Full Throttle

(NOTE, this is part of the Good Old Days series of posts. When applicable they will highlight various points of interest from that weeks Sprint Cup venue or geographic area.)

The now defunct Ontario Motor Speedway was located east of Los Angeles; the oval was a 2.5 mile duplicate of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Despite hosting Indy Cars and NASCAR it was never a financial success, and in response to rising property values it was sold to developers.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the speedway was held on September 24, 1968. Actor Kirk Douglas was one of many who spoke at the event (see Hollyweird participation isn’t a new phenomena).

NASCAR’s history at OMS started as the Miller High Life 500 with A.J. Foyt taking the first two wins in 1971-72. Foyt wheeled a Wood Brothers Mercury in ‘71 and recorded the win as the 1,000^th NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National race run to that point in time.

In years 1974 through 1980 the race was known as the Los Angeles Times 500 and was won in order by; Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, David Pearson, Neil Bonnett, Bobby Allison and Benny Parsons in ‘79 & ‘80.

The 1974 event featured a controversy not unlike those of today. Bobby Allison drove an AMC Matador to a surprise victory. During post race inspection, NASCAR officials discover the Roger Penske-owned Matador wass equipped with illegal roller tappets. The team kept the win but was fined a than record $9,100.

Put another way, the more things in NASCAR change, the more they stay the same.

Riverside International raceway had a long and storied history. From 1970-81, the NASCAR Sprint Cup season opened not with the Daytona 500 but rather in the Golden State, at the Riverside road course.

Dan Gurney won at Riverside five times (1963-85,