From a replay of the old Car&Track on SpeedVision, host Bud Lindemann reviews the 1971 Motor Trend 500. The race was held on January 20th 1971 at Riverside International Raceway.
Spent many a weekend at Riverside watching the stockers from turn 6. Ray Elder was a legend and raced for many years. Remember him being sponsored by Olympia Beer later. Sad day when Riverside closed down for real estate development. Dan Gurney for President!
That was awesome, thank you! Riverside was perfect, and watching these stock cars lean around it was the sweetest experience. Lucky enough to see the 12 Coca Cola Chevelle, 43 STP Dodge Charger, 72 Kings Row Chevelle, 21 Purolator Lincoln Mercury, 96 Ray Elder, 38 Jimmy Insolo, 11 Holly Farms Olds, 2 Monte Carlo, 2 Stacy Buick, 88 Gatorade Monte Carlo, 44 LaBonte, 5 Bodine and others-just pure joy.
I remember reading in stock car racing magazine about the difference between Allison and elder's cars Allison had a 4.11 rear end ,a close ratio 4 speed transmission, and good year tires. Elder had a 3.50 ratio rear end, a wide ratio 4 speed transmission, and Firestone tires. Riverside was the only track that Firestone still competed at. Allison only shifted 4 times per lap so was quicker every where except the back straight. Elder was shifting about 10 times a lap, but the 3.50 rear gear made him much faster on the back straight. They finished 1-2 in both races at riverside in 71 with each wining 1. Very different approaches, but very good competition. Sadly today nascar won't allow different approaches.
As an Aussie I had read about the huge NASCAR war between Chrysler and Ford. Good to see some footage of their battle for honours. Thank you very much for sharing.
There were teams still driving Ford and Mercury but Ford stoped factory support after Daytona 1970 So the real war was from Daytona 64 when the Hemi made its debut, until Ford pulled the pluck in 1970 after two races, Riverside and Daytona
@@goldenltd1970 If you want to pretend the Chrysler/Ford battle ended in 70, so be it. Forget the rest of the early to mid 70s when Pearson and Petty were battling race after race, if you choose.
The big block wars between Ford and Chrysler ended around 73 when NASCAR went to small blocks to let Chevrolet become competitive. When they say Chevy rules I agree. All the big block Fords and Dodges were forced to carry more weight to force them out of competition
@@goldenltd1970NASCAR allowed the hemi which prompted Ford to enveil the 427 cammer. Unfortunately NASCAR would not approve it, being a SOHC which, what is pretty much is the norm in today's world. To bad that would have been a real war back then. It went on to make and, leave its mark in in the world of drag racing. Funny as popular and genaric Chevy is, hardly any mention of them in the era of 65 to 72.....it was all big block FORD and DODGE back then.
Always nice to see an independent driver like Elder win a NASCAR race. As nice as it was, it was just as sad when the powers to be at NASCAR gave up on Riverside speedway and took it out of their yearly schedule. They could have saved it if they wanted to.
Yes, both Riverside and Ontario! I didn't realize until recently that Ontario was the same as Indy except for the degree of banking in the turns, which was a minimal difference. It was a terrific race track and they used pit road for Drag racing. They closed Ontario in the early 80s and twenty years later Penske built the track at Fontana which is another dull 2 mile track like most of the others NASCAR runs on now
Absolutely wonderful to see the old big cars, and at Riverside too. I remember watching 8- (or 16-) mm-films from that track when going to hot rod-shows on the early 1970's. Thanks for posting this.
Got to love the "dubbed in" roaring engine sounds common to these early racing film productions. My understanding regarding no Wood Bros entry was that they did not run a full schedule at that time, just select races.
AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR THE AWESOME post! You have MORE! LOL keeeeeeppp diggin’ gotta believe after seeing this that you have hat USAC stock car race somewhere....
Bobby Allison drove his own car in this race. Soon after, he signed on to drive for Holman Moody for the rest of the year. He won several races driving the number 12 Coke sponsored Holman Moody Mercury and said it was the most fun he ever had in a season. He really hit it off with Ralph Moody. That was the last season for the great Holman Moody Ford-Mercury teams. Allison moved on with the Coke sponsorship and the number 12 to drive a Chevy for Junior Johnson the next year (1972).
Bobby picked that ride up when Pearson quit after 4 years. Holman-Moody wanted Pearson to take a 10% pay cut. He quit, they called Bobby. Pearson invested wisely during the 60s and obviously didn't depend on the payoffs. Pearson had pride and they disrespected him.
@@noezrider6361 Yes, I recall reading that. Pearson realized Holman Moody was finished and was happy to move on. He was the King during the HM heyday in '68-'69. He had it as good or better with the Wood Brothers for the first 3-4 years there. Winning race cars and no short tracks!
@@goldenltd1970 I think I had an an emotional response instead of a logical one before. A mutual separation. Bobby was such a talent as well and the breath of fresh air to HM, and the stats for that year reflected so. Damn I miss the old days, just a "show" now.
I have a bone stock 1971 Runner with a pistol grip and a 383 Magnum. It only goes 167 mph before the valves float. Oh Plumb Crazy with white interior. Woof I love to drive this car.
Seeing number 39, see Rock City! Brings back a lot of memories! Friday Hassler, a true champion 🏆 a man of dedication!! I notice Richard has that squat short-track look, it's amazing the shock & spring package that he ran in those days 🏆 like driving a fully loaded dump truck! With all the accommodations of a sauna! Awkward as it must have been, it won a lot of races! Squat and Yaw 🎉
I absolutely love this old stuff. Im still a NASCAR fan but not todays fan. I still watch the Daytona 500 and Talladega on there perspective days. Just dive into you tube or my vhs tapes and pop one in. Yea I know who is going to win but I dont care....🖕todays nascar
Those aren't "ringers", they're Winston West drivers. This race was on both the Winston Cup and Winston West schedules. It's nothing like the previous year when A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Roger McCluskey and Sam Posey were all in the field.
This counted for Winston West points? Didnt knowthat, thanks. Very cool for West coast folks, boring and kinda sad except for the WINNER!!driving one of the baddest looking rides ever. Im wondering if USAC dissapeared because they were promoting snouts and wings while NASCAR was promoting, um, close, fair, competitive races
Iget youre point about the term “ringers” though. Ive heard Insolo,Baldwin,others referred to as ringers but they were taking over a regular roundy pounder ride
Not so sure this race is from '71. The latest model cars I'm seeing are the 1970 models unless some of the Torino's are from '71. All the Mopar is definitely from 1970.
The date in the description is correct. This was the very first race of the season in January of 1971. I believe Grand National rules permitted cars "under three years old" . With this being the first race of the season, the opposite coast from most of the teams shops and the only road course, it's understandable that teams were still working on / preserving the new equipment for Daytona just a few weeks away.
@@HODIUSDUDE OK, that makes sense. I was a bit confused as to why no '71 cars were on the track, but that would actually be a smart play on their part.
@@HODIUSDUDE I was wondering about this, as well. It occurred to me that perhaps the model year bodies hadn't yet been brought to the circuit since it was early in the season.
If someone made a list of tracks on which many great racing drivers and many lesser ones were killed or injured my guess is Riverside would be near the top?
1971 was a "gimmie" year for Petty He had the ONLY factory backed cars, himself and his teammate buddy baker.......baker was given orders to back off when he might beat petty..........there are at LEAST 4 races that Petty should not have won......take those 4 races that NASCAR gave him and Independent James Hylton becomes the champ.
It sure was. Legendary track indeed. It used to be ALOT more competitive when USAC represented in race. I also noticed that there was no car #21 in this race. Strange when you consider how Wood bros. dominated previous installments...
Christopher Haas -That fact about the 21 car not being in the race is very interesting. I wonder if it got disqualified for illegal equipment? A.J Foyt was driving for the Wood brothers in 1971.So many exciting, classic tracks, like Riverside, are gone now and it’s a damb shame. I feel sorry for younger fans who will never get to see a race run there.
