The 1963 Golden State 400 was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

event that was held on November 3, 1963, at

Riverside International Raceway Riverside International Raceway (sometimes known as Riverside, RIR, or Riverside Raceway) was a motorsports race track and road course established in the Edgemont area of Riverside County, California, just east of the city limits of Riverside ...

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

. The transition to purpose-built racecars began in the early 1960s and occurred gradually over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s.

Background

race track A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also u ...

road course Road racing is a form of motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held either on a closed circuit or on a street circuit utilizing temporarily closed public roads. Originally, road races were held almost entirely on publ ...

Moreno Valley, California Moreno Valley is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and is part of the Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario metropolitan area. It is the second-largest city in Riverside County by population and one of the Inland Empire's p ...

. 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 (), the short course (), and the

() course. The original racetrack had a 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 to resolve itself;

Darel Dieringer Darel Dieringer (June 1, 1926 – October 28, 1989) was an American professional stock car racing driver. He ran 181 NASCAR Grand National Series races during his career, notably racing for Bud Moore Engineering and Junior Johnson & Associates. ...

defeated

Dave MacDonald David George MacDonald (July 23, 1936 – May 30, 1964) was an American road racing champion noted for his successes driving Corvettes and Shelby Cobras in the early 1960s. At the age of 27, he was killed in the 1964 Indianapolis 500, alon ...

by at least one lap. Dave MacDonald led most of this race until he lost 3rd gear. More than 32000 people would watch a 148-lap race on a road course spanning and speeds averaging .

Dan Gurney Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racing's highest levels starting in 1958. Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, ...

won the pole position driving at speeds of up to but

Marvin Panch Marvin Panch (May 28, 1926December 31, 2015) was an American stock car racing driver. Winner of the 1961 Daytona 500 and 1966 World 600, he won seventeen NASCAR Grand National Series events during a 17-year career. Early career Born in Menomon ...

substituted for him on the day of the race. Only one caution was given out for the entire racing event. Forty-one American-born races would qualify for this race and Bruce Worrell would finish in last place due to an

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

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. 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 pretty good run going early in this one as led 20 laps right at the start before the transmission failed in his signature #28 Ford. Ken Miles, a legendary sports car racer with the Ford GT40 program, makes his only NASCAR start and finishes just outside the top-10 despite obtaining a considerable amount of damage during the race. 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. The race purse would add up to $33,780 ($ when adjusted for inflation); with the winner receiving $7,875 ($ when adjusted for inflation) and the last place finisher receiving only $200 ($ when adjusted for inflation). Joe Weatherly would go on to win the 1963 title over Richard Petty, who overshadowed Weatherly in nearly every statistical category that year. 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 who actively participated in the race were Herb Nab, Bradley Denis, Mario Rossi, and Louis Clements.

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "The King", is an American former stock car racing driver who raced from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notabl ...

attempted to drive five laps using

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving c ...

but his transmission failed after only five laps into the race; proving that NASCAR may always be for vehicles with

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...

. He would go on to become a replacement driver for Junior Johnson; although Johnson got credit for the fifth-place finish.

Qualifying

Failed to qualify:

Danny Weinberg Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to the male name Daniel. It may refer to: People * Danny Altmann, British immunologist * Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer *Danny Baker (born 1957), English journal ...

(#3),

A. J. Foyt Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. (born January 16, 1935) is an American retired auto racing driver who has raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes United States Automobile Club Champ cars, sprint cars, and midget cars. H ...

Parnelli Jones Rufus Parnell Jones (born August 12, 1933) is an American former professional racing driver and racing team owner. He is notable for his accomplishments while competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000 desert race. In 1962, he became the ...

Rodger Ward Rodger M. Ward (January 10, 1921 – July 5, 2004) was a World War II Lockheed_P-38_Lightning, P-38 aviator in the United States Army Air Forces, and an American race driver with 26 victories in top echelon open-wheel racing in North America ...

Roger Penske Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, t ...

Driver change:

(#121) replaced by

Top 10 finishers

Timeline

Section reference: * Start of race: Fred Lorenzen leaves the start/finish line as the lead driver. * Lap 1: Rex White had a terminal crash, forcing him to retire from the race. * Lap 22: Dave MacDonald takes over the lead from Fred Lorenzen. * Lap 42: Paul Goldsmith had a terminal crash, forcing him out of the race. * Lap 44: Bob Bondurant had a terminal crash, forcing him out of the race. * Lap 67: Scotty Cain fell out with engine failure. * Lap 74: Chuck Shove fell out with engine failure. * Lap 77: Darel Dieringer takes over the lead from Dave MacDonald. * Lap 80: Dave MacDonald takes over the lead from Darel Dieringer. * Lap 116: Darel Dieringer takes over the lead from Dave MacDonald. * Lap 117: Jimmy Pardue's vehicle had a major case of transmission issues. * Lap 118: Dave MacDonald takes over the lead from Darel Dieringer. * Lap 119: Darel Dieringer takes over the lead from Dave MacDonald. * Lap 133: Jim Cook had a terminal crash, forcing himself to exit the race prematurely. * Lap 134: Pete Brock managed to run out of fuel while racing. * Finish: Darel Dieringer was officially declared the winner of the event.

References

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Golden State 400 The Budweiser 400 was an annual summer NASCAR Winston Cup race held from 1970 to 1988 at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California, United States. A 400-mile race was also run at the track in November 1963. The race distance was 400 ...

NASCAR races at Riverside International Raceway