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

Stock Car Racing History

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

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

Stock Car Racing History

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.

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

Stock Car Racing History

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

updated by @cody-dinsmore: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

This day in history: November 22, 1976 (Ontario) and 1982 Riverside Intl Raceway

Stock Car Racing History

Very awesome photos coming from this thread!

Bobby Rahal's Only Cup Start as Sponsored Teammate to Derrike Cope & Kyle Petty - November 18, 1984

Stock Car Racing History

Very cool Dave! I bet you were holding your breath if all three were running together!?! lol

Unlike the "Boxy Birds" of previous years...I thought this era of Thunderbirds made beautiful racecars. However, much better with race paint than in 'street clothes'.

Thank Goodness for The Rules of Engagement

Current NASCAR

Some of you may have noticed tonight when Paul Menard had his tire go down.....he was on track for atleast 1 1/2 laps until he came in. The car was shooting flames and dropping debris all over the track, but no caution. Why, you may ask?? Because Dale Earnhardt Jr was gaining on his newly gained lead. The caution didn't fly until Menard's tire exploded in pit lane and smoke was filling the sky, probably would've affected driving conditions.

Thank Goodness for The Rules of Engagement

Current NASCAR

Hahahahaha!

Thank Goodness for The Rules of Engagement

Current NASCAR

NASCAR will always pamper and do ANYthing for #3.....no matter the series, who's driving, etc. Surprisingly pretty good racing until that point. In my opinion, NASCAR really screwed the #12.

World 600 Qualifying + Waylon Jennings + Beer = Grandstand Riot

Stock Car Racing History

Interesting thread....learned about Delma Cowart, and I do like Waylon....didn't know that his name was ever on a car!

So What If the Chase was Implemented Back in the Day??

Stock Car Racing History

I know many, if not most are NOT fans of the 'chase'......however, I came across this article and found it intriguing. The person who converted all of this stuff, definitely was busy for a while.

-Cody

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=3576522

updated by @cody-dinsmore: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM