The three-hour enduro for sports cars that was part of the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix weekend at Riverside in 1962 featured the competition debuts of two very significant cars, the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray Z06 and the Shelby Cobra. The Billy Krause-driven Cobra led but succumbed to a rear hub failure so that victory went to the solitary survivor of the four Z06s entered, the black #119 Mickey Thompson machine driven by Doug Hooper.
Doug Hooper passed away in early October at age 80, following an eight-month battle with kidney failure. He began racing in 1959 with his 1957 Corvette, and rare would be the occasion when he raced anything else—although he did contest both the USRRC and the Can-Am in his career’s later years.
His Riverside performance earned him a role in the development of Corvette’s response to the Cobra, its Grand Sport model, as Zora Arkus-Duntov selected him to assist with the car’s early testing. Shortly thereafter, however, the program was summarily cancelled by GM chairman Frederick Donner.
Hooper, however, continued to race his own Corvettes throughout the western U.S., winning five SCCA Pacific Coast Championships, as his shop, Doug’s Corvette Service in North Hollywood, California, became known for its expertise with the Rochester fuel injection systems used on many early Corvettes.
In 1993, Hooper was asked to take the very first Grand Sport—chassis #001, the car he test drove 30 years before—on a tour of vintage festivals across the USA to help mark the 40th Anniversary of the Corvette. The pairing was received enthusiastically wherever it appeared.
To Hooper’s family and many friends in the sport, Vintage Racecar offers its sincerest condolences.
