Riverside, February 2-3 1963 -- 3

The A-B Production car race at Riverside in February, 1963, is legendary.  Dave MacDonald and Ken Miles appeared in new Shelby-entered Cobras and ran away from a strong field of equally new Corvette Stingrays.  Miles stopped in the pits while running 2nd, had a drink of water, then charged back into the race and passed all the Stingrays again!
 
Here's Miles in his very early Cobra.

As the 1963 season continued, the Cobras sat lower, wore progressively wider tires, and sprouted huge fender flares to cover them.

 
Ron Cummings remembers this race:

"After jumping into an early lead, Miles pitted for no reason. He let the entire field go by before re-entering the race.  The crowd was jumping up and down as he stunned the Chevrolet drivers by easily passing the entire field to finish second behind MacDonald's other team Cobra.  The Corvette people were completely demoralized."

A month later, March 2-3, 1963, the same group of "Big Production" cars appeared at a short course using the parking lot at Dodger Stadium.
 
 
Dave MacDonald and Ken Miles again finished 1-2 in factory-entered Cobras.

In this photo, Dick Guldstrand in Stingray #56 leads Bob Bondurant in #614 through one of the tight chicane-like corners on the 1.3 mile course.  Behind the first pair, an out-of-shape Ronnie Bucknum in the ex-MacDonald Stingray #00 leads #6 Paul Reinhart and #298 Ken Miles in the super-fast Cobra.

Some of these drivers (and others) got together in 1991 for a "Corvette Reunion".
 
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