Bob Harris and Dave MacDonald

Their very dissimilar cars dead equal in performance, Harris and MacDonald battled for the lead at Riverside on March 4, 1962 in a thrilling race.  Harris DNF'd on the last lap with a fuel starvation problem giving MacDonald the win.
 
                                                 (Dave Friedman photo submitted by Raider Harris)
 

(1-15-09)   From Bob Harris:

"In one turn, I think it was 7, MacDonald spun in front of me. I actually backed off to let him get straightened out, because we were having so much fun battling, I wanted it to continue. We exchanged the lead about 7 times. MacDonald and I both agreed that it was one of the best battles we had ever had. Later, Dan Gurney remarked that it was one of the greatest races he had ever seen. After the checkered flag, MacDonald stopped and picked me up for the cool down lap. When he picked me up, he was holding my arm in the air, toward the crowd, which was standing all the way around the track. What a fun day that was." 
 

(1-17-09)   From historian Ron Cummings:

"Davey's car was called the Simpson Special. It was actually Max Balchowsky's Old Yaller 5. Max built the rolling chassis. Dave and Jim Simpson built the Chevrolet drive train. The body was done by, The Glass Man, Nat Reeder.  Nat started by making a mold from a stock Corvette. The body did not fit Max's chassis. So Dave MacDonald and Simpson gave up mounting the body and brought the car back to Reeder. He cut down the body and made it longer to fit the car. Nat told me the whole story in 2007."

 
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