e. Shierson though the sponsorship was his, but the Canadian took it elsewhere), which Uncle Jacques says played no small part in him not getting other CART drives.

[Marc Sproule]

I stumbled onto this thread by accident and since the anniversary of Doug's passing is approaching I thought I'd add some words and pics.

I met Doug in '75 when I got involved in the Formula Atlantic series first as a photog and then later as a reporter. I am proud to say that we became good friends, good enough that at one point he took exception to something I wrote and had no problem letting me know what he felt. It was at a post season banquet and he had some harsh words for me.

When he was done he smiled, put his arm around my shoulder, smiled and said, "Now that's done, let's go have a drink. I'm buying."

Anyone who knew him probably has a similar story or two like that to tell.

The last time I saw him was at the Michigan 500 in '00. I was sitting with Chuck Matthews who was working for Ganassi as Montoya's engineer. I had met "Chuckles", probably in '78, when he was still with GM but also working for Shierson on Doug's Atlantic cars.

We were sitting on the Target timing stand prior to the race. Shierson was working as a driver judge for CART that weekend. The cars were in the pits, shortly before the race and pit lane was full of people.

Chuck had asked me if I had talked to Doug that weekend and I said I had. He asked how Doug was doing and I told him what Doug had told me. He was dealing with it and getting the best treatment available.

Within seconds we both saw Shierson walk by, about 25 feet or so away.

Without hesitating Chuck yells out, "Hey Doogles, I hear you're dying of cancer!! What's up with that???"

The people around us were stunned. Shierson stopped, laughed and yelled back, "Yeah, Chuckles, and I hear you're dying of cancer too. What's up with that s**t?"

Then they both burst out laughing.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Shierson walked over to us and he and Chuck proceeded to compare their cancer stories. Chuck eventually lost his battle too.

At some point in the not too distant future I'll relate another story about Doug, Chuck and a number of others who were all involved in one of the best "gotchas" I ever participated in.

For now, here are some links to pics of Doug, some of the cars he ran and some of the drivers who drove for him.

http://www.flickr.co...N03/4443988081/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4371488991/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4339397033/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4442749684/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4607580067/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4512870663/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4553774596/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4617927458/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4307830887/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4289982332/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4476499053/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4467839761/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4393645665/
http://www.flickr.co...N03/4307830819/

[Jack-the-Lad]

A belated welcome to the forum, Marc. I've been enjoying reading your posts.

[LittleChris]

Me too, welcome Marc

[Marc Sproule]

Thank you, JtL and LC.

It's been quite the trip through memory lane for me to get my pics out for the world to see and to wander through this forum.

Here's a Shierson story that's not quite so poignant.

It was a Saturday night at Mosport sometime in the '70s. Four of us had gone to dinner together that night, the aforementioned Chuck Matthews, Max Schenkel a GM aerodynamicist who was working with Shierson's Atlantic team, Don Schnieders one of Shierson's chief mechanic and yours truly.

After dins we went back to the room that Max and Chuck were sharing to engage in some more bench racing. Shierson and family had the two adjoining rooms next door.

It was a rather warm night and Chuck had walked out on the "deck". He turned to us and said, "Hey Sproule, Shierson left the door to their room open. Climb over to their deck and let us in." The Shiersons weren't there of course.

Being the totally nice guy that I am, I did as told.

We proceeded to fix one of the rooms. Took all the wooden slats out of the box springs, turned off all the water to the various fixtures in the bathroom and the "engineers" fixed some of the lights so they shorted out when they were turned on.

Fast forward to the next morning about 7am. The four of us were walking from the parking lot toward the paddock when we heard Shierson's unmistakable voice, "Hey you a******s, look what you did!!"

There was Shierson, wife Fern and daughters Sarah and Molly. He was fuming. He pointed to one of his daughters and that was when we saw the rather extensive bandaging on her hand and arm.

"She was reaching under the bed to get a toy when her sister jumped on the bed, the bed collapsed, fell on her hand and we had to go to the emergency room to get her treated!!"

Talk about feeling like pond ****. The Atlantic series was definitely a family affair in those days and we had hurt one of the youngest members.

Not a good way to start race day. Shierson beat up on us a bit more and the four of us turned and walked away, feeling about as bad as could be.

We got a few feet away when Shierson's family all burst out laughing. We turned around to see the daughter unwrapping the bandaging.

We had been had. Royally.

And thank goodness for that!!

[Jerry Entin]

Doug Shierson in red sweater at front of Chevron F-5000 car in 1973
The fellow leaning into the car is George Thornton, he was the crew chief on the car. This is at Mid Ohio.

It was 1972 and I was helping Sid Taylor run Peter Gethin at Donnybrook, Minnesota. A fellow came into the pits and said he heard we had the prototype Chevron F-5000 car at this event. He said he had ordered one for the next season.

He asked could he stay in the pits and lend a hand. I said sure I was working on the car alone. Sid was running his older McLaren Mk 10B for John Cannon at this event. He told me he was from Michigan and his name was Doug Shierson. That is how I met and became friends with Doug.

photo: Larry Neuzel
scanned for site Rob Neuzel

http://www.yesterdaysneuz.com/

Edited by Jerry Entin, 22 May 2010 - 07:36.

[hansfohr]

Didn't he build his own car at least one year?

DSR-1 or something like that?

Quite right! Three DSR-1's - designed by by March Engineering's Ian Reed - were built. One of those chassis was driven by Danny Sullivan. He qualified for the 1984 Indy 500 but the DSR-1 was withdrawn, instead Sullivan raced a Lola T800. The DSR-1 car was clearly off the pace and definitely ditched after another poor run at Milwaukee.

(source: www.www.allenmotorsports.com)

Edited by hansfohr, 22 May 2010 - 23:45.

[Marc Sproule]

Sullivan in the DSR-1 at Long Beach.....

http://www.flickr.co...N03/4289982332/

[pete3664]

I have one "DSR" which should be finally on the track at the end of this year, one is in new zealand, and one is a non running museum pc in New England. anybody wanting info on them can send me a PM. Thanks Pete

[Marc Sproule]

My flickr stats tell me there's been some viewing activity coming from this thread so I thought I'd let those who are interested know that since my last post here I've added a fair number of pics related to Doug. They're in my Atlantic set mostly and probably a few in my champ car set too.

Atlantic

http://www.flickr.co...57623186773769/

Champ Car

http://www.flickr.co...57623324227456/

I consider myself very fortunate to have had Doug as a friend,

[Marc Sproule]

The stats I get from flickr tell me there's been some views of my stuff coming from this thread. Figured I would let people know that I have added some Shierson related snaps in my Atlantic and Champ Car sets since my last post.

Thank you for viewing and reminding me how fortunate I was to have had people like Doug in my life.....

http://www.flickr.co...681980@N03/sets

[Marc Sproule]

a new upload of doug since i last posted....

 

https://www.flickr.c...N03/14564814138