Racing History Minute - 1981 Winston Western 500 (311.78 miles)
Stock Car Racing History
January 11, 1981, started as a rainy morning at the Riverside road course but 35,000 excited race fans took the chance and bought tickets anyway. By race time, the showers had abated and the fans were to be treated to the last race for the full size stock cars as NASCAR was going to the small wheel-based cars across the board starting with Daytona the next month. There were some of the smaller cars entered in the Riverside race, but most remained the cars from the previous year.
Darrell Waltrip, in his first ride in the Junior Johnson Buick, snagged the pole with a speed of 114.711. Bobby Allison in the Harry Ranier Chevrolet would start second while third place starting position went to Ricky Rudd in the DiGard Chevrolet vacated by D.W. Terry Labonte would start Billy Hagan's Chevy fourth and Roy Smith would start the Robert (Bob) Beadle Oldsmobile fifth. Roy was a Winston West driver and he excited the west coast fans with the fine qualifying effort but unfortunately he departed the race on lap 25 when the engine quit in the Olds.
D.W. would lead the first three laps but on lap four he took the Junior Johnson Buick for a ride in the dirt and had to pit. Further problems awaited Waltrip on the pit stop as fouled spark plugs had to be changed and that took the Johnson crew more that 1 minute and 45 seconds to complete. By the time Waltrip had endured all his woes, he was 11 laps off the pace and would manage to keep the car on track to finish 17th, still 11 laps behind the winner.
Ricky Rudd, then a young driver from Chesapeake, Virginia, who had started third in the DiGard Chevy, ran strong in the top five for 98 laps before the engine expired. Tim Richmond, the 1980 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, was competing in his first road race but didn't have much chance to show his talent as the D. K. Ulrich Chevy had mechanical problems forcing Tim to park the car on lap 53.
The Petty team, in an effort to exploit NASCAR's Winners Circle Plan, had Kyle Petty driving number 43 and Richard was driving number 42. The object was to get the number 42 on the winners plan where the 43 already occupied a spot, thereby having both Petty entries assured extra money for future events. After, note AFTER the race, NASCAR determined that such a move was not exactly within the scope of the stated intentions of the plan and said "go back to your own number Richard".
After D. W. had his off track experience, Terry Labonte took over first spot. On lap 12 Dave Marcis pushed his own Chevrolet to the front where he would stay for two laps. Labonte got back in front and cruised along in the lead until lap 34 when Richard Childress got an opportunity to lead a couple laps. Neil Bonnett in the Wood Brothers Ford took over onlap36 and he would lead for six laps. The transmission would fail in the famed Ford on lap 66 forcing Bonnett to view the rest of the race from the pits. Childress was back out front from laps 43 to 45 before Richard Petty took over for 3 laps. From lap 50 to lap 104, the lead changed hands several times betwee Bonnett, Bobby Allison, Joe Millikan, Richard Childress, Ricky Rudd and Terry Labonte. On lap 105 of the 119, Bobby Allison moved in front and began to slowly pull away from Terry Labonte, to win by 1.75 seconds.
There were six caution flags for 31 laps which slowed the average race speed to 95.263 mph, which kept the spectators in their seats for 3 hours 18 minutes and 18 seconds. The 1977 Monte Carlo was destined to be the last full size car to win a NASCAR Grand National race.
After the race, Bobby said "I want to put all the effort I can into trying to win the champioinship. To do that, I'm going to cut down my short track (Sportsman) activity". Bobby did give it a good run in the 1981 season but it was not to be for him as he would finish second to D.W. at the end of the year. Not to get ahead of ourselves here but it is incumbent upon us to recognize that Bobby did go on to win a championship just 2 years later.
Finishing order:
1. Bobby Allison, Ranier Racing Chevrolet, winning $24,600.00
2. Terry Labonte, Billy Hagan Chevrolet, winning $19,600.00 (1.73 seconds back)
3. Dale Earnhardt, Rod Osterlund Chevrolet, winning $16,325.00
4. Richard Childress, Childress Chevrolet, winning $8,510.00
5. Richard Petty, Petty Enterprises Chevrolet, winning $4,250.00
TOP FIVE ALL ON LEAD LAP
6. Jim Robinson
7. Jody Ridley
8. Elliott Forbes-Robinson
9. Buddy Arrington
10. Don Waterman
11. James Hylton
12. John Bornerman
13. Joe Millikan
14. Don Whittington
15. Harry Gant
16. Benny Parsons
17. Darrell Waltrip
18. Jimmy Means
19. Ricky Rudd
20. Kyle Petty
21. Bob Bondurant
22. Bill Schmitt
23. J. D. McDuffie
24. Steve Pfeifer
25. John Gunn
26. Rick McCray
27. Neil Bonnett
28. Dave Marcis
29. Tim Richmond
30. Jimmy Insolo
31. Roy Smith
32. Don Puskarich
33. Hershell McGriff
34. Lake Speed
35. Robert Tartaglia
36. Cecil Gordon
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
