Racing History Minute - 1969 Motor Trend 500 - Riverside Raceway

After two consecutive Sundays of torrentials rains in Southern California, where the old song tells us it "never rains", the third race of the 1969 season got underway on the 2.7 mile road course at Riverside California. A. J. Foyt won the pole with a speed of 110.323 mph in a Jack Bowsher Ford. LeeRoy Yarbrough in Junior Johnson's Ford would start second, Dan Gurney in a Wood Brothers Mercury third, Richard Petty in his first outing in a Petty Ford was fourth, and David Pearson in a Holman-Moody Ford would start fifth. Al Unser, in a Dodge starting sixth was the first non-Ford Motor Company vehicle to line up.

A.J. Foyt led the first 27 laps before LeeRoy Yarbrough slipped in to lead one lap. On lap 29, Mario Andrette managed to take over the first spot and he held it untill lap 32 when A. J. Foyt once more returned to the number one position. LeeRoy went back in front on lap 51 for six laps before Foyt took over once more. Petty moved his blue Ford out front for the first time on lap 78 but would give up that lead on lap 82 as Yarbrough moved back out front. On lap 89, Petty would take over and lead the remaining laps until the checkered flag fell on lap 186. The race ended with an average speed of 105.498 mph. assisted by the lack of any full course caution flag, and for the first time the race was run in less than 5 hours as Petty completed the 500 miles in 4 hours, 45 minutes and 37 seconds.

Although Richard Petty had already won 92 times in his career but he admittedly had problems on road courses. After the race he said he didn't have much expereience on road courses because "I can't stay on one long enough" to get the expereience. He did, in fact, spin off the track twice during his run to victory before 46,300 fans who make the trek to Riverside for the third Sunday in a row.

David Pearson sought, and received, relief from Parnelli Jones, a previous winner of the event, and was credited with third place in the final rundown. Five time race winner, Dan Gurney, who started third in this event, spun and backed his car into hay bales in turn nine. He would later depart the race as his engine failed on lap 66. Cale Yarborough's mount developed mechanical problems on lap 81 and was done for the day and LeeRoy blew an engine with five laps to go but still managed to achieve a sixth place finish. Only 14 of the 44 starters were around at the finish of the race.

Finishing order:

1. Richard Petty, Petty Engineering Ford, winning $19,650.00

2. A. J. Foyt, Jack Bowsher Ford, winning $10,200.00 (25 seconds behind)

3. David Pearson, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $6,775.00 (2 laps down)

4. Al Unser, Robbins Electric Dodge, winning $3,825.00 (3 laps down)

5. James Hylton, Hylton Engineering Dodge, winning $2,450.00 (9 laps down)

6. Lee Roy Yarbrough

7. Ray Elder

8. Scotty Cain

9. John Sears

10. Harold Hardesty

11. Ray Johnstone

12. Dick Bown

13. Neil Castles

14.Henley Gray

15. Bobby Allison

16. Randy Dodd

17. Marvin Sjolin

18. Mario Andretti

19.Elmo Langley

20. Paul Dorrity

21. Dr. Don Tarr

22. Roger McCluskey

23. Wendell Parnell

24. Cale Yarborough

25. Frank Burnett

26. Dan Gurney

27. Sam Rose, Jr.

28. Robert Link

29. J. D. McDuffie

30 Cliff Garner

31. Jerry Oliver

32. Ralph Arnold

33. Don White

34. Mary Kinert

35. Jack McCoy

36. Robert Hale

37. Parnelli Jones

38.Bobby Isaac

39. Guy Jones

40. David James

41. Joe Frasson

42. Jim Cooke

43. Johnny Steele

44. Bob England

PERSONAL NOTE: My distain for the "Petty Ford" is well documented so I won't rehash that note, but to Dave Fulton, I do have, on the wall right here in The Lair, one of the Racing Champions 1/64 Scale diecast of the Petty Ford. Back in those days, most fans, as you know, were VERY brand loyal, as I was to Plymouth. I had spent all those previous years pulling for Richard believing every other make, except the Dodges and Chryslers, were the enemies and I wasn't even too sure about the Dodges and Chryslers!

As most regular readers of these History Minutes know, I do NOT usually report on a Petty victory as TMC Chase handles the Petty wins very, very well. However, as I have dedicated January to the history of the Riverside Race, I decided to continue in the chronological order of the events knowing that Chase will have a great addition to this post from his extensive Petty data bank.

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

I blogged about this race about 2 years ago as part of my year-long 200 Wins series.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/02/february-1-this-day-in-pet...

I'll include edited version here as well.

The race was originally scheduled for Sunday, January 19, 1969. Because of heavy rains on two consecutive Sundays, the race was eventually run on Saturday, February 1.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

The win was not only Petty's first in seven starts at Riverside, but it was also his first win in his first start for Ford Motor Company. About two months earlier, Petty stunned the racing community by announcing a switch from Plymouths to Fords beginning in 1969. So to win in his first race with his new Torino was a huge boost to the Blue Oval team and fans.

Poster buikwag from JalopyJournal.com's H.A.M.B . attended the race and gave me permission to share a couple of his great photos here (more photos from the race can be seen at the H.A.M.B. link).
Race day!

Hugging the corner tight in turn 9.

Pit stop photo courtesy of Ray Lamm

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday baby!

Article and SCR cover courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

Younger race fans can't even begin to imagine how we felt when the news was announced that Richard would drive for Ford in 1969. Betrayed is one word that comes to mind.

They can come close by imagining Jeff Gordon in a Ford. Even though he was part of the Ford team before Hendrick stole him. Ford was understandably upset and history shows they had a right to be. He swears that he'll always drive Chevy, but things can change when times get desperate and better Ford than Toyota.

Jeff's quickly becoming irrelevant though, so let's pick Junior, another Hendrick driver. His daddy drove Fords and Dodges before Childress, but both of them are now firmly in the Chevy camp.

Bill Elliott was a big Ford man and upset a lot of people when he went to Dodge. I can't think of a solid Ford driver today. Used to be Mark Martin but he's driven Chevys and Toyotas lately. The Blue Oval hasn't had many championships lately and that makes it hard to have a front man. I don't think Keslowski and Edwards have the star power.

Only reason Petty won this race is because Ford had won every race up to this point and knew how to set up the cars. Gurney was on the Petty team in 1970 and he probably taught Richard a little more.

I never see race wins highlighted in magazines anymore. They used to be a big thing, especially in the weekly papers like Autoweek. Not just the car makers but also spark plugs and motor oil. You'd think they'd want to get some milegae out of ll that money they spend.

The [ Henry Ford Arte House Dave Friedman collection ] has 657 photos from his race available on-line. Perusing all of them oughta last ya a while. Ha.

Jeff will be happy to sell you a used Ford!

I miss those WIN ads, too, Andy.

Although the GN race was postponed twice, Riverside was able to complete its preliminary race on January 18th - well a rain-shortened version of it anyway.

Ol' Hershel McGriff came out of a long retirement to capture the Permatex 200 in a 1957 Chevrolet.

Here is a 1985 LA Times article where McGriff reflected back on that win.

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-06-01/sports/sp-5444_1_short-track-races

I think I see why Hersh returned to racing over the next few years after winning at Riverside.

And McGriff's victory was briefly mentioned in the Spartanburg Herald's race preview article.

You had better believe it Dave. You should have heard some of the conversations between Richard and me. Funny now, and probably funny to him then, but weren't to me.

The photos available a couple of years ago at The Henry Ford Arte House look to have been moved or duplicated on Flickr. Some real gems in this gallery of over 650 photos.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thehenryford/albums/72157662963847560

Preview and race reports for the Permatex 200 LMS race from the January 18-19 San Bernardino County Sun.

A.J. Foyt celebrated his birthday at Riverside following his pole win.

Interesting also to read of NASCAR's clean-shaven and short hair policy. Guessing folks like Chocolate Myers, Greg Moore, Dick Brooks, Tim Richmond and others would have had a problem with that in the years to come. Curious the origin of the policy. Perhaps NASCAR was trying to separate itself to the right politically away from the rising tide of vocal protests against Vietnam - including many who sported long hair and beards in that era.

1969 was the year that riots by the long haired set were at their zenith around California college campuses, but about 4 years before the King sported his Fu Manchu:

Found updated link for photos from Henry Ford Arte House. I believe same collection is at both places: HFAH site and Flickr.

http://thehenryford.artehouse.com/perl/collection.pl?productTypeID=62&collectionID=2836&pgNumber=1&seeAllImages=1&sortBy=createdDate