Hello, Having seen a lot of early Corvettes racing at Lion’s Dragstrip from 1957 to 1960, our minds wandered to other places and folks that raced sporty cars. As teens, we liked all motorsports, not just drag racing. Drag racing was our thing, being so close to the action from 1955 onward. Corvettes ruled the classes at most So Cal dragstrips But as we got into building our own SBC motor in two different ways, it was fun to see others using the 283 block to get the power to win races, drags or road races. The closest road race track was at Riverside Raceway, a couple of hours away from our Westside of Long Beach house. We finally got to go to the Riverside Raceway to see the biggest Westcoast drag race that involved most of the top drag racers in the USA in December of 1959. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...rnational-raceway-1957.1279348/#post-14678889 Jnaki As we found out later, Riverside Raceway was the ‘home court’ for one of our favorite road racers that got his start with plenty of wins in drag racing… Note: As far as sports car racing, there were few that crossed over to participate in drag racing while still racing sports cars in those events. One of our favorite driver/builders was Dave McDonald drag racer and road racer from So Cal. “Dave MacDonald began his racing career as a drag racer, running stock Corvettes on the dragstrips of So Cal. Between 1956 and 1959 he had earned nearly 100 trophies and six standing start speed records in ¼ & ½ mile speed trials. MacDonald ran 70 races in Corvettes between 1960 and 1962 with 31 victories and 46 top three finishes. He was hired by Carroll Shelby at the start of the 1963 season.” His exploits were pretty amazing. Then as he got better in the sports car racing field, he was hired away to start driving exclusively sports cars from big name builders and in a Corvette. Dave MacDonald shows off a few of the many trophies he took on the dragstrip with his Corvette. NOTE 2: Where did Dave MacDonald drag race his Corvettes? All over So Cal, but then his road racing career came to light at the same favorite Riverside Raceway road course. The dragstrip was a part of the straightaway. His career was then noted as one of the best local road racers during this time period. A So Cal kid in his element… until. Dave McDonald at Riverside Raceway
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