48 Years Ago - January 17, 1965 at Riverside - Jarrett Burned, Foyt Crashed, Gurney Won

On January 17, 1965, Dan Gurney won the 500-mile Motor Trend 500 NASCAR Grand National race at Riverside, California driving for the Wood Brothers. It was Gurney's 3rd consecutive Riverside 500-mile win and second consecutive for the Wood Brothers with Gurney. Dan won the 1963 event for Holman-Moody.

The race featured a terrible pit fire that consumed Ned Jarrett's "Richmond Motor Co." #11 Ford and a crash by AJ Foyt that nearly killed him. Gurney would go on to win two more Riverside events for a total of 5 in his NASCAR career.

Gurney's last NASCAR Grand National appearance came at Riverside in 1980, as a teammate to Dale Earnhardt in a Rod Osterlund Chevy.

The original Riverside Grand National events were true 500-mile affairs.

1965 Motor Trend 500

NASCAR Grand National race number 1 of 55

January 17, 1965 at Riverside International Raceway, Riverside, CA
185 laps on a 2.700 mile road course (499.5 miles)

Time of race: 5:41:42
Average Speed: 87.708 mph
Pole Speed: 102.846 mph Cautions: 2
Margin of Victory: 27 sec
Attendance: 61,474
Lead changes: 7

Fin St # Driver Sponsor / Owner Car Laps Money Status Led
1 11 121 Dan Gurney Augusta Motor Sales (Wood Brothers) '65 Ford 185 13,625 running 126
2 1 27 Junior Johnson Holly Farms Poultry (Junior Johnson) '65 Ford 185 7,310 running 11
3 5 21 Marvin Panch Wood Brothers '65 Ford 184 4,075 running 0
4 16 06 Darel Dieringer '65 Ford 181 2,625 running 0
5 15 5 Gene Davis Bill Groves '64 Mercury 177 1,850 running 0
6 35 98 Eddie Gray Ralph Shelton '64 Mercury 176 1,300 running 0
7 8 45 Scotty Cain Bill Clinton '64 Mercury 172 1,175 running 0
8 37 17 Sam Stanley Irwin Sandlin '64 Mercury 172 1,050 running 0
9 18 88 Buck Baker Buck Baker '64 Dodge 171 1,025 running 0
10 12 00 A.J. Foyt Holman-Moody '65 Ford 169 1,035 crash 12
11 17 12 Jerry Grant Friedkin Enterprises (Tom Friedkin) '63 Ford 167 830 running 0
12 22 4 Roy Tyner Roy Tyner '64 Chevrolet 164 650 running 0
13 38 0 Nat Reeder Nat Reeder '64 Chevrolet 160 625 fuel 0
14 23 6 Ed Brown Coz Concilla '64 Oldsmobile 151 605 running 0
15 20 100 Dick Guldstrand Bob McDonald '63 Chevrolet 151 615 running 0
16 36 711 Bob Connor Howard York '63 Mercury 115 580 clutch 0
17 28 71 Sam McQuagg James Thomas '63 Ford 97 575 differential 0
18 6 9 Bill Amick Dick Niles '64 Mercury 95 620 engine 0
19 3 11 Ned Jarrett Bondy Long '65 Ford 94 765 fire 0
20 13 1 Skip Hudson '64 Ford 90 635 engine 0
21 33 43 Fritz Wilson Fritz Wilson '64 Plymouth 84 550 engine 0
22 21 60 Doug Cooper Bob Cooper '64 Ford 80 540 overheating 0
23 14 76 Larry Frank Larry Frank '64 Ford 65 580 running 0
24 4 28 Fred Lorenzen LaFayette (Holman-Moody) '65 Ford 55 625 overheating 0
25 25 58 Doug Moore Doug Moore '64 Ford 51 525 transmission 0
26 30 84 Al Self Al Self '64 Ford 49 500 engine 0
27 9 611 Dick Bown Dick Bown '65 Plymouth 47 525 engine 0
28 10 33 Bob Bondurant Clem Proctor '64 Ford 47 520 wheel cylinder 0
29 41 2 Bobby Allison Southern Racing (Bobby Allison) '64 Ford 41 500 overheating 0
30 32 14 Joe Clark Bob Bristol '64 Mercury 41 500 driveshaft 0
31 7 29 Dick Hutcherson Holman-Moody '65 Ford 40 525 overheating 0
32 2 15 Parnelli Jones Mercury (Bill Stroppe) '64 Mercury 37 980 valves 36
33 19 67 Jim Cook Floyd Johnson '64 Mercury 36 550 engine 0
34 39 19 Bob Thompson '64 Mercury 26 500 engine 0
35 40 18 Bill Boldt '63 Mercury 19 500 engine 0
36 31 20 Bill Meyer '63 Ford 19 500 engine 0
37 26 111 Johnny Steele Johnny Steele '63 Ford 16 500 engine 0
38 34 10 Don Walker '63 Ford 14 500 transmission 0
39 24 53 Billy Cantrell '63 Chevrolet 2 500 overheating 0
40 42 38 Charles Powell '62 Pontiac 1 500 engine 0
41 29 48 Bruce Worrell Bruce Worrell '63 Chevrolet 1 500 transmission 0
42 27 61 Dana Hall '64 Pontiac 1 500 transmission 0
43 43 23 Bob Perry Bob Perry '63 Mercury 1 500 transmission 0

Stats from Racing Reference

And on this day in Petty history - nothing happened. Richard was home on the couch as the season opened at Riverside under a Chrysler boycott.

And that made for some stinky 1965 fields, including my hometown Richmond 250 with no factory Chrysler cars.

Dick Wallen's films are incredible. Too bad he didn't visit the southern circuit much.

Dick was the photog on the "missing" Tiny Lund, Hard Chargerdocumentary feature film, which was shot in 16mm and transferred to 35mm film for theatrical presentation. He is credited as the film's director.

Now that just makes me want to see that movie even more.

Excerpt about Dick Wallen from 1989 Dave Argabright article in Open Wheel Magazine:

The irrepressible Wallen began his film career in 1958, when he bought a new 16mm camera for $300 and traveled east from his Los Angeles home to film the Riverside Grand Prix. He made $50 and earned the respect of Fred Bailey of Race Film Productions, one of the leaders of the motor sports film industry. He gave Wallen a chance to work with his film crew for the 1959 Indy 500, and Wallen was hooked. Within two years he had quit his grocery store job, packed up his young family, and headed to Indianapolis and a career in film making.

He survived a meager start through the early '60's, living with the legendary open wheel crowd of Foyt, Hurtubise, Jones, Unser, McElreath, and Marshman, who were the unstoppable world of USAC Champ and Sprint car racing. He survived the all night rides from Langhorne and Kansas City with Foyt or Jones behind the wheel, rocketing down two-lane highways toward home. His apartment on Georgetown Road hosted the social event of the week each Wednesday night, when most of the drivers, car owners, crew members and fans would gather for the viewing of the film from the past weekend's USAC events.

"It was different then, from a social standpoint," Wallen admits today. "There was a fellowship that you don't see today. It was a family deal. Guys fought sometimes, but after the races nobody stayed mad for long. That was what I loved, that everybody was so close. I filmed tons of other types of racing, but the Sprint and Champ cars were my love. They still are."

The key to survival for Wallen, from the professional standpoint, was not Sprint car racing. While he made a few bucks selling film to car owners and fans, he found the big money was in Hollywood. He sold his first piece of film to Universal Studios in 1961, scenes of a major crash that they wanted to build a entire movie plot around. Wallen, a shrewd and tough negotiator, threw out all standards in pricing for the 10-foot section of film, earning himself $5,000 and a reputation as expensive - but high quality - among major Hollywood filmmakers. He would ultimately provide footage for over 500 movies, and many contemporary TV shows.

"People back then thought I was the bum that carried my camera to all of the Sprint car races, and that it was my living. God, I would hate to think about making a living back then on just open wheel films. The Hollywood stuff kept me in business, and I started filming everything I could that I thought I could sell to movies. But I never let up on the open wheel stuff."

During this pre-video era, Wallen did all his work on 16mm "postitive image" film, called Commercial Ektachrome. It is a professional quality not unlike the widely used 8mm film of yesterday. By the mid-seventies he had established himself not just in Hollywood, but as the premier producer of commercial films catering to many aftermarket manufacturers that were heavily involved in auto racing. He became a legend in the business in 1973, when he produced "Hard Driving Man" for Champion, and in 1980 followed that with "Close to the Edge." Both are now classics in the commercial film world, and "Man" has sold over 1,000 copies in 8mm and 16mm.

"A lot of big companies like Champion, Wynns, Firestone, Ford, and GM would buy film and use them for promotions, meetings, and sales pitches. That was a big market for me until it dried up around 1980 with the advent of video."