Dave MacDonald was born in 1936 in El Monte, California, and became a talented mechanic and Corvette enthusiast. In 1956, he started drag racing his own Corvettes and won close to 100 trophies over the next three years. He then switched to circuit racing with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and immediately started winning with his Corvette against some of the top names of the day including Bob Bondurant. His results and professionalism brought him to the attention of Zora Arkus-Duntov, Corvette’s race director, otherwise known as ‘The Father of the Corvette’. Dave was signed up to test and then race the first Corvette ZO6 against the new Shelby Cobra at Riverside in October ’62. Carroll Shelby then hired him and in February ’63, also at Riverside, Dave gave the Cobra its first two wins.
He also drove Shelby’s King Cobra and Daytona Coupe to their first victories. He even raced in NASCAR. In May ’64, Dave clinched the US Road Racing Championship at Kent, Washington. This was his last race before his first attempt at the Indianapolis 500 in Mickey Thompson’s radical rear-engined Ford special. On the second lap of the race Dave was tragically killed in an horrendous accident along with Eddie Sachs. He was just 27 years old. In just four years he’d won 52 of his 118 races, with many more podiums. Arkus-Duntov said that he was one of the two best Corvette drivers in the world, the other
