FORT PIERCE FOLKS
The RACE CAR DRIVER, M.D.
Orthopaedic surgeon
Paul Mondo keeps
his patients and his
vintage race cars in
tiptop condition.
36
BY WILLI MILLER
In his medical practice, Treasure
Coast Orthopaedic Associates,
Paul Mondo keeps his patients at
the top of their game. For more
than 20 years, he has been the consulting
orthopaedic surgeon for athletes
at Indian River State College, and in
the 1980s and ’90s, he worked with
the Los Angeles Dodgers farm team,
evaluating injuries and recommending
treatment. When he isn’t at his day job,
however, his pastime keeps him just as
busy. The Fort Pierce resident works
on the vintage race cars he owns and
drives, seeing that they, too, are kept in
tiptop shape.
Mondo’s father, a mechanic and
race car owner, introduced him to the
sport of auto racing as a youngster. The
family moved from Milford, Conn.,
to Miami when Mondo was 7. When
it was time to choose schools for his
higher education, the University of Miami
was first choice for undergraduate
and medical pursuits. After an internship
in California, several years in
emergency room medicine in Broward
County and an orthopaedic residency
in New Orleans, Mondo settled in Port
St. Lucie and later Fort Pierce. He has
been in practice in St. Lucie County for
more than 30 years.
A lifelong fan of the sport of auto
racing, Mondo started getting involved
with vintage racing 10 years ago as a
driver in the midget, sprint and champ
cars he acquired. Found in his garage
are: a 1950 Black Panther sprint car
with an Offenhauser engine; the white
1964 No. 15 dirt champ car, also with
an Offenhauser engine; the 1968 No. 42
sprint car driven by Gary Bettenhausen;
and a 1948 No. 33 midget Offenhauser,
driven by Art Cross, winner of
a AAA national championship in 1951.
“I mention the Offenhauser engines
because they are unique,” Mondo
explains. The storied Offenhauser
powered 27 Indianapolis 500 winners
in its heyday, but it is no longer made.
“It was the dominant racing engine
for open-wheel race cars from the ’30s
through the ’70s,” Mondo says. With
the help of some experts, he does his
>> ED DRONDOSKI