In 1997 Don Panoz decided he wanted his own
racing team and so Panoz Motor Sports was formed in Georgia.
However, this was just another chapter in his incredible life
story that started 65 years ago in Spencer, West Virginia, and
includes such diverse areas as pharmaceuticals, hotel and golf
complexes and wine growing.
He comes from an Italian/Irish background
and, with his father being a featherweight boxer, it is not
difficult to imagine where his determination and single-minded
approach to life comes from.
The automobile side of the Panoz
organization also includes Panoz Auto Development, a company
started at the end of the 80s by his son Danny. Danny is very
much a 'chip off the old block', with his father saying the
only thing crazier than growing grapes in Georgia is building
automobiles. Despite this though he saw the sense in what
Danny was suggesting, and now the Panoz Roadster is one of the
most eye-catching sports cars on the road today.
The Panoz story goes back to the first
company Don formed in1960, which was Mylan Laboratories in
Morgantown, West Virginia. With the unlikely backing of
members of the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, Don set up a
company that is still one of the nation's leading
manufacturers of generic drugs. Don's vision of new drug
delivery systems caused him to leave the company in 1969 and
set off with his wife, Nancy, and five children to Ireland. In
the country where his mother's relatives came from he set up a
new company in Athlone, County Westmeath and so started what
is now the Elan Corporation PLC. The talent he employed
developed several groundbreaking medications, the most famous
being transdermal technology used to deliver nicotine to the
bloodstream, which evolved into the nicotine patch. Elan
Corporation Market Cap is 12 billion.
His story gathered momentum and landmarks
included the founding in Georgia of Chateau Elan, a four star
resort with a winery, three major golf courses and even an
Irish pub. Since then he has also acquired three racing
circuits, Road Atlanta Motorsports Center, Sebring
International Raceway and Mosport Park Raceway.
