(1981)
Special thanks to Bruce
Olsen and Margaret Branam for taking the color pictures and long time fan John
Summers
for keeping the Calendar for all these years and sharing it with us!
Several new items of interest take place this
season including the re-opening of Altamont Raceway under the control of Duke Southard,
and the construction of the current media relations box atop the snack bar at Stockton.
Chuck Tatum of
Stockton, an early and historic Stockton Roadster and Hardtop driver, and
valuable contributor to
this book, is on board as the track's Chief Stewart, and Bob
Craven is in charge of the tech work. Long time announcer Ron Andaya is back on board
along with seasoned Chief Scorer Dean Rich and his assistant Gerri Freitas.
Rules for motor use were opened up this season to
allow for 301-307 cubic inch, 331 cubic inch, or 355 cubic inch choices, with car weights
of 2,800--3,000--and 3,200 pounds applied to each.
Rick Meyers, Dan Reed, and Jim Reich
shared in track speed records this season
with
the best going to Reich on August-first at 14.241 in his Ivan Baldwin built
racer. Gene Newell lowered the Hobby standard to 15.340 on August 22nd.
Reich dominated the season stats with fourteen
fast times, seven feature wins, and nineteen main top
five finishes, and landed the season title ahead of Reed, and Rick Meyers.
Belletto
and Lyon are also once again at the top of the stat listings.
Gene Newell ravaged the Hobby division this
season with fifteen fast times, a division all time best twelve dash wins, and thirteen
main wins. Wayne Douma of
Modesto tried his best to stop Newell's dominance by matching
his twenty-one
main top five finishes, but Newell was able to capture the season tile over
other hard chargers such as Henk Gaalswyk, Bob Gilligan of Stockton, and Manteca's Mike
Lane.
Glen Moriarty of Stockton was the Late Model semi
main
champ, with colorful 'Frog' Trent of
Modesto grabbing the rookie honors. Kevin Johnson was named most improved, with
Belletto getting the Sportsman of the year award.
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