Background
Riverside International Raceway a race track or road course in Moreno Valley, California. The track was in operation from September 22, 1957, to July 2, 1989. The original course design proved to be dangerous, and it was partially reconfigured in 1969.
The track was built to accommodate several different configurations, depending on the type of car and race length. The three options on Riverside Raceway were the long course (3.27 miles (5.26 km)), the short course (2.5 miles (4.0 km)), and the NASCAR (2.62 miles (4.22 km)) course. The original racetrack had a 1.1-mile (1.8 km) backstretch from 1957 to 1968. When the track was redesigned in 1969, Turn 9 was reconfigured with a wider radius and a dogleg approach added to reduce strain on the cars' brakes.
Race report
This event took four hours and twenty-one seconds; Darel Dieringer defeated Dave MacDonald by one lap. [2] MacDonald led most of this race until he lost 3rd gear. [2]
More than 32000 people would watch the 148-lap race on a road course spanning 2.700 miles (4.345 km) and speeds averaging 91.465 miles per hour (147.199 km/h). [2] [3] Dan Gurney won the pole position at a speed of 101.050 miles per hour (162.624 km/h) but Marvin Panch substituted for him on the day of the race. [2] Only one caution was waved for the entire race. [2] [3] Forty-one American-born racers would qualify and Bruce Worrell would finish in last place due to an engine problem on the first lap of the race. This would end up becoming the only 1963 race of 300 miles or more where a Holman-Moody Ford failed to secure a place in the top two. [4]
Fred Lorenzen only ran just over half the races, focusing on the super speedways, and finished third in points by a good margin over Ned Jarrett, who ran nearly all of them. Lorenzen had a good run going early as he led 20 laps at the start before the transmission failed in his #28 Ford. [5]
Ken Miles, a legendary sports car racer with the Ford GT40 program, made his only NASCAR start and finished just outside the top-10 despite obtaining a considerable amount of damage during the race. [2] [3] Miles was a test driver for Carroll Shelby and he wasn't the only Shelby-connected competitor in this race as Pete Brock, the designer of the iconic Shelby Daytona Coupe, made his only NASCAR Cup start and brought home the #211 Kraco Safety Belts Mercury with a top-20 despite being sidelined by fuel problems. [2] [3] The race purse would add up to $33,780 ($355,241 when adjusted for inflation); with the winner receiving $7,875 ($82,816 when adjusted for inflation) and the last place finisher receiving $200 ($2,103 when adjusted for inflation). [6]
Joe Weatherly would go on to win the 1963 title over Richard Petty, who overshadowed Weatherly in nearly every statistical category that year. [7] The points were paid per the "importance" of each race. Superspeedway races were paid a certain higher amount. 250 mile major short track races were paid a little lower and short track races of less than 250 miles were paid the lowest amount.
Notable crew chiefs in the race were Herb Nab, Bradley Denis, Mario Rossi, and Louis Clements. [8] Richard Petty attempted to drive this race using an automatic transmission but his transmission failed only five laps into the race. He would go on to become a replacement driver for Junior Johnson; although Johnson got credit for the fifth-place finish.
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