| Dave MacDonald -- 1
In 1962 "Corvette race" winner MacDonald
became a "main event" winner in the famous "00" Corvette Special.
The powerful car was known as the "Simpson" after its owner, Jim Simpson.
The chassis was built by 'Old' Yeller'
creator Max Balchowsky,
and the Special's lightweight fiberglass body used Simpson's stock Corvette
as a mold.
From Ron Titensor: "Nat Reeder,
'The Glass Man' of 'Fiberglass Auto Body' at 5807 Sunset Blvd. built the
body panels for the car. "
MacDonald later became very well-known
for his many triumphs driving Cobras
for Carroll Shelby. He
won the 1963 Riverside GP for Shelby in a Cooper-Ford "King
Cobra". |
| MacDonald burns rubber powering the
"Simpson" around Turn 6 at Riverside
He won here on March 4, 1962, after
a tremendous race-long battle with
Bob
Harris in the Campbell Special.
See some of this great race on this YouTube
video. |
 |
| John McCann's photo of the Special in
the pits at Riverside. No stock Corvette ever offered engine access
like this.
Santee
sports car creator Fred Puhn (In blue t-shirt) and Paul Hudson, Santee
welder (leaning into the car) look for go-fast ideas.
Today, top teams in F1 and elsewhere
keep the curious away and their cars well hidden. |
 |
 |
Pat Matthes of Honolulu bought the car
in the early summer of 1962, repainted it, and ran it in Hawaiian races.
He brought the car back to the mainland in September and MacDonald drove
it at the SCCA Regional at Stead AFB near Reno and (shown here) the pro
event at Pacific Raceways near Kent, Wash. He DNF'd in both events.
(Photo contributed by Jim Gessner) |
|
More on MacDonald's
life and career.
Next: Dave
MacDonald -- 2
Back to: Ed
Leslie -- 2
Back to: New
Homepage
All photographs and text
are the property of Tam McPartland and are protected under United States
and international copyright laws. All rights are reserved and the
images and/or text may not be digitized, reproduced, stored, manipulated,
and/or incorporated into other works without the written permission of
the photographer, Tam McPartland |
|
