History 1969 Riverside International NASCAR Pics

Here are some pictures I took at a 1969 Riverside International NASCAR Race. How many cars and drivers can you identify. Most were taken looking at turn 9. Enjoy








































[More to Come!!!!

 

Heres some more.
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Thats All Folks!!!!

 

Cool old Pics, Thanx

 

Great vintage Stock Car pics!

 

I know the number 1 car is AJ Foyt in a Jack Bowsher Ford

 

Those vintage car pics. will show more inspiration with today's car racers. Thanks for sharing them

 

awesome race track

 

I'm pretty sure 121 was Dan Gurney...

 

Dan Gurney driving the #121 Mercury Cyclone.
Thanks for sharing the pics!

Edit: 3 min. late!!!

 

One of the rare occasions you would see Richard Petty in a Ford (blue 43). I believe Chrysler had pulled back on factory support money at the time and the King briefly drove a Torino.

 

Great pics, do you have any from 1970?

 

Petty wanted to switch to Dodge so he could use the Daytona on the big tracks. Chrysler wanted him to stay with the boxy Roadrunner, so he went over to Ford. Next thing you know, Plymouth came up with the Superbird to lure Petty back for the '70 season.

Petty won the race in these photos. It was his first win on a road course and 100th of his career.

And that's more than you ever wanted to know I'm sure!

 

I think 71 is Pete Hamilton.
Car 21 is the Wood Brothers entry usuall driven by David Pearson.

Check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Motor_Trend_500

 

Bobby Isaac in the 71, Cale Yarborough in the 21

Here's the whole list:

http://www.racing-reference.info/race/1969_Motor_Trend_500/W

 

Love it,

Stock cars, World Class drivers, bales of hay, and the Thunder of an American V8 !

 

That's when NASCAR was real! Win on Sunday buy on Monday. Hey Isn't that where they put that really cool mall in Moreno Valley? I think I've been there once. What a waist of land. I use to go to Orange county raceway for the drag racing. I think there's houses there now. Things were better then!

 

F*ck ya! Love 'em!

 

That sign stood proudly next to the 60 Freeway up until 1988 when it and the raceway was torn down to make room for a Mall, Starbucks, and Walgreens. This was back when that area was called Sunnymeed. Fantastic photos. Thanks very much for posting them. And yes, 1970 pics showing "Winged Warriors" would be great too.

 

Great pic's!!!!!!

 

Awesome pictures! I remember those days well!
Thanks for sharing!!

 

Nice stuff Buikwag, thanks for sharing them! I've always hated that I didn't go see a race at Riverside.

 

Those are great photos! I loved Riverside. I first went for the '72 Can-am and went to dozens of races after right up until it closed. Took thousands of pics. Your pics were shot from between turn 5 and 6 and are looking at the entry of T6. It's a great angle because you can see why T6 was so tricky. The entry was uphill then it flattened out in the middle. The NASCAR boys really only used half of T6. Instead of going all the way around 6 and down to 7, they would go halfway through 6 and then take the short chute to 8 and then down the backstraight.

Here's a shot from the last NASCAR race in 1988.


Kurt O.

 

The Daytona did not exist in the fall of 1968, when Petty switched to Ford. There is some truth that he may have wanted the more slippery Charger 500 that was coming out, and that Plymouth had no plans for a special aerodynamic body at the time. That is the often published reason. But there is more to it.

The other major reason for the switch was that Lee Petty wanted the Chrysler race car building and parts distribution business that was operated by Nichels Engineering. Nichels was to Chrysler what Holman-Moody was to Ford. If you raced an oval track Dodge or Plymouth in any professional series, either the car was built, or the parts flowed through Nichels. At the time it was a pretty lucative deal. Lee had been unable to get Chrysler to give him the contract for several years, mainly for political reasons. Leaving for Ford gave the Pettys leverage knowing that Chrysler would do just about anything to get them back. And that is what happened. Petty got the car building deal for 1971. The creation of the Superbird was icing on the cake.

 

Great pictures. Back whe NASCAR was the real deal.

 

I think you're right about the location. In the 80's that's where I always sat (yes, we sat so everyone could see-unless something really exciting happened), Richard Petty every lap had the inside front tire off the ground over the bump strips coming into 6.

 

I was delighted to see the photos in this thread. Every bit of RIR material is of interest to me, an addict since 1960. Came to this forum by way of a message on the Yahoo! Riverside International Raceway group.

For those who haven't had the joyful experience of RIR in the flesh, I hope my RIR pages will alleviate your suffering to some extent.

You might also be interested in Dave Smith's photos from SoCal 1940s and '50s racing at Carrell Speedway and other such ovals.


Now I have to go catch up with the HAMB. I think I'm five million or so posts behind...

Cheers! (Hi, Kurt!)

frank s
San Diego CA USA

 

43 on a ford WTF over

 

Thanks for sharing the pics!! Riverside has always been my favorite road course.

Marty
Marysville, OH

 

hey ,

Awesome pics you have posted , these pics makes me remember of Formula1 races and other car races. Interesting stuff you hve posted i must say that keep on psoting these kinds of pics.

 

Great pics of the golden 60's, thanks for sharing.