Danny Ongais

Ezekiel "Danny" Ongais (May 21, 1942 – February 26, 2022) was an American racing driver.

Ongais was the only Hawaiian born driver to compete in the Indianapolis 500. He competed professionally in motorcycle, sports car, CART, IndyCar, Formula One, and drag racing. A fearless figure on the racing circuit, Ongais was nicknamed "On-the-Gas" and "The Flyin' Hawaiian." He is the only driver to have won the NHRA U.S. Nationals and the 24 Hours of Daytona.

In the 1960s, Ongais won multiple drag racing championships and was named one of the National Hot Rod Association’s Top 50 Drivers for 1951-2000. In the 1970s he moved to competing in sports cars and Indy cars, winning races in both types, including the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1979 and several Indy car races in 1977 and 1978. He also raced in Formula One from 1977–78, in six Grands Prix, recording a best result of seventh.

Ongais was known as a fast and daring driver, but he experienced multiple crashes in his career, some resulting in injury. At the 1981 Indianapolis 500, he was involved in a near-fatal accident that caused him to miss almost a year of racing.

In 1996, at the age of 54, after nine years away from racing, Ongais served as the substitute driver in the Indianapolis 500 for Scott Brayton, who had died in a crash before the race. Starting last, Ongais finished seventh in what was his final 500.

Ongais was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2000 and the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.

Almost every source references Ongais having been born in Kahului, Hawaii, on May 21, 1942 of Puerto Rican immigrant grandparents, although the documentary "On the Gas" claims that he was born in 1939 citing the 1940 US Census as a reference. When he was aged fourteen, he tested out motorbike racing with some success. In the late 1950s, Ongais enlisted in the United States Army as a paratrooper stationed in Europe. He was later discharged and returned to Hawaii for motor racing. Ongais became the Hawaiian motorcycle champion in 1960 and was in the top three positions in the expert class from 1960 to 1962.

In the early 1960s, Ongais started competing in drag racing. He won the American Hot Rod Association AA Gas Dragster Championship in 1963 and 1964, and in the National Hot Rod Association AA Dragster championship title in 1965. He defeated Don Prudhomme at the 1966 HHRA Nationals Top Fuel semifinals. In 1969, he won the NHRA Spring Nationals and NHRA U.S. Nationals in the Funny Car class driving a Ford Mustang for Mickey Thompson.^{[citation needed]}