1988 Goodyear NASCAR 500

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The Goodyear NASCAR 500 race was run at the then new A$54 million Calder Park Thunderdome in Melbourne, Australia on February 28, 1988. The race was the first ever NASCAR event held outside of North America. Unlike NASCAR races in the United States, the 500 was actually 500 kilometres which is only 310 miles.

Headlining the race were many Winston Cup and Winston West Series drivers such as Alabama Gang members Bobby Allison, who had won the Daytona 500 just two weeks prior, Neil Bonnett, who had won the previous weekends Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond, Michael Waltrip, Dave Marcis and Kyle Petty. They took on Australians new to Super Speedway such as Touring car drivers Allan Grice, Jim Richards and Dick Johnson although Grice had previously raced in Winston Cup events such as the longest race in the series, the Coca-Cola 600 at the famous Charlotte Motor Speedway, the track on which Calder Park owner Bob Jane had modeled the Thunderdome.

The race was 280 laps of the 1.801 km (1.119 mi) Tri-oval Thunderdome. Neil Bonnett driving his Valvoline sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix won the $10,000 Goodyear-Parkroyal Pole Shootout and sat on the pole with a time of 28.829 ahead of Allison driving a Buick and the fastest of the Aussies, Allan Grice driving a Foster's sponsored Oldsmobile with a time of 28.971 seconds.

Bonnett and Allison dominated the race, swapping the lead many times in the heat of the afternoon where cabin temperatures were reported to reach over 57° Celsius (135° Fahrenheit). The race was marred by a multi-car crash early in turns 3 and 4 involving 8 cars including the Ford Thunderbird of Dick Johnson and Grice who, after struggling with no brakes, ran into the wreck at speed and suffered a broken collarbone.

Neil Bonnett won the race from Bobby Allison, the Alabama Gang members dominated the race with Dave Marcis finishing 3rd giving the USA a 1-2-3 result. Only 13 of the 31 car field finished the race.

References

External links

• Channel 7 highlights on YouTube (1/7)

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