Racing History Minute - December 1, 1957
Stock Car Racing History
Found a more in-depth race report this morning from the Pasadena Independent newspaper archives. The article references a field of 36 - yet lists only 29 names. 
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Stock Car Racing History
Racing History Minute - December 1, 1957
Stock Car Racing History
Plenty of confusion here. The type on the program says Los Angeles. But the logo says Riverside International Motor Racing - of which the "Motor" was soon dropped. I don't know if LA was an original part of the track's name - or if perhaps someone didn't do their job with mark-up or proofreading for the program cover.
Racing History Minute - December 1, 1957
Stock Car Racing History
The famed Riverside International Raceway opened in September 1957. The first two events were sports car races in September and November.
The first stock car race on the southern California road course, however, took place on December 1, 1957. USAC brought its stock car division to town for a 76-lap, 250-mile race promoted by J.C. Agajanian.
Aggie Agajanian promoted the race as a farewell tribute to Sam Hanks. Though he was entered in the stock car race, Hanks announced his retirement from open wheel racing in victory lane after winning the 1957 Indy 500 six months earlier. Hanks raced a handful of USAC stock car races the rest of the year, and the Riverside one was to be his last career event.
Seems to be Hanks was a very pragmatic driver. Perhaps he simply realized he'd been lucky to not succumb to the same fate as many who raced the Brickyard in the 1940s and 50s. He raced in the 1930s, served in World War II (and survived), returned to race after the war and finally won the Indy 500 in 1957. How many times should one stare fate in the face before blinking?
I also think he was practical in the sense he didn't buy into traditional superstitions. This too may have served him well in his years in Indy racing. But he certainly wouldn't have bonded well with the multiple NASCAR drivers who very much subscribed to multiple superstitions.
Other star power drivers (some at the time - some realized through history) made the long trek to the west coast to race in the event including:
- Johnnie Parsons, 1950 Indy 500 winner
- Troy Ruttman, 1952 Indy 500 winner (coincidentally in Agajanian's roadster)
- Jimmy Bryan, who won the 1958 Indy 500 six months after the Riverside stock car race
- Ralph Moody, who'd later partner with John Holman to form a racing powerhouse with Ford Motor Company
- a couple of New Mexico brothers: Jerry and Bobby Unser
- Ron Hornaday Sr., and
- Johnny Mantz, winner of the inaugural Southern 500 in 1950 (thanks Russ Thompson for the picture)
I haven't found enough details at this point to know if the race was a single-day event or a multi-day one. Nor did I find any qualifying speeds or a full race line-up. But the info I found indicated Bobby Unser won the top starting spot. Ruttman started alongside him. Jerry Unser and Hanks made up the second row.
Race preview (click article to open larger version in separate tab)
The race was to be the season-ender for the division. Jerry Unser was leading the points, but Moody still had the opportunity to claim the title. A Moody win would have required a top five finish for Jerry in order for Unser to win the championship.
Jerry Unser wanted to win the title by running competitively in the race - not by coasting throughout the day with a plan of simply keeping up with Moody. Though a full field rundown apparently isn't known, what IS known is that Jerry indeed accomplished his plan.
Ruttman's front row starting spot didn't yield him any benefits. He burned a piston and finished deep in the field. Similarly, pole winner Bobby Unser lost an engine and finished 17th.
Jerry stayed near the front as did Moody. Both watched as Jimmy Bryan lead late in the race. But then Moody fell by the wayside. Barring a catastrophe, Jerry was in great position to win the title. Yet Bryan continued to lead.
Then with just a few laps to go, Bryan developed an engine problem in his Mercury and faded to an 11th place finish. From there, Jerry went to the front, won the race and captured the season title.
As the calendar turned to 1958, Jerry raced in three western states USAC stock car races. Then he headed to the midwest in May for the Indy 500. He survived the month of May and made the show. During the race, however, he was involved in a multi-car wreck that resulted in him catapulting over the wall. Fortunately, he wasn't seriously injured. Sadly, however, the same could not be said one year later. Unser died during a practice run crash while attempting to make his 2nd Indy 500 start.
| Fin | Driver |
| 1 | Jerry Unser |
| 2 | Billy Garrett |
| 3 | Sam Hanks |
| 4 | George Amick |
| 5 | Dick Getty |
| 6 | Rosie Roussel |
| 7 | George Seeger |
| 8 | Dempsey Wilson |
| 9 | Floyd Samson |
| 10 | Larry Dunham |
| 11 | Jimmy Bryan |
| 12 | Ralph Moody |
| 13 | Jack D. McCoy |
| 14 | Gordon Gorman |
| 15 | Jim Cook |
| 16 | Ron Hornaday Sr. |
| 17 | Bobby Unser |
| 18 | Jim Lamport |
| 19 | Johnnie Parsons |
| 20 | Cecil Chambers |
| 21 | Arley Scranton |
| 22 | Danny Oakes |
| 23 | Johnny Mantz |
| 24 | Ray Crawford |
| 25 | Bob Murphy |
| 26 | Cotton Farmer |
| 27 | Marvin Porter |
| 28 | Clem Proctor |
| 29 | Troy Ruttman |
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
A Family Tradition
Trivia
Ha. Didn't mean to rain on the parade. Realized post had been around a few hours & thought I'd climb aboard!
A Family Tradition
Trivia
How about Kathy Earnhardt Oliver, Dale's sister, in the Powerpuff Derby race? Not only entered the race - but won it!
Kyle Busch
Current NASCAR
Under the rules as stated as NASCAR, I have no problem with Kyle Busch winning the Cup. I fully realize I'm in one camp while many others are in another. But as I see it, NASCAR set forth 5 criteria to be eligible for the chance at the title:
- attempt all the races (or get a waiver)
- win a race to get in final 16
- finish 1st 26 races in top 30 of points
- advance with a win or points in 3 'playoff rounds'
- finish ahead of 3 finalists in last race
Busch accomplished ALL of these things.
If anything, I think Kyle had a TOUGHER road to go vs. the others. He accomplished in 15 races what others had the opportunity to do in 26. Winning in Cup isn't easy - just look at my favorite 43 team's futility since 1993 and arguably before. There was no guarantee Busch would win one race much less multiple times upon his return. Matter of fact, I was very doubtful he could pull it off.
The angst most have towards Busch's title (and eligibility for it) IMO are 3-fold:
- He isn't a likable guy. Whether that'll change now that he is a Cup champion remains to be seen. Coach Gibbs even alluded to that fact on the post-race show last night. Hard to pull for a guy who doesn't exactly endear himself to the masses.
- Disdain for Toyota. I've never understood this either. What do folks want? A two-manufacturer series? Dodge ain't coming thru that door. As for Yota being a 'foreign' car make, we're talking CUSTOM BUILT race cars. About the only distinction between the 3 makes to me is a decal on the nose.
- A longing for the return of a season-long championship. I still think that model makes sense too. But that ain't the way it's played these days - and hasn't been for ELEVEN years.
I'm no fan of Rowdy Busch, but in my opinion he is ever bit the deserving champion as anyone else who won the title under the format that existed at that time.
I'm more convinced than ever that race fans are "situationally grounded". It's not right that X driver gets this deal. It's not fair that the points deal is structured thataway. Etc. Until your fave driver would be positively affected! Ha.
- Dale Jr was in an accident at Cali back in the spring. What if he'd been forced to miss 3-4 races because of a concussion. Think the Earnhardt Legion would have been screaming for a medical waiver to allow him to still compete for a title? Book it.
- Kurt Busch missed the first 3 races of the season. Yet he returned, won and advanced to the Chase. Because his brother missed 11 races, little was made of the fact that Kurt also didn't run all 26 races.
- I think we all know how I would have felt if Aric Almirola had won a race for Richard Petty Motorsports - esp early in the season - but was then sidelined for a few weeks for whatever reason. The Petty faithful would be screaming for a waiver.
- And Jeff Gordon may be my most vivid example. He was wiped out in a multi-car crash at Atlanta last spring....errr, winter. IF he had been concussed or suffered other injuries ... and IF he'd had to lay out a few weeks ... and IF he'd returned to win a race ... and IF he'd remained in the top 30 in points, well I think we all know where the public consensus would have taken us.
I realize I'm throwing out a lot of "IF" situations. After all, Kyle Busch IS the 2015 Cup champion. But I continue to ask questions such as:
- Is there an acceptable number of races Kyle could have missed and still been eligible to be in the final 16? He missed 11. Should he have only been allowed 1? How about 7?
- Is there an acceptable number of races he should've won to still been eligible? The dude won 4 of 15 starts. What if he'd REALLY gone on a tear and won 4 more? Would 8 wins in 15 starts been enough to put him into the final 16 - 2x more than the 48 and 20 won in the first 26?
I get how many want a return to the full season championship format. But that isn't what exists. Running all the races is not a prerequisite to determine the champion in today's Cup racing.
What HASN'T happened yet - and I'm guessing COULD happen - is the opposite scenario. What if a chase eligible driver gets hurt at Richmond and can't go in the final 10? Perhaps the rules address it - if so, I don't know about it. Could a replacement driver take a chase eligible car and still be in the mix for the Cup? Seems unlikely, but I really am unclear if it's possible or not.
I think it's fair to debate what we'd like to see as fans for the format of the schedule, the points system, etc. What I'm personally not going to do, however, is disregard the driver who came out on top with the format defined at the beginning of the year.
Racing History Minute - November 15, 1964
Stock Car Racing History
Found a couple of pages re: Scotty Cain from the book City of Speed by Joe Scalzo. Text may not be for tender eyes, but I had to laugh as I read the prose. 
Racing History Minute - November 15, 1964
Stock Car Racing History
Ha. Interesting. Good trivia. Never heard of Cain. But found this article about his reputation on NSSN.
http://www.nationalspeedsportnews.com/racing-history/west-coast-cain-had-a-versatile-racing-repertoire/
Scotty Cain was a tough, hard-nosed driver and a larger-than-life character. His aggressive driving style earned him the nickname The Pecks Bad Boy of Auto Racing and he wasnt afraid to mix it up during his 25-year career.
Racing out of Venice, Calif., Cain came up through jalopy racing, winning at Carrell Speedway, Huntington Beach, Culver City and Veterans Stadium in Long Beach.
Cain was another versatile driver of the era, hopping between track roadsters, stock cars and jalopies while dabbling in midgets. He raced jalopies when their races were televised weekly on Los Angeles stations, first from Culver City and then from Gardena Stadium, the broadcasts reaching a wide area of the southwestern United States.
Cain won at least a couple of CRA feature races and was leading the 500-mile sprint-car race on the Riverside Intl Raceway road course in 1958 when he hit the turn-six wall and lost a wheel off of his Buick-powered Kurtis Indy roadster. Afterward, he concentrated on stock cars, always in Ford products. In July 1958, he raced up Pikes Peak, drove in a USAC stock-car race on the mile at Milwaukee and an ARCA race at Toledo, Ohio.
The main reason Cain is not better known is that he confined most of his racing to the West Coast. In addition to the 1958 foray, he only made two NASCAR starts outside of the West on the beach at Daytona in 1957 and a race at the Charlotte (N.C.) fairgrounds in late 1959 that ended with his T-Bird on fire.
Cain won 11 times on NASCARs Western circuit, with five of those coming in his first championship season of 1967. In 1968, a tight point battle with Ray Elder went down to the final race at Saugus (Calif.) Speedway. Elder needed to finish one position ahead of Cain, and was doing so when forced to pit to change a right-rear tire with just 14 laps to go. Cain went on to finish third, winning his second-consecutive title this one by just two points. At age 48, Cain still ranks as one of the oldest champions in NASCAR touring series history.
Cain competed in NASCARs Western series three more years before retiring as a driver following the 1971 season. He retired to the city hed raced out of for several years Fresno, Calif. where he owned a bar. Scotty Cain passed away on Dec. 2, 1994. Reportedly, he discovered he had cancer after being injured while breaking up a fight at his bar, at age 74. To quote the late Jack McCoy, the career victories leader in NASCARs Western series, All of us in the sport loved the volatile and funny Cain. He was a uniquely colorful guy. Cain was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2002.
Racing History Minute - November 15, 1964
Stock Car Racing History
This post is delayed by one day after the anniversary of a race at Champion Speedway in Brisbane, California. But hey, the race itself was twice delayed back in 1964. So I figure I'm still a bit ahead of the field.
Champion Speedway was located in northern California near San Francisco and very close to Candlestick Park, the former home of the Giants baseball and 49ers football teams.
NASCAR's Pacific Coast late model series was scheduled to make its debut at Champion on Sunday, November 1. As was the case many years with NASCAR's Grand National division, the November 1964 race at Champion was to be the opening race of the 1965 season.
The 200-lap, 100-mile race got a fair amount of coverage from the San Mateo Times newspaper.
Despite the advance planning and promotion for the race, the track simply wasn't ready for prime time. Apparently, the race was to be the first time cars raced 200 laps on the dirt track. With conditions not quite right, the race was postponed to the following Sunday.
The race was rescheduled for Sunday, November 8th. But again, the race was postponed. For the second attempt, however, rain was the issue vs. the condition of the track.
Perhaps in an effort to get the drivers to return for a third time, track promoter Jim McClennan (perhaps with a NASCAR funded subsidy) sweetened the purse pot a bit by adding an extra thousand dollars.
Two 'name' drivers who planned to enter the race were west coast racers Ron Hornaday Sr. and Bill Amick. Back in 1957, Amick won his one and only NASCAR Grand National race in Sacramento. At least records SEEM to indicate his win was scored as a GN victory - though more contemporary records note it as a Pacific Coast late model race (which later evolved into the Winston West Series and today's K&N West Series). See Tim Leeming's RHM for more info about that race.
Amick sported #9 in a font that closely resembles the font used by Richard Petty Motorsports on its Fords raced by Marcos Ambrose and Sam Hornish Jr. 
The date of the race was re-set a third time to Sunday, November 15th. Bill France Sr. came to town to watch the race as well. I would surmise Big Bill wasn't pleased with the two delays. He may have flown in to lecture McLennan and/or Mother Nature.
Even with the two extra weeks of preparation, the track still wasn't quite ready for the heavy cars and 200 laps of racing. But race on they did. Hornaday won the pole and managed his car, traffic and track conditions to score a relatively easy win.
The track conditions were brutal to the field. Only six cars remained on the track at the end of the race. Amick gave Hornaday a good race until several laps past halfway. But after breaking a ball joint, he was done for the day at lap 137.
With Amick's exit, Hornday put his car in the wind and set sail for the remaining 60 or so laps. He easily won by 8 laps over 2nd place finisher Marvin Porter. Coincidentally, Porter would return to Champion about six months later to win the second and final Pacific Coast race at the track on May 2, 1965.
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Ron Hornaday Sr. | 1964 Ford |
| 2 | Marvin Porter | 1964 Ford |
| 3 | Lloyd Dane | 1963 Ford |
| 4 | Johnny Steele | 1963 Ford |
| 5 | Ed Brown | 1963 Oldsmobile |
| 6 | Scotty Cain | 1964 Ford |
| 7 | Bill Amick | 1964 Mercury |
| 8 | Larry Bell | 1964 Ford |
| 9 | Dick Bown | 1964 Plymouth |
| 10 | Dave James | 1964 Dodge |
| 11 | Bruce Worrell | 1963 Chevrolet |
| 12 | Joe Clark | 1964 Ford |
| 13 | Jack McCoy | 1962 Dodge |
| 14 | Carl Joiner | 1962 Chevrolet |
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM