Dave MacDonald 1

In 1962 MacDonald moved from "Corvette race" winner to "main event" winner in his famous "00"  Corvette Special.   Actually an "Ol' Yaller" built by Max Balchowsky, the Special's lightweight fiberglass body used a 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.  There is a photo, similar to yours, of the car on Nat's business flyer. (circa 1962?)

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 around Turn 6 at Riverside

He won here on March 4th, 1962,  after a tremendous race-long battle with Bob Harris in the Campbell Special.

 
MacDonald winning at Cotati on November 12, 1961.

Don Hulette finished 2nd, and Dave Ridenour was 3rd.

Don Hood offers an interesting anecdote about this race.

 
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 Sep- tember 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)

This car's history & construction is described on pg. 71 of Michael Antonick's "California Screamin' ".

Video!  See MacDonald in action in his big orange #00 Special at Santa Barbara in May, 1962.
 

Next:   Dave MacDonald -- 2

Back to:  Ed Leslie -- 2

Back to:  Main 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.