Race number ONE of the 1970 season was the Motor Trend 500 contested on the reconfigured road course at Riverside. The previously 2.7 mile track requiring 186 laps to make up 500 miles was now 2.62 miles and would require 193 laps to get the job done. Dan Gurney (remember him) this time driving a Petty Engineering Plymouth Superbird rather than a Wood Brothers entry, won the pole with a speed of 112.060 while David Pearson in the Holman-Moody Ford would start second. Third place starter was A.J. Foyt in a Jack Bowsher Ford, fourth place Bobby Allison in a Mario Rossi Dodge and fifth place LeeRoy Yarbrough in a Junior Johnson Ford. Fastest qualifier was actually Parnelli Jones at 113.310 mph in Wood Brothers Mercury. The situation with Jones was that he, being a Firestone Tire Dealer had brought in some special tires on which to qualify, tires the other competitors could not get. AFTER qualifying, NASCAR determined the tires were not generally available to all competitors so Parnelli was forced to start at the rear of the field.

It would seem that the ruling against Jones only served to inspire a charge to the front like Riverside had not before seen. By lap 43 he was leading the race and was pulling away until his clutch failed on lap 168 putting him out of the race.

Pearson led the first 25 laps before Ford led one and then it was Petty for 2 laps. Pearson, Yarbrough, Foyt and Jones swapped the lead back and forth until Donnie Allison slipped in to lead laps from 45 to 64 before giving way to Foyt. Pearson, Yarbrough, and Jones traded the lead back and forth until Jones went in front on lap 111 and was flying away from the field. On lap 168, the Jones Mercury lost the clutch and he was out. With Jones sitting behind the wall, A.J. Foyt went to the front and the rest of the race was his. Finally, he must have thought, he had won at Riverside.

There were two very severe crashes in the race. Buddy Young, a first time starter and driving for L. G. DeWitt, flipped end over end just past the start finish line after Dick Brooks had coated the track with oil after blowing an engine. Young suffered a concussion and internal injuries in the accident.

On lap 94, veteran driver Jim Cook, a 48 year old Nowalk, California driver, tried to avoid a pile up and hit the concrete wall head on. His Ford was bent double and the transmission was thrown a hundred yards from the wrecked car. Jim was airlifted to the hospital with multiple head injuries and both arms and legs broken.

A crowd of 43,200 saw A.J. Foyt earn his third NASCAR victory and his first since 1965. He average 97.450 mph for the race.

FINISHING ORDER:

1. A. J. Foyt, Jack Bowsher Ford, winning $19,700.00

2. Roger McCluskey, Norm Nelson Plymouth, winning $9,000.00(3.5 second back)

3. LeeRoy Yarbrough, Junior Johnson Ford, winning $6,275.00

4. Donnie Allison, Banjo Matthews Ford, winning $4,475.00 (3 laps back)

5. Richard Petty, Petty Enterprises Plymouth, winning $3,000.00 (7 laps back)

6. Dan Gurney, Petty Enterprises Plymouth

7. Neil Castles

8. Friday Hassler

9. Jerry Oliver

10. Dick Gulstrand

11. Parnelli Jones

12. Kevin Terris

13.Bobby Allison

14. Dave Marcis

15. Sam Rose

16. Dave Alonzo

17. David Pearson

18. Dick Kranzler

19. Paul Dorrity

20. Joe Frasson

21. Frank James

22. Dick Bown

23. Randy Dodd

24. Ray Elder

25. Jimmy Insolo

26. Jim Cook

27. Steven Froines

28. Sam Posey

29. Bobby Isaac

30. Jack McCoy

31. G. T. Tallis

32. Les Loeser

33. Dick Brooks

34. Buddy Young

35. James Hylton

36. Elmo Langley

37. Carl Joiner

38. Don Noel

39. Don White

40. Lothar Motschenbacher

41. Frank Dieny

42. Scotty Cain

43. Bob England

43. Frank Warren

PERSONAL NOTE: I could not believe that I was actually pulling for Dan Gurney in this race after all the times I had cursed him (to the best of my young gentleman vocabularly at the time) for always winning. But this time he was driving for Petty.

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future

Two short video segments. A few race highlights - and a clip of Buddy Young's tremendous series of flips. No sound to either - you'll have to provide your own southern California beach music.

Race report from Daytona Beach Morning Journal

A nice chronology at Randy Ayers Modeling Forum about Buddy Young including a couple of pics from the 1970 Riverside race.

http://www.randyayersmodeling.com/modelingforum/viewtopic.php?p=560268&sid=09753614e1cf2fd4491033fb98d9eb9f

And apparently this photo is what was left of Jim Cook's car after his awful accident. From Trackforum.com's Old Racing Scrapbooks section.

Race program

And the 1970 Riverside race is the last one I found available at the Henry Ford Arte House as an on-line photo collection. But what a doozy. Almost 900 photos available!

http://thehenryford.artehouse.com/perl/collection.pl?collectionID=2838&productTypeID=62

Pole winner Dan Gurney in his Ray Nichels built and Petty Enterprises fielded Superbird

Driver and later media guy Sam Posey

HURST, I tell ya its HURST

Petty put a smile on the faces of the Ford brass when he won his debut with them at Riverside in 1969. I'm sure Plymouth hoped for the same results from its debut with the Superbird and RP's return. Alas they'd have to wait until February at Daytona.

The Nord Krauskopk / Harry Hyde team installing a new powerplant into Harry Hyde's ride.

A.J. - "Yeah this was worth coming back here after that accident in 65"

I just noticed that the late Frank Deiny of Los Angeles finished 41st in this Riverside race. In his career, Deiny, who passed in 1986, made only 3 Cup starts - all at Riverside. This was his last.

Deiny's name stands out to me because in the winter of 1993, a young 20 year old kid came calling at our Public Relations office at Richmond International Raceway. The very well spoken and nice looking young man's name was Frank Deiny, JUNIOR. He explained that he had just driven from California to Richmond and was setting up a base in Mechanicsville, Va. just down the road from Richmond International Raceway.

NASCAR officials in Daytona had told Deiny that the toughest NASCAR Late Model Stock Car Racing in the country was in Richmond at Southside Speedway and other Virginia tracks including South Boston, Southampton, Langley Field and Old Dominion. So that's where the young man wanted to set up shop. Frank came by to seek our advice on making contacts and seeking sponsorship to race NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars.

He would eventually take a job working at the renowned Rick Townsend Race Car Products (where the late Dale Earnhardt had cars built for his children, Dale, Jr. & Kelley)and go on to have an outstanding career in NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars, winning track championships at numerous Virginia and Carolinas tracks. He is a multi-time winner of 300 lap races at Martinsville Speedway and the winningest driver to ever compete in the MYRTLE BEACH 400, having won 4 times - in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2010.

Denny Hamlin made sure Frank had a ride last April at R.I.R. for the Denny Hamlin Short Track Shootout. You realize what a small world racing can be when you see a result like the 1970 Riverside race and realize that a competitor's son from the other coast is a fellow you knew and whose career is now in its twilight.

After stepping out of the car for awhile, Frank got back in at Myrtle Beach in 2010 and went on to win the race. Here's an interview with him just after he qualified for the 2010 Myrtle Beach 400, which he won:

The article below about Frank Deiny, Jr. and his father, Frank Deiny is from the July 6, 1990 Los Angeles Times :

A couple of photos of the late Frank Deiny of Speedway Engineering at California's Saugus Speedway in 1970 and 1971as posted at Everett.com

From the November 1, 1966 issue of Illustrated Speedway News :

As NASCAR entered the 1970s, some old issues from the 60s remained. Many drivers contemplated skipping Riverside because of new language in NASCAR's entry form. To avoid the risk of another driver walk-out as happened at Talladega in 1969, NASCAR added language requiring car owner entrants to guarantee their car would race - regardless of its driver. Unsigned entry forms or altered ones would be declined.

But as was generally the case, Big Bill got his way. In the end, all the owners and drivers relented and submitted valid entry forms.

Click article to open larger version in separate tab.

One surprising and unexpected entrant was for Swedish wife-mother-model-racer Anita Liden. She had never driven a stock car or even on any American roads, yet she supposedly planned to qualify for the GN race.

In the end, however, she did not participate in the race. I can't find much more info on her. I'm unsure if she even landed a car for the race - much less attempted practice and qualifying for it.

Despite having his pole win taken away - seemingly based on arbitrary ruling, Parnelli Jones opted to race anyway.

Clem Proctor won the preliminary Permatex 200 LMS race on Saturday, January 17.

Click article to read larger version in new tab.

Post-race report about Foyt win following his bad Riverside wreck 5 years earlier. (The wreck was in 1965 vs. 1966 as reported in the article.) Note too Parnelli Jone's one-fingered salute to Big Bill France following the controversy about his Firestone tires and top qualifying run.

Photo of Proctor's 1963 Ford

And pic from The Henry Ford Arte House site on Flickr, here is Proctor taking the checkers.

Almost 900 photos from this race are available on The Henry Ford Arte House's site (now available on Flickr). Amazing collection of pictures. Too many to even think sampling additional ones here. Enjoy.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thehenryford/sets/72157663580153175

Here's some more random assorted footage from the race (including long distance aftermath of the Jim Cook wreck):

https://www.wpafilmlibrary.com/videos/137675

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