As I Remember It… Dave MacDonald

To me, and all of us who knew him and worked with him at Shelby American, Dave MacDonald was much more than just another racing driver. He was a friend and an intensely committed individual who strove for excellence in everything he did. He was an extremely quiet person who went about his work in a very professional way without many of us really knowing that he was ever around. Dave used to come to my darkroom shortly after every race, so that he could examine every photograph in which he and all of the other top drivers appeared. When I asked him what he was looking for, he told me that he was studying the lines that he and all the other drivers were taking through the various corners at which I stood photographing during practice and the race. Dave also had a great sense of humor and could always be found participating in, if not masterminding, many of the practical jokes that occurred in our shop on a daily basis. By the time that Dave went to Indianapolis, Shelby American had achieved a legendary status in the world of motor racing by winning almost every major road race in the world. This was an almost unheard of achievement for a company that was less then two years old. We felt an invincibility about our company and its people, and we also felt that our racing achievements would only become more numerous with each succeeding month. We were riding a high, and we felt it would never peak. Well, it did when Dave was killed on May 30, 1964. After that, we kept winning, but it was never the same. Something was gone – reality had set in – and for many of us racing was never the same.