Bob Davidson: Still a kid at heart at age 90
Merrittville Speedway wall of famer did a victory lap with great-grandson a month before he died
Bob Davidson, one of the original “Hamilton boys” in 1957 when he started racing cars at Merrittville Speedway, was still a kid at heart 61 years later.
Just last month the patriarch of a four-generation racing family was behind the wheel of his signature blue-and-white 1936 Chevy coupe.
The 90-year-old, beaming earto-ear, bursting with pride, was on the D-shaped dirt track taking a victory lap on Reunion Night alongside great-grandson Dylan, now a regular in the Sportsman division at tracks in the region.
The starter for ceremonial race featuring two cars with No. 73, the family number? Son Barry, who on that night would join his father on the speedway’s wall of fame.
Bob Davidson died Tuesday at his home in Hamilton at age 90.
“That (the victory lap) was something he really wanted to do,” recalled Merrittville spokesman Jim Irvine, the son of the late Bryant Irvine, a one-time Merrittville owner. “I think he knew he may not have a chance to do it again.
“That was really special for the family.”
Irvine, 58, was too young to appreciate Davidson during the heyday of his racing career, but he appreciates Davidson’s contributions to dirt track racing in the region.
“He was one of the pioneers and I think he did a lot to pro-
mote the sport.”
Davidson was a familiar face at both the outside and inside tracks at Merrittville after retiring from racing.
“Whether it was Tuesday (for karting) or if he made it on Saturday nights, I always liked talking to him,” Irvine said. “He was always about his sons or his grandkids or the great-grandkids. “He was just one of the allaround good guys committed to racing.”
When he wasn’t racing his own cars or enjoying watching sons Barry and Ralph race theirs, Davidson operated R.C. Davidson Power Sweeping and Line Marking Co. Ltd. The Hamilton native founded the company with wife Muriel 50 years ago and together supported a family of five.
Ford flatheads dominated racing when Davidson became involved in the sport in the late ’50s, but he was a Chevy man, just like Hamilton car builder Wimpy Nicholls.
Ernie Knight, John Bezanson also raced Nicholls-built cars with Davidson back in the day. The high-pitched whine of the six-cylinder GMC engines was unmistakable and, more often that not, very fast.
Over time, the original No. 73, maintained and kept race ready by Davidson, Nicholls and Collie MacDonald with the help of sponsor Hartzell Road Motors, earned a reputation, a following and a nickname — The Hustler.
Merrittville Speedway reunion committee chairman Rick Kavanagh wrote in a bio on the track’s website that for Bob Davidson and his fellow racers, summer weekends promised back-to-day, full-throttle fun. As long as the weather co-operated, it was the former Speedway Park on Fridays following by action at Merrittville the following night.
Davidson remained a competitor until he retired from his wall of fame racing career in the late 1960s.
Visitation is 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday at Brown Funeral Home, 36 Lake Avenue Dr., Stoney Creek. Service will be held Sunday starting at 11 a.m. at Garside Bible Church, 46 Garside Ave., Hamilton.