Sunday 20th January 1963

Dan Gurney drove a Holman-Moody Ford to victory in the ‘Motor Trend 500’ NASCAR Grand National race at Riverside International Raceway. Gurney earned $14,400 for his first NASCAR GN win, leading 110 of the 185 laps in a race which took 6 hours to run. A.J. Foyt’s Pontiac was 36 seconds behind. 3rd through 10th was a who’s who: Troy Ruttman, Fireball Roberts, Bobby Johns, Ned Jarrett, rookie Billy Wade, Jim Pardue, West Coast champ Danny Letner and Joe Ruttman in his first start. Richard Petty tried an automatic transmission, but it broke on lap 27. Point leader Jim Paschal flipped a dozen times, was unhurt, but fell to 14th in points. Pardue took over the points lead ahead of Jarrett.