14 2016 Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society

Mo Davidson's resurrected "Miss British Columbia" and a more recent drag boat, "The Animal" (Both from the 2016 Sockeye Run in Steveston, photos by Brian Pratt)

Below: Two drag boats on the Fraser River. From a 1986 article in Bevlin Automotive Profile magazine. Photo by Larry Pfister.

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2016 Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society

MO DAVIDSON

Pioneer - Drag Boat Racing - Inducted 2016

By Doug Harder

Mo Davidson is an avid race boat enthusiast and has been for forty four years. His interest began at fourteen years of age, when he raced a neighbourhood flat-bottomed boat. Mo (short for Morris) and his parents lived in Coquitlam, BC. His dad, Fred, and their neighbours built a boat together. Fred contributed the welding and construction skills and everyone supplied materials or money.

Their first race was at Alouette Lake near Haney, BC. When a class was created for young drivers, Mo was recruited and he was immediately hooked on the racing of fast boats. Mo has owned fifty different boats since then and currently has eleven boats.

Mo is the fastest Canadian on water! At an official Fraser Valley Drag Boat Association sanctioned race meet on the Fraser River in 1984, Mo completed the quarter mile distance in his boat named "The Red Baron" in just 5.7 seconds. This record has stood for 32 years.

California, in the eighties, was where the racing and the action was. Mo moved there in 1984 and stayed for four years. He drove a truck for a living for an owner named Al Bush. Al not only owned a trucking company, but several drag boats as well. When it came time to test his various boats, Al asked Mo to drive them. Reason one being that Mo was available and eager to drive, and reason two, the "hired shoes" per boat were not always available, and charged money to race, and practice. Mo drove the "Black Express" at 200 mph, and also the "Last Call For Alcohol". Al Bush owned the world record for speed in a drag boat at the time.

Mo returned to Canada and Al must have left a lasting impression because Mo also owns a trucking company and another business and has his own fleet of boats, hot rods and race cars. Mo considers his mentors as being Al Bush in the US, and Ray O'Hara in Canada. Ray had a marine business in the Metro Vancouver area called Hondo Boats. Ray was well known in drag racing at Mission Raceway, oval track cars and drag boats.

Top Fuel Dragsters, that are sanctioned by NHRA and race exclusively at their National Meets, are the fastest cars in the world. They are no longer raced in Canada and not many Canadians have one. Not even Mo

Nominated by Doug Harder

Davidson. He has two! One is a former "Ramcharger"

dragster, built in 1968. It was later campaigned by Pete Kaiser, of the San Francisco area. Mo bought this car from Pete. In 1999 Mo took the car to the Ashcroft drag strip and it went 249.62 mph with Pete driving. It set the track record at the time.

The other top fuel car was built by Mike Schewe, of Kelowna, BC, named "Dirty Edna". Mike raced it at Edmonton, and several other US tracks. Mo bought the car seven years ago. The engine, now in this dragster, is from a John Force funny car, so you know it would be fast. The car is retired now, but Mo intends to race it next year.

Mo turned 58 in 2016. His love of boats helped him decide this was the year to restore one. He picked an icon, "Miss British Columbia", a former world record holder in the sixties. He had searched for twenty-five years before he found it in a small southeastern town in Oregon called "Christmas Valley".

The boat lay beside a highway for decades. The expensive parts, like the Chrysler Hemi engine, were stripped out for a funny car. The hull was weathered, but intact. This story captured the interest of Alyn Edwards, a writer for the Vancouver Sun driving section and was published on Friday June 10th, 2016. The boat made its debut

two days later on Sunday June 12th, 2016, at the Sockeye Run Car Show put on by the Richmond Lions Club in Steveston, BC. People who knew and read about the boat and its history made a specific trip to the car show to see it. Miss BC became a major attraction, just like it had forty five years previously.

Mo tows the boat with a vintage 1969 Dodge truck painted blue and white and called "The Flying Scot" in memory of his dad Fred, and his dad's friend Sir Malcolm Campbell. His dad met Sir Malcolm in the army and they remained friends.

The fastest boat in Mo's collection is a former factory Climax race boat by Sanger. He bought it as a wreck from Bob Brown, then rebuilt it. July 2016, at the Sproat Lake Regatta, Mo did an exhibition pass at an estimated 200 mph.

Photos with captions about Mo Davidson and his drag boats can be found on two pages of a new book published by Larry Pfister called "Chine Walkers". It is about drag boats and how they dance on the water.

Mo Davidson lives in Surrey, BC. As well as his trucking company, Posse Trucking, he owns a screen printing business, Posse Ink.

Mo Davidson has had an outstanding career and deserves to be recognized as a Motorsport Pioneer.

Mo Davidson back in the day getting ready for another pass. (from his facebook page)

2016 Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society

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