Doug Hooper (1933–2013)

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.