The legendary A.J. Foyt collected one of his seven NASCAR victories at the 1970 Motor Trend 500 in Riverside, California.

As we often say here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, NASCAR road racing is usually great racing. And some of the finest NASCAR events of all time went down at the late, great Riverside Raceway east of Los Angeles, which hosted the NASCAR tour from 1958 to 1988. In many years, 1970 included, the Riverside race opened the NASCAR season, and the series would often visit the California track multiple times each year.

Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and David Pearson were among the drivers who dominated in the glory years of the Riverside road course, and they all ran at the front at this January 1970 event, too. Gurney started on the pole in a Plymouth but was forced to pit early, while Jones led 88 laps but suffered a clutch failure. Pearson led for 39 laps driving a Holman Moody 1970 Ford Torino, but fell out with a broken gearbox. That left the race open to A.J. Foyt, driving a Jack Bowser Ford that also sported the seldom-seen ’70 Torino body style. But as usual, pictures speak better than words, so check out all the action in this nicely done five-minute film summary. Video below.