Cale's Riverside Romp in 1974

Today is the anniversary of NASCAR Hall of Fame member Cale Yarborough's win in the 1974 Winston Western 500 at Riverside International Raceway in California. He qualified 2nd to Pearson - but then spun out on lap 1 when the race started on January 20th. He gathered up the car and rejoined the field.

Shortly afterwards, rains moved in and postponed the race six days to January 26th. When the race resumed, Cale moved quickly back to the front and was pretty much unchallenged the rest of the way.

Today, I posted a blog about the race - including some photos and a meaningful after-story involving David Pearson, the Wood Bros., Darlington and the NASCAR HOF. Read on!

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/01/january-26-rookie-and-riverside-romp.html

--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 01/26/19 01:33:45PM

Enjoyed your writeup, Chase at the Bench Racing blog link.

It's always upsets me that Joe Weatherly's name was taken off the museum at Darlington after ISC purchased the operation. Revealing to read of the Pearson/Wood Bros. car being taken out.

I flew out to Riverside from Greensboro, NC, Dallas, TX and Greenville-Spartanburg, SC. Depending on what flights I could get, sometimes I flew into Los Angeles (LAX) and sometimes into the small Ontario, CA airport. To get to Riverside from the Ontario airport, you had to pass by the remains of the Ontario Speedway main grandstand. That was always a heart breaker. Now, of course, Riverside, too, has gone the way of Ontario and Fontana can't draw flies for its races.

After one Riverside race a couple of us went to the Ontario airport on Monday morning to turn in our rental car for our flight back to the east coast. Before we turned in the car, we talked ourself into changing our flight, kept the rental car and drove the Pacific Coast Highway from L.A. to San Francisco. Ate some crab meat and sour dough bread chased with a long neck at Fisherman's Wharf, then caught a late night flight out of San Francisco International. What we did in our 30s my body would never tolerate in my 60s, lol!

--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Link to tie my post to Racing History Minute post by Tim Leeming:

http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/29994/racing-history-minute-1974-winston-western-500-at-riverside-raceway

--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 01/18/20 05:20:38AM