A Day Late But........November 20th, 1983 - Bill Elliott Racing History - Western Winston 500

I was honestly too busy yesterday, however, I hope you all enjoy my first foray this "Racing History Minute" scene.

It was November 20th, 1983 at Riverside, California. During the mid 80's, Riverside was known as the season finale. For most of the track's life, two Cup races were ran per year, with the exception of 1981, when Riverside was tackled three times throughout the season - the season opener, a mid-season race, and the season finale.

Big notables for this race was.....

• Eventual winner, Bill Elliott had signed on a multi-year contract with Coors Brewing Company to sponsor the Elliott's family operated #9 Ford. For the last couple of races that year, a small Coors decal had been place on the quarter panel. The whole deal worked out well, since it had just a year or so that Coors had now been available east of the Mississippi. They (Coors) wanted to promote themselves as a family company and what better spokesmen than the Elliott family.
• Neil Bonnett would be leaving the RahMoc #75 Monte Carlo in an effort to join Junior Johnson's team as a second car (#12) in addition to current driver, and then two time cup champion, Darrell Waltrip, driving #11. Both cars were to be painted identical red and white with Budweiser decals and gold numbers. Bud would leave Terry Labonte. It was unique for it's time, but later in the 1984 season, the two teammates came down to a last lap battle, in which both thought they won; that's for a later story
• Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd were essentially trading seats for the upcoming season. Rudd, who for 1983, was driving #3 at RCR, was switching with Earnhardt, who for the past two years had been driving the Bud Moore Engineering #15 Ford. Earnhardt, who had a contract with Wrangler Jeans also had a commitment to Bud Moore's team. The only logical solution was to allow Earnhardt to drive a Wrangler #3 Chevrolet for RCR, while Rudd jumped on board to fulfill Wrangler's other commitment to Bud Moor Engineering. This is one of the only, if no the only time the same sponsor was on two different cars.
• This was the last race for Richard Petty under his family owned company, Petty Enterprises. Life was great for Petty until he was fined after a post-race inspection at Charlotte a month before found Petty had an oversized engine by 30 cubic inches. Richard was leaving to independent Mike Curb with essentially the same car as before - same paint, sponsor, number, etc. Kyle Petty would now be the lead driver for the team. For this race, he was in a Green & Orange Pontiac, but for 1984, KP would switch to Ford and debut a new Red, White & Blue paint scheme.

Now onto the actual race.....

Darrell Waltrip would take the pole position in his Pepsi #11 Chevrolet, starting alongside would be Ricky Rudd in the Piedmont Airlines Chevrolet, the same car that won Ricky his first Winston Cup race at the same track earlier that year.

This race was known for Winston West drivers to enter and get seat-time alongside Winston Cup regulars. One notable was Jimmy Insolo, driving a #12 for Digard (same team as Winston Cup champ that year, Bobby Allison) according to the stats, Insolo qualified his Miller High Life Buick (I'm assuming identical scheme to Allison) in 19th place, completed one lap, and quit, finishing in last place. I'm assuming that Digard wanted a back-up car for Allison to gain points in (back before teams brought 2-3 to the track), should Bobby wreck his #22.

Another notable was the champ's brother, Donnie, who was driving Cliff Stewart's #88 Gatorade Pontiac. For most of the 1983 season, Geoff Bodine was driver, however, Donnie would finish the last two events of the season in the car. Donnie would enter just two more Winston Cup races after this event.

In the closing laps of the race, a young red-head from Dawsonville would find a battle with Benny Parsons, in the Copenhagen #55, who coincidentally enough, was one of the main reasons that Elliott hooked up with carowner, Harry Melling. The two would battle door-to-door in the closing laps. Behind them, Alabama native, Neil Bonnett was holding off the hard charging cars of Earnhardt, Richmond and Waltrip, who lead the most laps in this race.

As rain started to fall under the white flag, cars were sliding through the 'esses', but as they came back around, it was a 28 year old from North Georgia that held the likable veteran to claim the 'Western Winston 500'

Bobby Allison would finish 9th, just enough to score his only Winston Cup Championship. During the 1981 & 82 seasons, Waltrip wound up the champion with Allison being runner-up in points. Allison knew his team needed to be stronger on the short tracks. They worked hard all year long and this year, positions 1 & 2 in points were switched. While Allison celebrated his year-long battle, Waltrip settled for second.

The finishing order from that day -

Fin	St	#	Driver	Sponsor / Owner	Car	Laps	Money	Status	Led	Points
1	10	9	Bill Elliott	Melling Oil Pumps ( Harry Melling )	Ford	119	26,380	running	5	180
2	5	55	Benny Parsons	Copenhagen ( Johnny Hayes )	Chevrolet	119	13,225	running	33	175
3	11	75	Neil Bonnett	Hodgdon ( RahMoc Enterprises )	Chevrolet	119	18,375	running	0	165
4	9	15	Dale Earnhardt	Wrangler ( Bud Moore )	Ford	119	13,725	running	4	165
5	26	27	Tim Richmond	Old Milwaukee ( Raymond Beadle )	Pontiac	119	8,930	running	31	160
6	1	11	Darrell Waltrip	Pepsi / Burger King ( Junior Johnson )	Chevrolet	119	19,200	running	34	160
7	3	44	Terry Labonte	Budweiser ( Billy Hagan )	Chevrolet	119	6,110	running	0	146
8	22	04	Hershel McGriff	M. Bloome / Antioch Speedway ( Gary Smith )	Buick	119	4,700	running	0	142
9	6	22	Bobby Allison	Miller High Life ( DiGard )	Buick	119	10,850	running	1	143
10	8	43	Richard Petty	STP ( Petty Enterprises )	Pontiac	118	8,650	running	10	139
11	16	47	Ron Bouchard	Race Hill Farm ( Jack Beebe )	Buick	118	5,030	running	0	130
12	29	71	Dave Marcis	Miller Brothers ( Dave Marcis )	Oldsmobile	118	9,650	running	0	127
13	32	7	Kyle Petty	7-Eleven ( Petty Enterprises )	Pontiac	117	4,620	running	0	124
14	20	88	Donnie Allison	Gatorade ( Cliff Stewart )	Pontiac	117	4,410	running	0	121
15	25	87	Randy Becker	Becker Trucking ( Randy Becker )	Buick	116	1,950	running	0	118
16	40	52	Jimmy Means	Broadway Motors ( Jimmy Means )	Chevrolet	115	5,125	running	0	115
17	41	17	Sterling Marlin	Hesco Exhaust ( Roger Hamby )	Pontiac	115	4,465	running	0	112
18	39	13	Doug Wheeler	W & W Machine ( Matt Puskarich )	Buick	115	2,755	running	0	109
19	35	83	Sumner McKnight	McKnight Racing ( Sumner McKnight )	Chevrolet	114	2,415	running	0	106
20	15	21	Buddy Baker	Valvoline ( Wood Brothers )	Ford	113	1,675	running	0	103
21	17	78	Jim Robinson	Hammer Security Systems ( Lois Williams )	Oldsmobile	112	2,305	running	0	100
22	12	51	Scott Miller	MDB Systems ( Scott Miller )	Pontiac	112	1,575	running	0	97
23	37	67	Buddy Arrington	Arrington Grocery ( Buddy Arrington )	Dodge	109	3,195	wheel	0	94
24	23	48	Trevor Boys	Hylton-McCaig ( James Hylton )	Chevrolet	101	3,135	drive line	0	91
25	18	38	Don Waterman	St. John's Auto Parts ( Don Waterman )	Buick	101	1,425	running	0	88
26	34	64	D.K. Ulrich	Sunny King Ford & Honda ( Elmo Langley )	Ford	101	2,325	differential	0	85
27	31	41	Ronnie Thomas	McCord Gaskets ( Ronnie Thomas )	Pontiac	96	1,275	differential	0	82
28	33	03	Glenn Francis	Francis Race Cars ( Trent Francis )	Pontiac	89	1,225	shifter	0	79
29	42	35	Pat Mintey	AFR Signs ( Pat Mintey )	Chevrolet	73	1,175	engine	0	76
30	38	70	J.D. McDuffie	McDuffie Racing ( J.D. McDuffie )	Pontiac	66	2,150	rocker arm	0	73
31	7	33	Harry Gant	Skoal Bandit ( Hal Needham )	Buick	61	8,925	engine	0	70
32	36	91	John Krebs	Coca-Cola ( John Krebs )	Oldsmobile	60	1,100	engine	0	67
33	27	2	Morgan Shepherd	My Car ( Jim Stacy )	Buick	42	8,675	engine	0	64
34	21	90	Dick Brooks	Chameleon Sunglasses ( Junie Donlavey )	Ford	38	2,050	engine	0	61
35	13	93	Jim Bown	Wholesale Truck Parts ( John Kieper )	Buick	37	1,025	throttle	0	58
36	14	74	Roy Smith	Edgett Excavating ( John Edgett )	Buick	36	2,025	ignition	0	55
37	2	3	Ricky Rudd	Piedmont Airlines ( Richard Childress )	Chevrolet	32	1,900	running	1	57
38	24	66	Ron Esau	McDonald's ( Jack Lee )	Buick	32	875	ignition	0	49
39	28	08	Rick McCray	Coors ( Rick McCray )	Pontiac	29	850	engine	0	46
40	30	73	Bill Schmitt	Mountain Dew ( Bill Schmitt )	Chevrolet	13	840	engine	0	43
41	4	98	Joe Ruttman	Levi Garrett ( Ron Benfield )	Pontiac	12	1,840	engine	0	40
42	19	12	Jimmy Insolo	Miller High Life ( DiGard )	Buick	1	840	quit	0	37

Back in Dawsonville, on a closed-circuit in the famous Dawsonville Pool Room, half of town went crazy! They had to figure out somekind of celebration like driving around the courthouse backwards and blaring their horns or something like that. Owner of the Pool Room and friend of Bill Elliott, Gordon Pirkle (Now CEO of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame) went and found an old Fire Department Siren that someone had given him. They stood outside and hooked up the "si-reen" to a 12V battery and blared it for a good while when the local law came rolling around and asked what was going on. Gordon tried to explain that Bill Elliott had just won is first race! The deputy replied with something like 'ok, but start winding it down'. About another 10 minutes of blaring the 'si-reen', the same deputy came back and asked them to stop, and they were disturbing the peace. Gordon replied back with once again "Don't you understand, Bill Elliott just won a NASCAR race!!" Sooner or later the police chief called Gordon and asked what was going on, after Pirkle explained, the chief came down and celebrated himself! In 1984, Elliott won three more races. Mid-way through 1985 (when he set the world on fire) Gordon decided to mount the siren on a pole, high above his Pool Room. Gordon hasn't blared it since 2003, when Bill earned his last victory in Rockingham. Since his son Chase has came along, Gordon has got an even louder siren that he blares whenever Chase earns a victory somewhere across the U.S! It's especially funny when tourists in town hear this siren and start looking around like there's a tornado coming!

Thanks to TMCChase for suggesting this to me in honor of Bill Elliott's 30th Anniversary of his first win!

Hope everyone enjoyed this little piece...... ok, not so little, but I have to get the information across, don't I?

-Cody

Very nice! Thank you.

Found 4 video segments for the race on YouTube and created a playlist from them.

From RR member Scott Baker's website, here is Jimmy Insolo in the second DiGard Buick. And Scott has scads more on his site from practice and the race here: http://bakerracingpix.com/1983-ww500-1.html

And Bobby Allison finally put together that complete season that allowed him to earn his one and only Cup title.

great story....thank you so much for all you do.....

Nice Job Cody!

If my memory serves, the Digard car that Jimmy Insolo drove was the car that Bobby raced at Atlanta in the event preceding the WW500. The team had a heck of a time trying to get a "left turn" car to turn right

Awesome post Cody!!!! Man, we are really making this site a history reference source for the ages. How wonderful for future fans to find such historically significant posts. Thanks!

Good job, Cody. Really nice writeup. Now we will be expecting more!

I remember there was a huge rain deluge at the end of this event and that desert dust turned to gumbo that stuck all over my western boots. When we left the track, most of us were soaked through and shivering.

This was back before everybody had those huge team jets and even before the old Piedmont Airlines starting offering some special charters for the teams. Many crew personnel opted to take the 11:00 pm "red eye" out of LAX Sunday night after Riverside races to get back to the east coast and their shops as soon as possible.

I had to hustle straight from Riverside Raceway in my soaked through blue & yellow Wrangler shirt to the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim for that Sunday night's American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) banquet. I was seated that night next to Dale Singleton ("The Georgia Pig Farmer") who, as usual, had a baby piglet in a crate under our banquet table. Dale would later perish, along with Marvin Panch's son, Richie, when their plane went down in a thunderstorm leaving Darlington.

The 7th place on the lead lap performance by Terry Labonte was outstanding, considering he suffered one of the wort crashes in Riverside history the previous year. Terry's experience and thoughts are described below by Mike Hembree in his NASCAR book, The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told :

Wrangler had determined that we wanted to help motorcycle racer and Dalton, Georgia pig farmer, Dale Singleton (the fellow I ate with at the Disneyland AMA banquet on Sunday night of this 1983 Elliott win at Riverside) get a toe hold in stock car racing if he wanted to continue because he was such a personable competitor.

Dale had twice beaten the factory teams as a "privateer" in 1979 and 1981 to win America's most prestigious motorcycle race - the Daytona 200 .

Dale Singleton with his pig "Elmer" in Daytona Victory Lane

Dale had run in one NASCAR Bud Series LMS event in 1982 at Martinsville and really hoped to transition. He and Richie Panch had become great friends and it's easy to see why. Both had infectious smiles and senses of humor.

Take a look at the little clip below of Dale Singleton with Elmer and you'll see how he could have become another of NASCAR's "Clown Princes:"

For the last couple of years, Singleton has been on the ballot for our Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, but hasn't yet made it in.....maybe soon.

Thanks everyone for the positive comments! I enjoy writing about something I'm passionate for!

Scrambling out of the grandstands, soaking wet, just wanting to get to the travel trailer and get warm and dry,

I hopped up on the fence and did a 'point & shoot" as the 9 car went by on the "cool down" lap after Elliott had received the checkered flag. Blurry but........

He needs to be in Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. Perhaps the most noted worlwide racer to ever come out of Georgia.

Still a really nice shot, Scott.

Not much to add, but two small things:

We 're-skinned' this car when it got back on the east coast. I still have the small piece of metal that they closed in the bottom of the gas filler hole.

Dale Singleton drove my car for me at Atlanta, with unhappy results. I cannot find the big picture but here is a link to my website that shows the damage. It is the last picture on the right of the top row of pics. He was fun to be around.

http://www.mantiquesresto.com/aboutus/NascarPics/NascarPhotos08.html

Will, I'm "guessing" the photo is from the Nov. 1985 ARCA race at Atlanta. I'm also seeing Dale in the #96 at Daytona ARCA in Feb. 1985. Do you recall if Dale Singleton drove any other events for you?

Dave, I am not a great deal of help on this one. I did not keep personal records while I was 'involved', and am not much at research on this stuff either, but I do not remember entering any ARCA races. This wreck may have been done in practice or qualifying at an Atlanta NASCAR event.

This was the box score I saw on the Ultimate Racing History site prompting my guess:

Georgia 150

ARCA Stock Car race
Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, GA
March 16, 1985
99 laps on 1.522 mile paved oval; 150.678 miles

Fin St Driver # Owner Car Laps Money Status Laps Led
1 5 Kirk Bryant 12 Darrell Bryant 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix 99 5,200 running 31
2 Lee Raymond 1 1985 Buick Regal 99 running 0
3 David Simko 51 1985 Buick Regal 99 running 0
4 Bob Brevak 34 1983 Pontiac Grand Prix 99 running 0
5 Philip Duffie 94 1984 Buick Regal 99 running 0
6 Bill Venturini 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 98 0
7 Davey Allison 23 1981 Pontiac LeMans 98 0
8 Don Marmor 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix 98 0
9 Walt Bohland 1984 Ford Thunderbird 97 0
10 Bill Ingram Buick Regal 96 0
11 Bosco Lowe 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 96 0
12 John McFadden 45 1984 Buick Regal 96 0
13 Gary Weinbroer 1984 Buick Regal 95 0
14 Scott Stovall 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 93 0
15 Ken Ragan 77 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 93 0
16 Rich Hampton Pontiac 91 0
17 Jim Ingalls Chevrolet 87 0
18 Bob Schacht Pontiac 86 0
19 Glenn Sears 61 1981 Pontiac LeMans 85 engine 61
20 Joey Sonntag Chevrolet 75 0
21 Michael Waltrip Buick 51 0
22 Burgess White Chevrolet 49 0
23 Stuart Lyndon Ford 42 0
24 Mark Gibson 90 Pontiac 35 0
25 Dennis DeVea Buick 33 0
26 Howard Rose Buick 28 0
27 Bob Dotter 83 Pontiac 17 0
28 Rick Wilson Chevrolet 10 7
29 Billie Harvey 31 Chevrolet 9 0
30 Bob Penrod 95 Chevrolet 7 0
31 David Sosebee 81 Pontiac 7 0
32 K.C. Spurlock 18 Chevrolet 7 0
33 Bobby Jacks 71 Oldsmobile 7 0
34 Dale Singleton 96 Buick 7 0
35 Joe Booher Buick 6 0
36 Danny Kelley Pontiac 6 0

Time of race: 01:15:46
Average Speed: 119.323 MPH
Pole Speed: 32.763 seconds
4 cautions for 22 laps