They didn’t see my vision!” he recalled of the unconventional acquisition which, based on a little detective work, he suspects was used as a city service vehicle in its prime. “People told me I was dumb and it was ugly. Buried within the classifieds section on Craigslist, he found a pristine, rust-free 1978 Ford Fairmont station wagon with 62,000 miles on the odometer. Ten years later, Donathen wanted a project of his own. “I run Donathen Racing out of a large pole barn at my home and do anything Mustang-related for racing except cage work.” “I was a heathen and wanted to go fast, faster, and fastest,” laughed the entrepreneur who specializes in builds, suspension setup, and fabrication with the same intense attention to detail that’s required by his day job. That project marked the official start of his business, Donathen Racing, which he jokes has been in existence since 1971 - the year he was born. In late 2008, a local racer contacted Donathen about building a 1993 Mustang LX to run in NMRA Renegade. “It was too much to go to the track with by myself and it was hard to find reliable people to help.”Īlthough he only raced it for about a year, Donathen shaved nearly a second off of the Mustang’s elapsed times from when he had first purchased it and started gaining local recognition. “My Mustang had a 25.5 chassis with a small-block Ford engine, mini-tubbed, and the whole nine yards - it was like a smaller version of a Renegade,” he mused of the ProCharger-equipped pony car. “I took it to the Groovy Tuesday races at Indianapolis Raceway Park and met a guy named Clair Stewart,” recalled the budding racer of the friendship that wound up spanning decades.īetween Stewart having Donathen tag along to help out with his program and Donathen building his Fox into a competition vehicle of his own, he learned a ton in a short period. The extreme quality assurance that’s required for his work translates into all areas of his racing programs.Īround 1999, Donathen purchased a gray notchback 1987 Ford Mustang. He obtained his degree at Ivy Tech Community College in his home state of Indiana and began a career that ultimately grew into something more than he initially planned.Ĭurrently working as a utilities engineer at a pharmaceutical company, Donathen carries major responsibilities related to ensuring the health and safety of the company’s customers and is adept at troubleshooting. Through the typical teen years, he chased speed and made modifications, and studied machining while in high school. His 1978 Ford Fairmont wagon racer stands out from the crowd.ĭonathen, now 50, always had unique tastes, as his first car was a bright orange Plymouth Arrow minitruck that he purchased when he was 15 years old. Tired of seeing the same ol’ Fox Mustangs day in and day out, Tim Donathen was inspired to do something a little different while still staying within Ford’s Fox family and built up a beachy behemoth to race in NMRA G-Force Transmissions Coyote Stock instead.
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