Hi: This is Doug,( Davey's younger brother)
I thought I would post a story told to me by Louie Unser when I showed him a picture of him and Dave MacDonald standing by the # 97 Cobra "hard top" that had crashed into the fence a Riverside Raceway turn 6
......as told to me by Louie Unser;
Louie was working as one of Shelby’s specialized suspension mechanics prior to Dave’s arrival. When Dave first went to the shop, he introduced the two of them and told Louie that he was assigning him to Dave’s Cobra.
Louie prepared the Cobra’s suspension and the team went to Riverside to road test it. They timed Dave’s laps and were really excited about how fast they were. By the time Dave pulled back into the pits the first time, Louie was pumped—feeling pretty proud that the car was performing so well.
Dave talked to Shelby and told him there were just a couple of things that needed adjusting.
Carroll went up to Louie and relayed Dave’s message—which infuriated Louie. Just who did this kid think he was giving instructions to a mechanic who’d spent years perfecting his abilities to produce top running cars. Still, since he worked for Shelby, he had to do what he was told.
Sure enough, after those adjustments were made, Dave’s times dropped even more so once again, Louie felt quite proud of the car he’d prepared. However, when Dave came into the pits for the second time, Louie saw him once again talking to Shelby and making various motions.
Shelby again relayed Dave’s comments to Louie—who by this time really had the hairs on the back of his neck sticking straight up. Once again, with Shelby as his boss he had no other option other than to make the adjustment Dave asked for.
When Dave went out onto the track again, his times dropped even further. Everyone was really getting excited about how quickly he was getting around the track. When Dave pulled into the pits for the third time, Louie again saw Dave talking to Shelby and making some small gestures.
Shelby told Louie that Dave was really happy with the car but he felt it needed just a tiny tweak and it would be perfect. By this time, Louie is furious so he decided he’d fix that smart-alecky kid and he didn’t tweak it a little bit—he tweaked it a LOT!
Dave went back to the track—but didn’t come back by the pit area. Pretty soon they heard the announcement that “Car 97’s support staff is needed at Turn 6.”
They immediately rushed to Turn 6 where they saw the Cobra—with the front end sticking through the fence!
Dave told them “I thought I needed just a little tweak more, but I guess that was too much.”
Louie said that made a believer of him. From that point forward, “Whatever Dave wanted, Dave got.” %
