1970 NASCAR Motor Trend 500 Riverside Photographs

By 1970, the American automobile was going through a transformation at light velocity, only surpassed by the technological alterations in the racing globe. As if to underscore that adjust, for the 1st time in the heritage of NASCAR’s Motor Development 500, the magazine’s photographers (who can be at times be witnessed in their extremely-chic gentle blue jumpsuits) would document the full occasion at Riverside Raceway with coloration film. As we glance again at the Motor Craze 500 around a 50 percent century later on, we can easily sympathize with the supporters of the era who had been rocked with an unpopular war overseas, racial strife, and a seemingly insurmountable political divide.

As an overcast sky dawned on Riverside Raceway on January 18, 1970, race teams and spectators were being a million miles from the countrywide discord, picking out in its place on that day to rejoice what produced The united states special. A subject of 44 cars from all about the state (and even one particular from Germany) would choose the environmentally friendly flag at what was quickly the single most tricky track on the NASCAR circuit, and in the most impressive American autos to day to ever hit a keep track of.

Riverside Raceway was brutal. Its quirky elevation improvements, superior-velocity straightaways, diabolical esses, and gravity–defying apexes chewed via flesh like a six-yr-outdated on a bag of gummy bears. And however Riverside would mint kings and grant reprieves, as it experienced with 4-time winner Dan Gurney and, on this day, A.J. Foyt. At the threat of sounding misogynistic, it took a serious male to wrestle the torquey Yank machines around Riverside’s 9 hellish corners. Even then, “actual” adult males typically had been maimed or killed whilst trying to take care of the feat.

Riverside was also a heartbreaker, and on this working day, no person realized that superior than Parnelli Jones. Immediately after putting up the fastest lap in qualifying using Firestone tires with a new compound (Jones was a Firestone supplier, and the brand name was broadly used in the Winston West series at that time), NASCAR deemed the tires unlawful right after Goodyear complained. Jones, alongside with two other cars that experienced on the very same tires (Ray Elder and Jack McCoy), experienced to get started from the back again of the pack, but it barely mattered.

By lap 43, Jones experienced erased the full deficit and was in the guide when he boldly gave the push box the center finger as a gesture to NASCAR officers about the Firestone tire debacle. When his clutch unsuccessful on lap 168 it forced him to pit, providing up the lead to Foyt. “At least we confirmed them who had the very best tires,” Jones quipped to a reporter from the Sunlight-Telegram newspaper.

4 decades earlier, it was Jones who experienced arrive to the support of Foyt, who seasoned brake failure and a horrific crash at the entrance to Turn 9. When observe doctors declared Foyt lifeless so that the race could continue on unabated, Jones ran to Foyt’s crumpled automobile, locating the driver certainly alive. It must’ve been a little bit ironic, then, when Foyt handed Jones on lap 169 to consider the direct, which he preserved to the finish of the race.

Fellow Ford driver Jim Cook dinner (#18) would not be so lucky. As it experienced with so lots of drivers beforehand (together with Foyt), the Turn 9 wall would, immediately after a modest dust-up with David Pearson, eviscerate his ’67 Ford, leaving him in a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. 13 several years later in a unhappy epilog, a homeless drifter would crack into Cook’s Oceanside, California, dwelling and beat him to death with one particular of his racing trophies. (No surviving pictures have been identified of Cook’s Ford, apart from for this unattributed graphic from Trackforum.com.)

Buddy Young’s #31 Ford is seen in this group shot as he performs via the esses in turn five.

Just as the substantial-speed downhill entry to Turn 9 had significant stakes using on it, the exit to the very long, banked flip had slippery outcomes as it opened up to the long, sinuous run to the start off/finish line. Ford driver Buddy Young (#31 Ford), mostly unfamiliar apart from for this famed 1970 close-around-conclusion flip in Riverside’s Turn , would miraculously endure. Nonetheless, besides for a solitary race start out, the crash would—like Cook’s—effectively conclude his NASCAR profession.

Steve Froines in a ’67 Olds leads Joe Frasson (’70 Dodge) through the shorter chute into Change 8.

The march of technologies may not have been so apparent in 1970 as it is now, but it is simpler to location the disparity concerning the autos of the entrance runners and individuals of the back markers when they appear facet by aspect in these historic pics. One only requirements to examine the silhouettes of the more mature cars—such as Dave Alonzo’s 1967 Plymouth or the 1967 Oldsmobile of Steve Froines—with the more recent, manufacturing facility-backed Plymouths, Dodges, Fords, and Mercurys.

Bobby Isaac requires an inside line via Convert 6 though privateer Dave Alonzo steers a broad berth in his older Plymouth.

With their subtly tweaked noses, chin spoilers, Z‘ed front frames, and—in the scenario of the Mopars—rear wings, the factory-backed cars and trucks experienced a apparent-minimize benefit over the privateers operating GM equipment or other more mature devices. A thing as basic as decreasing the nose to the pavement by an inch or two had a profound influence on substantial-speed balance, as ’67 Plymouth driver Dave Alonzo shown on quite a few occasions. (He looped his Mopar two different situations, and as an encore stuffed the Belvedere into a wall of hay bales even afterwards in the race, nonetheless taking care of to complete the party running, sheetmetal intact, a feat only 14 other drivers managed on that working day.)

For all the fanfare, the winged Mopars of the group—six Plymouths and two Dodges—fared only reasonably effectively. The Plymouth of Roger McCluskey—a normal on the USAC circuit—did complete in second place, 3.5 seconds powering winner Foyt, but the major star managing the wing was Dan Gurney in a Petty Enterprises-created Superbird. Notorious for exerting a large-handed technique toward crew in environment up cars, and in mutual comprehending, Gurney was reined in by Petty’s shop so that he was “just” a driver (for 1 race), and that seemed great for the veteran highway racer as he put the huge ‘chicken on the pole (ending sixth) for the model’s first-at any time NASCAR outing.

Dan Gurney’s Petty-designed Superbird places a lap on the ’69 Oldsmobile of Jerry Oliver. Check out the variance in floor clearance and overall body lean among the two.

Early in the race, McCluskey in a Superbird can make a go inside of Buddy Young’s Ford to put him a lap down. Youthful would go through a career-ending end-over-conclude flip later in the race.

The Dodge Daytonas of Dave Marcis and Bobby Allison r
educe through a pack of lapped cars and trucks, their aero edge clearly exhibiting as their noses hug the pavement.

Jimmy Insolo’s ’68 Chevy is possibly the most bitchin’-hunting Chevelle ever found on a road course. Sam Posey in a Cotton Owen’s prepped Charger 500 lurks guiding for the kill. Riverside would be Posey’s only profession NASCAR start off and would close with his brakes locking up, creating a stunning engine hearth.

Brothers Bobby (rear) and Donnie Allison share a moment of respite in the paddock space.

Donnie Allison (L) and Parnelli Jones in discussion upcoming to the Wood Brothers Mercury. It really is probably that Firestone tires (or probably Parnelli’s ailing 429 through qualifying) were the subject of discussion at this position.

Turns 3, 4, and 5—otherwise identified as the esses—were diabolical in their actions, just about every a single of them needing a certain solution. Get a person of them improper, and your full lap was junk.