Remember When They Beat the Cup Boys?

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Remember when they beat the cup boys? Ray Elder, The Racing Farmers, and The Rise of the NASCAR Winston West Series, by Daniel Simone. Shortly after the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025 nominees were announced, two time Daytona 500 winner and NASCAR Hall of Famer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted, Ray Elder won six NASCAR Winston Series championships in 1969, 70, 71, 72, 74, and 75.

Ray Elder would compete with the NASCAR Cup regulars when they ran at Riverside and beat them in 71 and again in 72. Yet Ray Elder was not one of the nominees. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the Elder family raced and grew alfalfa, beans, and cotton in their farm in [00:01:00] tiny Carruthers, California. With Ray at the wheel, older brother Richard atop the pit box, and father Fred handling ownership, the racing farmers dominated the competitive NASCAR Winston West Series for years.

They also held their own when NASCAR Cup Series regulars visited Riverside. Elder finished in the top five on eight occasions from 1971 to 1976, claiming two victories. Elder and fellow Winston West competitors such as Herschel McGriff, Dick Bown, Jimmy Insolo, and Jack McCoy helped facilitate the growth and development of NASCAR west of the Rocky Mountains.

It wasn’t too long after the racing farmers returned to the fields that a new crop of West Coast stars began to compete full time and win championships at the national level in the NASCAR Cup Series. Daniel J. Simone earned his PhD in American history from the University of Florida in 2009, where he wrote his dissertation, Racing Region and the Environment, the History of American Motorsports.

From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Simone taught world history and environmental [00:02:00] history at Monmouth University in New Jersey. And in 2016, he was hired as curator of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, and held that position through 2021. The following year, Dr. Simone was tabbed to assist the New York Historical Society Museum and Library, where he co processed the Women’s Sports Foundation collection and developed content for digital exhibition.

Dr. Simone is on the editorial board of the Journal of Motorsports Culture and History and serves on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame voting committee. NASCAR held its first season in 1948. That inaugural season primarily featured modified and roadster competition. In 1949, the Strictly Stock Division was formed, the predecessor of today’s Cup Series.

The following year, NASCAR head William H. G. Big Bill Franz, Sr. renamed the Strictly Stock Division as the Grand National Series. Most events were held in the Southeast, with a handful in the Northeast and Middle West. The following year, in 1951, well aware of stock car racing’s growing national popularity, France sanctioned Grand National races out West for the first time, [00:03:00] scheduling five events in California.

The Grand National Series returned to California in 1954, and that same year a new division, the NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model Division, was instituted. Teams and drivers in regionally and locally sponsored stock cars competed mostly in California with occasional events in Oregon and Washington.

During the 1950s, Pacific Coast Division drivers did occasionally venture east to race in Grand National events. And beginning in 1959, it was not uncommon for West Coasters to trek to Florida to 500. Early on, West Coast racers Marvin Panch and Dick Rathman found success in the Grand National Division.

From Panj claimed 21 polls and placed in the top five 96 times in just over 200 events. Included in the 17 wins, Hanch won the 1961 Daytona 500, driving for brilliant mechanic Smokey Unik, and swept a pair of races at Atlanta with Wood Brothers Racing in 1965. His final win came driving for Petty [00:04:00] Enterprises at Charlotte in 1966.

Grafman competed in three full seasons in the Grand National Division, from 1952 through 1954, finishing 5th, the points. He tallied 13 wins. Rathman also ran well in open wheelers, placing 4th in the 1956 Indy 500 and claiming Pullet Indy the following year. Some of the early greats of the Pacific Coast late model division included Lloyd Dane.

He won the first championship in 1954 and prevailed again in 56 and 57. California’s Eddie Gray won in 58, 61, and 62. Yes, racing is a family sport. Ron Hornaday Sr. was back to back champion in 1963 and again the following year. By the mid 1960s, however, the stage was set for a new group of West Coast drivers to take over the series.

Ray Elder always insisted that his success was the team’s success. And during interviews, Ray would always refer to the team and use we instead of I. Here is Ray Elder and the Racing Farmer [00:05:00] story. Born in 1942, Ray Elder grew up on a farm in tiny Carothers, California. He participated in 4 H activities as a youth but was best known at Layton High School and the surrounding area as a dominating force on the line for the Layton football team.

He was selected as a state all star in his senior year and played in the regional all star game. Upon graduation, Elder attracted offers to play football but was uninterested in going to college. He preferred a career staying home and working the family farm and pursuing a new passion. Auto racing.

Ray’s older brother, Richard, also developed an interest in motorsports, as did their father, Fred. And so in 1962, on a one fifth mile track with a thick, wet, clay surface at Selma, California, the Elders began participating in 99 Klamer car races. And for the next few years, the small team competed at California Short Tracks, gathering experience on the track and under the hood.

It did not take long for Ray Elder to make his mark, becoming the Watsonville Track Champion and the [00:06:00] California Limited Sportsman Stock Car Champion in 1965. One competitor of note during those early years was Nick Urban, the father of 1991 Daytona 500 winner Ernie Urban. In the following year, in 1966, the Elders were on their way.

Farmers preferred Dodge automobiles, Firestone tires, the number 96, and blue and white colors. Fred Elder was the car owner on record. Fred was a farmer and a motor parts wholesaler who also worked on race cars. Ray’s older brother, little Richard, was an imposing man who weighed in at 300 pounds, peaking close to 350 at times.

It’s not that Richard wasn’t interested in getting behind the wheel in 1962, but he had a tough time doing so. And he had severe asthma. So Richard became the crew chief. Ray, meanwhile, was also bigger than most racers, coming in at 5’11 220 pounds when he was in his beak shape. He was built more like a fullback than he was a lineman.

The early rendition of the Racing Farmers included a crew consisting of friends and family. Walt Koop, Bob Turner, Aaron Eberle, and Ronald Koop. The engine [00:07:00] specialist throughout the Racing Farmers run of excellence was Tim Crabtree. Crabtree and the Racing Farmers built and tweaked their own motors and carothers.

Spouses also played key roles supporting the team as well. Gray Elder’s wife, Pat, for years prepared dinner for the team. Laura, Fred’s wife and family grandmother assisted. And the Racing Farmers for over a decade woke up dark and early and worked a long day in the fields under the scorching California sun.

They paused for a home cooked meal with their wives and children often joining them. Afterwards, it was a long night in the garage, often extended after midnight. On race weekends, the racing farmers would head out to the track and do everything necessary to run the successful racing team before, during, and after the race.

Some events were nearby, and other times they traveled to the northwest, or even Idaho or British Columbia. The elders helped pay travel and food expenses, but the crew didn’t really earn a salary. Their reward was Success. After each race, they needed to hustle home to tend the fields, get back in the garage, and, of course, spend time with their families.

At that [00:08:00] time, the Elder Farm occupied 220 acres, and the family cultivated crops including alfalfa, cotton, and black eyed peas in the San Joaquin Valley, one of many regions of California that was flat, hot, and dry as a bone, but with world class soil. Once the manipulation of water was mastered, California became the agricultural capital of the United States and the world.

Just south of Fresno, the tiny town of Carothers was one of hundreds of little hubs throughout the state that helped feed the country, feed the world. This is where the elders called home and still call home. Ray passed away in 2011. Pat, daughter Peggy, and the family still work the land. In 1966, the Elders purchased a car from fellow Californian Jack McCloy, who would become their biggest rival, and the Racing Farmers committed to a full time schedule in the NASCAR Pacific Coast Division.

Believed to be their first race, the Racing Farmers debuted at Stockton 99 Speedway on April 17th, 1966, finishing runner up. to race wearing McCoy on the quarter mile track. Ray Elder and Jack McCoy were [00:09:00] both roughly the same age, started their careers in the series about two years apart, and concluded their full time careers within a few years of each other.

McCoy held for Modesto and their hometowns were roughly 100 miles apart. They would go head to head in over 200 events through 74, producing one of the best rivalries in not only West Coast racing, but in all of stock car racing. McCoy passed away in 2009, Elder passed away two years later. The very next race the Farmers entered was a 200 Labyrinth Ascot in greater Los Angeles.

And on April 30th, 1966, Elder gave the racing farmers their first victory in the series. Elder picked up his second win of his rookie season after a fierce battle with Herschel McGriff at Portland Speedway on September 18, 1966. McGriff, recently inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, started from pole and led much of the race.

Elder evidently began in the ninth slot and led the final 69 laps to victory, beating the Oregon driver at his home track. McGriff’s first automobile race came there in [00:10:00] 1945. Come fall, McCoy squeaked by and picked up his first championship after doing what he needed to do in the California 100 at the famed One Mile Dirt Track at the State Fairgrounds in Sacramento.

McCoy started on pole and led much of the race until having trouble, but Elder also experienced mechanical issues. McCoy finished 13th, Elder was 15th. Evidently, a final race of the year scheduled at Reno was cancelled. Of course, Elder could have blown an engine on lap 1 and finished further back in the standings, but speculation is pointless.

The points paddle also could have gone the other way too. If Elder, for reasons remaining unknown, he apparently did not compete in the late season race that year at San Gabriel Valley Speedway, later known as Speedway 605. Pre 1970s NASCAR late model Pacific Coast records can be incomplete. Inaccurate and murky.

Many forms of motor sports suffer from this problem. Today, research is still being conducted to fill in blanks. And as many are aware, points distribution was, or remains the most contentious aspect [00:11:00] of motor sports, all types and at all levels and throughout the globe. Most series over the decades have rewarded consistency.

NASCAR’s cup series, for instance, through 2003 adopted that method. And in some instances, consistency can and will overcome dominating seasons. Take Terry Labonny’s 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Championship. Labonny and Jeff Gordon both had 21 top fives and 24 top tens in the 33 race season. Gordon won an incredible 10 races.

Texas Terry reached victory lane twice, but picked up the championship by 37 points. Ultimately, in following seasons, Elder’s remarkable consistency and commitment to competing in every race on the schedule, year in and year out, paid dividends in the fall at each season’s end. This proved critical for the racing farmers in their eventual run of claiming seven championships in eight years.

But in this first year, he finished second in McCoy by 18 points. Yet Elder was 1966 Rookie of the Year and also voted as Series Most Popular Driver. In 1967, Ray and the boys again won twice, [00:12:00] both triumphs at Ascot. Elder, like any good farmer, had an expertise on the nuances of soil. Agriculture and automobile racing remain intertwined since the first fair race in the 1890s.

The best drivers on dirt are also soil scientists. Ascot in particular suited his smarts as well as his smooth yet hard charging driving style. The 1967 champion Scotty Kane won five races, including three in a row in the middle of the season. The Farmers again were bridesmaids. McCoy slipped to sixth in the points that year.

But although NASCAR’s modern era With still a few years away, Big Bill France and his Daytona Beach Associates were noticing the strong cast of competitors, close races, and stable crowds in the Pacific Coast Division. Plus, other professional sports leagues were extending to the west. Air travel was becoming more common, and professional sports leagues began to establish or relocate teams west.

In 1967, the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings and California Golden Seals began their seasons as part of that league’s expansion from 6 to 12 [00:13:00] teams. After years in Minneapolis, the National Basketball Association’s Lakers had been in LA since 1961. Plus, the San Diego Rockets began NBA play in 1967, although moving to Houston several years later.

After the 1967 season, NASCAR took steps to further increase organization and increase It’s a commitment to NASCAR racing on the West Coast. For example, a handful of permanent officials and administrators were hired with the West divided into competition zones under the competent administration of Bob Barkheimer, Les Richter, and Billy Mc, three of the biggest names in West Coast stock car racing history.

Barkheimer was there from the start, working with France and promoting race. It’s an informative days of NASCAR racing on the West Coast. Richter wrapped up an Hall of Fame NFL career with the Los Angeles Rams to go and become one of NASCAR’s most respected and longest serving administrators and serve as longtime manager of Riverside International Raceway.

Emick went from on track success in multiple racing disciplines, including NASCAR to helping oversee NASCAR’s Western development. Moving on [00:14:00] to 1968 for Elder. Despite tallying a series high 5 wins, it was another runner up finish in the points, his third in a row. Tyre Trouble, late in the season concluding Saugus 100, relegated him to a 5th place finish, 2 laps down.

So, Skydie Kane finished 3rd in the lead lap and won another championship. The Farmers missed the title by 2 points. The coin system at the time appears to work against Elder. According to records currently available, Elder raced in all 20 events. Kane only reached Victory Lane once and appeared in 19 events, not racing at Evergreen.

Still, there could absolutely be more to these storylines, more research is needed to fill the gaps. Even with the stronger administration and organization of the series, some 1968 races have detailed and comprehensive statistics. There are other races where available details remain rather limited. But at the close of the 1968 season, Ray Elder and the Racing Farmers proved they could compete and win with the best drivers on the West Coast in a division that was featuring tougher competition and gaining prominence.

The [00:15:00] following year, the team would climb even higher. But look at the stats thus far. 52 races. Nine wins and 33 top fives and a pair of most popular driver awards. The 1969 season opener at Riverside again, combined the Pacific late model division racers with the NASCAR grand national series regulars. It was the third race on the grand national schedule and a few IndyCar stars also peppered the field.

Elder produced a strong result, finishing seventh. Richard Petty won, his first time racing in a Ford. A. J. Foyt was second, and David Pearson rounded out the top three. Four time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Sr. finished fourth. James Hilton was fifth, followed by Leroy Yarbrough, who would win the Daytona 500 a couple weeks later.

Yarbrough went on to have his biggest season in the Cup Series. Driving for Junior Johnson, he won seven races, despite competing in only 30 events that year. His crew chief was the great West Coaster Herb Knapp, The 174 race is serving as a cup of crew cheese. Not in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but a West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame [00:16:00] inaugural member.

NAB wrenched for six drivers who became NASCAR Hall of Famers, and also worked for a handful of Hall of Fame owners. The following month, Ray, Richard, and their buddies made the roughly 2, 700 mile trip from Carothers to Daytona. After an impressive period of Eighth place showing in the qualifying race, they took 10th in the 500.

At the time, it was the fastest the farmer had to race in his career. Buddy Baker qualified at 188. 901 miles per hour in a car prepared by NASCAR Hall of Fame multiple year nominee, Ray Fox. Speeds in the high banks of Daytona were far greater than top speeds at the quarter milers the farmers were accustomed to.

So early in the 1969 season, Elders starts to make some noise on the Grand National scene and after Daytona. The Racing Farmers had over two months to get ready for the Pacific Coast Division race at the One Mile Dirt Track at the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento on April 27th. Elder finished fifth.

The iconic track was one of the West’s most important venues, and as one spectator recalled, the track was [00:17:00] well prepared with few ruts and little dust. There were multiple grooves with cars running low, middle, and high. But, its days were numbered. Great Racing seized the track after 1970. It is now a shopping center.

We all heard that one before. So many classic tracks occupy the land where stores now exist. In the following race at Irwindale, Elder led the first 42 laps only to succumb to mechanical problems. McCoy led the rest of the way. Elder wound up 18th and took a hit in the points. Next up was Sears Point, a brand new road course 25 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and the surrounding wine country of Sonoma and Napa Valleys now had a premier circuit to call its own.

Originally from California, Ken Clapp began promoting races in the 1950s and was becoming increasingly active in the development of the Pacific Coast Division. Clapp helped oversee the track’s construction. 20 years later, with Les Richter, Clapp pushed for an annual NASCAR cup race at [00:18:00] Sears Point, and since 1989, Sears Point hosted an annual cup event in late spring.

Ricky Rudd, a member of the incoming NASCAR 2025 Hall of Fame class, won the inaugural. The track was built with the future in mind, located away from potential development. Though there are grandstands, many fans prefer general admission. There are many unique vantage points to view the racing on the course, which features twists, turns, climbs, and dips.

This is also where the racing farmers turn their young season around, winning the event. They remained consistent for the rest of the campaign, and the Racing Farmers won their first championship in 1969. Jack McCoy, to his credit, won nine races that year, including five in a row, but damage control helped win the first championship for the Racing Farmers.

The sign of a strong team. Minimize bad days and maximize good days. finishes on those bad days. In 1970, the Racing Farmers again raced competitively at the Daytona 500, finishing 6th out of 31 cars in the qualifier, taking 11th in the 500. However, in the [00:19:00] NASCAR Pacific Coast Lace Model Division, which became NASCAR Grand National West Division for the 1970 season, Ray Elder and the Racing Farmers had another banner year.

They picked up championship number two. Nipping McCoy for the title. Also that year, Dick Bown won a series high 6 races and 18 starts, turning 40 that year. Bown was yet another Oregon driver making his mark in the series. Racing in the Pacific Coast Division since 1964, he would wrap up his career a few years later with 14 victories.

And the future looked bright. His son Chuck raced in two events at the age of 16. Spoiler alert! The younger Bowne won the Winston West title in 1976 at the age of 22. He later moved to the East Coast and won 10 NASCAR North races over four seasons. However, his career highlight and a true benchmark achievement for West Coast stock car racing, Bowne will become the first West Coaster to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship, doing so in 1990.

The year 1971 was perhaps Elders most [00:20:00] memorable. Setting the stage, California was home to the first board tracks. The West also featured some of the most prestigious road races in the country leading up to the First World War. And the region also had a thriving and competitive dirt track racing scene.

Plus, the American high performance speed industry was based in Los Angeles. And this contributed to hot riding and drag racing developing first in the Golden State. As was the case throughout America, after World War II, Californians had an even bigger hunger for racing as veterans returned. And that adrenaline rush from battle combined with a rich post war economy and a thirst for new recreational outlets would lead to a track building boom.

After World War II, California debuted new road courses at Willow Springs in 1952 and Torrey Pines in 1953. Paramount Ranch followed in 1955. Laguna Seca at Monterey in 1958, and as mentioned earlier, Sears Point in 1969. But it was Riverside International Raceway, which first hosted races in 1957, that became Southern California’s capital of American auto sport in the [00:21:00] 1960s.

Riverside was located about an hour’s drive east of Los Angeles in the sparsely populated, wine growing desert community of Moreno Valley. The track accommodated all forms of motorsports and attracted domestic and foreign competition. Even hosting a Formula One race. in 1960. The Golden State’s moderate climate attracted all star events, and during the winter months after the conclusion of their respective seasons, the nation’s best drivers towed their race cars west and competed in prestigious and financially lucrative special events in California.

It developed many of the nation’s most successful drivers in all disciplines, including stock car competition. In the 1960s, Golden State driver Dan Gurney dominated against the NASCAR Grand National regulars in the winter race. That MotorTrend 500 at Riverside. He won in 1963 driving the famous number 28 Ford for the Holman Moody Team.

Gurney then won in 64, 65 to 66. Driving for the Wood Brothers Fellow California Parnelli Jones broke the streak in 1967, but the Wood Brothers in Gurney [00:22:00] did it again in 68. The domination ended after gurney’s. Wood Brothers. Mercury blew an engine early in 1969. Then. That Richard Petty won that year.

Beginning in 1970, two races were held at Riverside through the 1988 season, except in 81, where there were three races. And in the final year for the track in 1988, when there was one event on the Winston Cup schedule. In 1970, AJ Foyt won the Motor Trend 500. And the King, in a more familiar Plymouth, won what was known as the Falstaff 400 later in June.

The second race at Riverside was always shorter because the temperatures in Southern California were by then much higher. On January 10th, 1971, Ray Elder won the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside International Raceway in a home built car with a volunteer organization consisting of family and friends. He started on the second row and led much of the event.

He ultimately passed Bobby Allison and led the final 12 laps and took the checkered flag by over 10 seconds. Elder completed the race in just under five [00:23:00] hours. The Racing Farmers Dodge marked the first time in the history of the Motor Trend 500 that a Ford wasn’t in victory lane. Jack McFarlane, at the time the public relations director for Dodge, furnished Elder a brand new car for the win.

It was a huge win for Chrysler, especially considering Ford’s dominance on the road course over the years. Elder won on Firestone tires, the first time a car with Firestone rubber in the series took a victory since David Pearson won at Hickory in September of 1968. It was a lot of fun looking at the press coverage from the win.

My favorite came from the April 1971 issue of Stock Car Racing. Quote, the leading Firestone qualifier was 1970 West Coast champion Ray Elder, a good natured farm boy from Carothers in the heart of Fresno’s Grape and Raisin Belt. Elder sat on the inside of the second row behind Petty and Allison, and if bookies proliferated in the sport like they do in horse racing, Elder’s Dodge probably would have gone the post at 30 1.

At the end of February, the Cup Stars returned to California following the Daytona [00:24:00] 500 to compete at Ontario. Completed in 1970 and constructed on the site of a former vineyard 40 miles east of Los Angeles, the 2. 5 miles super speedway was the most anticipated And hyped project built in the history of the United States Auto Club, or USAC, the longtime sanctioning body for IndyCar, also known as Championship Racing.

California Governor Ronald Reagan attended the inaugural event on September 6th, and over 170, 000 fans watched Jim McElreath prevail in the 500 mile race. The facility was built near I 10 and close to the I 15 interchange and envisioned to benefit from nearby Orange County Airport and boost Ontario and surrounding San Bernardino County.

The track was in one of America’s most rapidly growing regions. Track access was not limited to USAC championship cars. NASCAR now had an opportunity to race at another super speedway with massive grandstand seating and west of the Rocky Mountains. And there was another venue for West Coasters to race against the Top Dogs.

And on a track bigger and [00:25:00] faster than any in their division. And at the first NASCAR Cup race at Ontario, the Miller High Life 500, the racing farmers showed that they could reduce the power handling and driver talent to compete with the Cup boys on a smooth and fast 2. 5 mile oval, finishing a respectable seventh in a race won by A.

J. Floyd. That June, the Cup Series returned to Riverside for the Golden State 400. This event also became a mainstay every June on the Cup calendar. Elder almost did it again, but settled for second. In 71, Elder also enjoyed one of his finest seasons in the West Series. He won a career high nine races, including another at Ascot, which was clearly his favorite track.

A writer for Circle Track Magazine that year observed that, quote, At Ascot, the clay was prepared just right. Ascot is not a run of the mill, randomly excavated, mucky dirt track. Rather, it has an imported clay surface brought in from the cemetery across the street. The track surface was real tacky. A wet track, but not sloppy.

Prepared the [00:26:00] way dirt should be. In 1971, Elder again topped McCoy for title number three. He also became the first driver in series history to earn over 50, 000 in winnings. At this stage, Elder is one of the few drivers on the circuit able to carve out a living by racing, though his farm was still 100 percent in operation.

The youth movement continued in the West Series too. Young Jimmy Inslow won a race in his first full season of competition. He would go on to win 25 races in the division and a championship in 1978, and he would play an important role in helping Richard Petty win his seventh cup championship in 1979.

Insolo served as relief driver for Petty in the second Riverside race and brought the number 43 home for a third place finish just behind Darrell Waltrip. At season’s end, The king nipped jaws by a mere 11 points for his final crown. Such an interesting time in American motorsport. It was big tobacco corporation money began to flood motorsports.

[00:27:00] And more specifically, it was Winston Salem based RJ Reynolds, which provided NASCAR funding, marketing, promotion, and boosted racing’s infrastructure by helping with track improvements. This influx spread not just in the Southeast, but all over the country. The Racing Farmers in 1972 secured their own long time sponsorship deal.

It came with Olympia Brewing out of Tumwater, Washington. The car now looked even more sharp, and the Racing Farmers looked spiffier too, sporting new Olympia sponsored uniforms. Also, as the sport entered its modern era in 1972, record keeping became much more precise. In the season opener on January 23rd, Elder qualified to finish fourth at Riverside in the Winston Western 500.

Beating him, Petty, Bobby Allison, and Bobby Isaac, the winner of 37 career cup races. Right behind Elder and Forth was Hall of Famer Herschel McGrath taking 5th. On March 5th, 1972, long time West Coast motorsports journalist Dusty Brandell made history as the first woman to report for the NASCAR Press [00:28:00] Box when she reported on the Miller Highlight 500, won by David Pearson driving for Hall of Famers Glen and Leonard Wood.

Elder finished fifth out of the massive 51 car field. Another 20 cars didn’t make the show. It’s amazing to look at the entry list at Riverside, Ontario, and Daytona back then. Dozens of hopefuls would show up trying to make the shows. Qualifying was a race in itself. Hershel McGriff was again right there with Elder, finishing in sixth.

Herschel McGriff is the oldest living NASCAR Hall of Famer and one of the most prolific drivers in racing history to come from the Northwest. He finished 9th in the first Southern 500 in 1950. He also won four NASCAR Grand National races in 1954 before leaving the sport for over 10 years to develop his business and raise a family.

He began racing in the Pacific Coast Division in 1965 and didn’t race his full season until 1972. Unfortunately for race fans, he only competed in one full season in the division at the same time as Elder. Though, McGriff did [00:29:00] run full campaigns from 1981 through 1989. He picked up a Winston West Championship in 1986 and also won a dozen consecutive Most Popular Driver Awards.

The 1972 Winston West season was perhaps the best of any that would come later. It featured a 30 race schedule. McGriff linked up with fellow Northwesterner Beryl Jackson, his longtime car owner, to run the full Winston West schedule. McGriff won 12 races. Elder took seven races. Dick Bound had his best season, finishing third in points with four wins.

McCoy grabbed six wins, finishing fourth in the championship. All four drivers raced in all 30 races. What appeared to be the championship separator was that Elder was running at the finish in every race but one. His three worst finishes came mid season. A pair of 12th and a 13th. Thereby huge props again go to the racing farmers for building quick cars and repairing those cars when the Elders Olympia sponsored Dodge suffered attrition during the race.

Back to the Winston Cup Series. As [00:30:00] far as top five finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series, the Racing Farmers went three for three in their home state in 1972. And the third top five was the sweetest when the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Series returned to Riverside on June 18, 1972. Elders started seventh and led the final 44 laps, finishing a full lap ahead of Hall of Famer Benny Parsons.

This was the first time Perhaps the gutsiest performance of Elder’s career. The 71 Dodge had transmission issues early and Ray had to muscle the car to victory. At the event’s end, both of his feet were badly burned and blistered. They raised him tough on the farm. The 1972 season may have been his finest of all in the West Series.

He finished the season with 27 top 10s in 30 races and 7 more wins. And Ray was still only 29. 1973 started with promise. The Farmers finished third at Riverside in the Cup Race. That event became famous in that it was Roger Penske’s NASCAR breakthrough. He owned the American Motors [00:31:00] Matador driven to victory by the great Mark Donohue.

It was Penske’s first Cup win. But remarkable consistency was not to be in 1973. As mechanical and or tire problems marred Elder’s season, they finished 20th and 21st in the Portland races. Even worse, they placed 22nd in the 1970s. At the first of only two occasions, the series raced at Monterey at what was known as Laguna Seca Raceway.

Ken Clapp was gaining a stronger presence in NASCAR and pushed for that race to take place. Clapp eventually took on major roles with NASCAR. He became Vice President of Western Operations for nearly 20 years, followed by Vice President of Marketing and Development until his retirement in 1999, at which time he became a senior consultant.

Clapp also played a critical role in bringing NASCAR Cup stars to Japan for exhibition races in the 1990s. Very important in that he provided the creative vision, the development and the creation of the NASCAR truck series. Clapp’s role in promoting NASCAR’s growth and development in the West and worldwide cannot be overstated.

Involved with the sport for over [00:32:00] seven decades, he surely will be considered for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Landmark Award. In 1973, the championship run ended for the Racing Farmers as they placed 3rd overall, their worst finish. Perhaps fittingly, Jack McCoy won the championship. Sonny Easley, winner of the event at Lugan and Seca, placed 2nd overall.

A side note on Easley, he finished 2nd in the championship again in 1975, but fortunately, he perished in an accident at Riverside in 1978. The Racing Farmers stormed back in 74 with another speedy Olympia sponsored dodge. and outlasted McCoy one final time. Elder finished 58 points ahead to win the title.

Jack McCoy retired at the conclusion of the 1974 season and is currently credited with 54 wins in the NASCAR Winston West division. To be sure, McCoy was one of the most important figures in the growth and development of stock car racing on the West Coast and had an outstanding career. In his final year of Olympia sponsorship in 1975, Elder picked up his ninth and final career win [00:33:00] at Ascot, the same year he claimed his seventh and final championship.

Ascot, that track’s days, like others mentioned in this presentation, were numbered. In 1990, legendary L. A. Times motor sports correspondent Shav Glick had seen it all in his decades of writing about the West Coast racing scene. He described the track to a tee as he reminisced in 1990 as the track was in the process of being closed.

Askar Park is no Taj Mahal. It’s a grubby little place with a half mile oval laid out on a dump site in south central Los Angeles. It’s demise brought on by inevitable, Urban and industrial development will leave a void for Southern California motor racing enthusiasts who have seen the Ontario Motor Speedway, Riverside International Raceway, and dragstips disappear in recent years for similar reasons.

Ontario never had a chance. As the 1970s progressed, the Indianapolis of the West continued to draw sizable crowds and put on exciting races while accumulating massive debt. The track’s days were numbered. Ontario [00:34:00] defaulted on bonds in 1972. By October 1980, the track was in foreclosure and 25. 5 million in debt.

The following year, the Chevron Land and Development Company purchased the property. Riverside would be engulfed by sprawl as well, holding its final race in 1988. You guessed it. The shopping mall was put in. All parts of the country have lost countless racetracks due to various issues, most environmentally related, urban and suburban sprawl, noise pollution, complaints, road construction, to name a few.

California probably lost more venues than any other state. Numerous tracks in California and the Pacific Northwest, venues which featured so many superstars in their speeding cars, are long gone, with little to show for their existence today. But during the era of the racing farmers, Western Short Tracks, dirt and paved palaces of speed, served as vital venues in the growth and development of stocker racing on the West Coast and provided exciting racing time and time again as the NASCAR Pacific Coast Division morphed into the NASCAR Winston West Series.

After the 1975 [00:35:00] season, Olympia did not renew its sponsorship with Elder. The racing farmers returned to the fields. For 1976, Elder stepped away from full time competition, and the Elders sold their racing equipment. Ray Elder returned in 1978 for one final full season, driving a red No. 32 car owned by Dave Hill with Bill Morehart as crew chief.

He picked up two final wins, The last one coming at now defunct Langley Speedway in British Columbia via Canada. He finished third in the points in 1978 behind champion Jimmy Ancelot and Bill Schmidt, another up and comer, who won the title the previous year and would do so again in 1979, finished second in 78.

Elder raced in a handful of races over the ensuing years, but continued to farm the family land and eventually opened a mini mart with Pat. The store closed not that long ago. In 1990, Elder was selected to the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2002, he had perhaps his greatest honor thus far, being selected as a member, with some of the people [00:36:00] listed earlier, of the inaugural class of the West Coast Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame.

Elder was recently announced as one of the nominees for the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Daytona Beach. For In 1975, Ray Elder and the Racing Farmers won a special event at Ascot by an incredible seven laps. Afterwards, one rider opined, All in all, the 500 lap race for stock cars was a fine race, with the best driver on the West Coast proving his claim.

Ray Elder deserves that title all the way. And that is the story of the Racing Farmers. This episode is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center. Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series. The center’s collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.

The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and brought to life [00:37:00] through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events. To learn more about the Center, visit www. racingarchives.

org. This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians. They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers. Organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden and deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into the future.

For more information about the SAH, visit www. autohistory. org.

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Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction and Sponsors
• 00:19 Ray Elder and the NASCAR Winston West Series
• 00:53 The Elder Family’s Racing Journey
• 01:45 Daniel J. Simone’s Contributions
• 02:28 Early NASCAR History
• 03:33 West Coast Racing Pioneers
• 05:00 Ray Elder’s Early Life and Racing Beginnings
• 05:37 The Rise of the Racing Farmers
• 08:58 Rivalries and Championships
• 12:29 The Golden Era of West Coast Racing
• 18:28 The Racing Farmers’ Dominance
• 30:50 Challenges and Changes in the 1970s
• 35:03 Legacy and Conclusion

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