This day in history: November 22, 1981 Riverside International Raceway

Darrell Waltrip wraps up his first Winston Cup Championship and Bobby Allison wins the race in a hard fought battle with Joe Ruttman with Terry Labonte finishing in the 3 ^rd spot. Dale Earnhardt finished 4 ^th (after a rough first lap) then a surprising 5th place finish was posted by Joe Millikan with Darrell Waltrip finishing up in 6 ^th .

The 1981 Winston Cup Champion:

Race Winner Bobby Allison:

Bobby Allison and Terry Labonte:

Bobby Allison and Joe Ruttman:

Dale Earnhardt's 1st lap:

The Tower in this shot was actually the control tower for the drag strip at Ontario Motor Speedway (which ran down pit lane). It was brought over earlier in 1981 and erected in the spot shown. The position of the tower ruined the view for about 50 prime seats in the upper corner of the stands in turn 6. I remember talking to a few of the people who had to move to another location. Some of them had renewed the same seat for years. Mad would be an understatement.

If Dale's battle with the Awesome One at Charlotte was the "Pass in the Grass" - then, I guess, this could be the "Bust in the Dust!"

Earnhardt's "new" car owner, Richard Childress qualified a second Junior Johnson Buick for Waltrip championship insurance and ran 5 laps before retiring.

Dave - A pic of Childress' car is one of my "white whales". This was his final Cup start. I PRESUME he drove a Buick mocked up like DW's Dew car, but I don't know that. Could have been just a plain jane white car. Not sure. But I'm convinced SOMEONE out there has a pic of it. (By the way, other "white whales" I continue to seek are photos of Kyle Petty's #4 Chevy in the 1979 Winston West race at Phoenix and Cecil Gordon's Natural Light-sponsored, Henley Gray-owned #19 car from the 1980 National 500.)

Waltrip's 1981 Winston Cup trophy is on display at his HONDA car dealership here in Franklin. Yep, he sells Honda, Subaru and soon Buick. But Toyota that he pitches on TV nationally? Nope.

Always loved that Hardee's scheme...whether it was driven by Bobby, or Cale.

And Chase, I know I have seen a picture of RC's car from that day.....I know I have! I thought I saved it to my computer, but I couldn't find it. It'll come up one day.

Race program from Motor Racing Programme Covers

I found this photo of the victorious Allison with wife Judy on ebay. At first, I was unsure if the photo was from the November Winston Western 500 - or the other WW500 run in January. Recall that Riverside held 3 races in 1981: the season opening WW500, the summer Warner Hodgdon 400, and the season-ending WW500 after it became apparent Ontario wouldn't be around anymore. Allison won both book-ending WW500s; however, he won the January event in the old-style Monte Carlo sponsored by Tuf-Lon. The Hardee's sponsorship didn't come about until about a third of the way into the 1981 season.

And I think this is one of the most interesting photos from Scott's collection - the contrast of Earnhardt in his #3 Wrangler Childress Pontiac racing next to Joe Ruttman in the Stacy #2 Buick vacated by Earnhardt just a few months earlier - but still in the blue-and-yellow colors of Wrangler even though they followed DE to RC.

Race report from Albany Herald .

This column from Tuscaloosa News must have been a tough read by folks in nearby Hueytown...and Tim Leeming.

Yessir... I've told before on these pages how I took a $10,000 check to the August 1981 Michigan race made out to Mr. J.D. Stacy to "compensate" him for taking the striped chevron off his fleet of cars. Osterlund.

I also carried a $10,000 check in my Wrangler jeans hip pocket the final 11 races of 1981 made out to Richard Childress. If Earnhardt made the field in first round qualifying, Childress got the check. If Earnhardt didn't make the field in first round qualifying, Childress collected ZERO dollars from Wrangler for that race. He collected all 11 checks.

Great photo!

Chase... The King, Cale and Dale all wore modified cowboy hats. Think this hat wouild have been appropriate for "Flash" at the 1980 National 500?

Got a court injunction to prevent Hardee's from running a striped chevron on their car like they showed up with at 1981 Winston 500 at Talladega. It was a direct copy of our trademarked Wrangler paint design, just different color combo. T. Wayne Robertson of Winston refused to let the Hardee's show car appear in the Talladega pre-race parade when we squealed about the copycat design.

Photos from a 2011 Jay Coker post.

I spent a lot of time in 1981 over other teams trying to copy our trademarked Wrangler paint design.

Found this photo of the Riverside control tower when it was installed at Ontario.

Source: Vintage Racing League

Bump

Memorial Bench to honor RIR in the 5WKids Outdoor Learning Area at the former Augusta International Raceway that is being developed into Diamond Lakes Regional Park. The memory of Riverside is not going anywhere.

When I first came to Augusta International Raceway Park I saw this among other great pieces of memorabilia. This is what memories are based on!

Among many other things Dale was a money maker

I need this in my front yard

Joe Weatherly's grave marker at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia is made in the shape of the Riverside course where he lost his life in January, 1964:

In December 1982, I purchased a Polaroid camera for approximately $80 at a (now defunct) Service Merchandise Catalog Showroom Store (both it and its similarly formatted competitor, Best Products - one time Dean Combs sponsor -out of Richmond are both now out of business) in Greensboro, North Carolina. When I opened the Polaroid box, there was a coupon inside for a free accompanied round trip flight anywhere in Delta's system. So, in June 1983, my wife, Joyce flew with me to Riverside's Budweiser 400. Should have gone back for some more cameras! That's us standing at a Riverside Winston Cup garage fence: