DAVE McGINNIS

[ancrdave]

I'm sure many of you know Kathy Ray and hubby Robert escpecially at Citrus and Ocala. Kathy's dad was Dave McGinnis, winner of the first Florida 200 held at Golden Gate Speedway in 1963... She sent me some old photos the other day and I want to share them with the Karnacians...
The first one is the car that Dave won that first Florida 200 with... Check out the "00" uniform - is that Wayne??? How about the kid in the STP jumpsuit !!
The 1955 Chevy is the one Dave finished second to Freddy Fryar with in 1964... man, he won a buncha races with these cars... Check out the victory lane shot at Orlando Raceway in 1964 with Dave, Rosebud Flowers and Dick Joslin...

[Frasson118]

In the top picture... where in the world did that hood come from? I don't recall '55 Chevy's having those kind of cut-outs along the front.... yet they look "stamped" out, rather than cut out with a blow-torch (like MOST modifications were done with).

Factory kit? Homegrown ingenuity? Complete ignorance by this poster?

[Frasson118]

Oops... 2nd picture, not the top one.

[Jim Fenton]

In the top picture... where in the world did that hood come from? I don't recall '55 Chevy's having those kind of cut-outs along the front.... yet they look "stamped" out, rather than cut out with a blow-torch (like MOST modifications were done with).

Factory kit? Homegrown ingenuity? Complete ignorance by this poster?

I recall that Dave was very innovative, a true racer ahead of his time. He was constantly working outside the box to get a leg up on competition.

When I first got hooked on ‘roundy-round’ racing as a teenager crewing on my brother-in-law’s Sportsman car, I was constantly trying to fast-track my learning curve for chassis work and trying to make the thing stick in the corner better.

What better way I figured to learn than hanging around those that were winning and see what they were doing? (Basically the same thing everyone does now).

One of the places I hung out to achieve that was Palmer’s Garage in Largo where Dave worked and kept his car. At the time, he was at the top of his game and basically had everyone covered when he showed up to race.

I’ll never forget the times he would permit me to look over his shoulder, peer under the hood at the front suspension, or under the deck lid at the rear suspension, I’d see the damndest configurations and creations welded and mounted all over the place. Stuff I’d never seen before or since.

Then when I’d ask him what does this do or that do?? …. He’d just smile and go about his business.

Again, quite a man and an innovator was my impression.

Dave was also a pilot. Unfortunately, if memory serves, he lost his life in the crash of a small plane he was piloting over Tampa Bay near Oldsmar. I can’t recall the year though.

Jim F.

[roughrider3]

Could.nt see pictures but my first recollection of Dave was in a red, white, and black #15 modified. He tore up the field that night and many more after. He also drove a 55 or 56 chevy with the same colors and number some time later with similar success. He was always top choice among our group for some time. Was'nt he a snowball winner also?

roughrider3

[Marty Little]

Dave McGinnis

Guys some neat photos of Dave and his cars, three of them being from my collection. Let's remember that his name was Dave McInnis although pronounced as if McGinnis. As Jim Fenton mentioned there many different things on his cars and they were usually very light too.

[oneoff]

Trick carb ?

I use to set in the third and fourth corners at NSS and watch practice to watch the atatude of the cars while they were cornering. You know just tring to figure things out for myself. Will ole Dave would come off the corner harder than eveybody else there. No wheel spin, no wiggle, hard and straight off the corner. In the races Dave would either drive up around the other guy or if the other guy sliped up a little he would just storm past them on the inside and go look for the next guy to pass. I allways thought he had a trick set up on the car, but the next time he came to NSS I went over to look at the car to see what I could see. The hood was up on the car and they were working on the carb. What a surprise it was a 780cfm Vaccum Secondary Holley and everone else was running a 850+cfm double pumper on their big blocks. What they were doing was to change the springs in the secondarys so that Dave could flat foot the car off the corner and the secondarys would open and shut sort of like a traction control, very cool. Dave would out think you on and off the track.