By: Marshall Pruett September 11, 2018 10:13 AM Dr. Donald Panoz has died at 83. The pioneering pharmaceutical maven and racing innovator had taken ill in recent weeks, and those close to Dr. Panoz say he spent his final days surrounded by loved ones before passing on Tuesday morning.

Of Italian descent, the Ohioan made his fortune through the invention of the transdermal patch, and through his son Donny’s automotive interests, the Panoz automobile company was formed in the late 1980s and would serve as an eventual bridge to motor racing.Through an alliance with Adrian Reynard’s UK-based design and manufacturing empire, Panoz made waves in the 1990s with the front-engine Esperante GTR-1 which took on more traditional rear-engine sports prototypes. Panoz and Zytek Engineering also broke new ground by outfitting a GTR-1 with a battery-based hybrid drive system which, nearly 15 years later would become standard among top-tier Le Mans Prototypes.Related

Racing community pays tribute to Don Panoz

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GALLERY: Significant Panoz race carsIn North America and Europe, the Panoz Racing team made its mark in a variety of elite championships, winning numerous races with the evocative front-engine prototypes and later, on its own and as a supplier, with its production-based Esperante GT cars.Panoz stepped in at a critical juncture to purchase IMSA, which had been bought and sold numerous times in the 1990s, and under his care, the American Le Mans Series was launched in its place. Along with purchasing a number of important historic racing circuits like Road Atlanta and Sebring, Panoz infused sports car racing with a fan-first approach and brought stability where it was sorely lacking.

With almost every major auto manufacturer having participated in the ALMS at some point, Panoz is credited for using his vision and resources to give sports car fans, teams, and drivers one of the most prosperous and beloved golden eras in motor racing.Panoz was also committed to gender equality in racing, and through the Women’s Global GT Series he created to run alongside the upstart ALMS championship, a springboard was established for women to forge driving careers in sports car racing.In the early 2000s, Panoz also stepped in to purchase the flagging G Force Indy car constructor, and through the investments made in developing the underperforming chassis, he took great pride in watching the rechristened Panoz G Force model capture consecutive wins at the Indy 500 from 2003-2004 with Team Penske and Rahal Letterman Racing.Through his Elan Technologies firm in Georgia, Panoz’s reach in the sport grew from open-wheel and sports car manufacturing to engine building and composites work which, at its peak, was among the busiest and most diverse companies of its kind in the U.S.

Among the various projects Panoz undertook in recent years, his involvement with the open-top DeltaWing grew from taking on a project created by others to assuming full control of the program and building a new closed-top version that displayed impressive speed and potential.