1982 Winchester 400

The thirteenth annual Winchester 400 was held under American Speed Association sanction on October 3, 1982, at the Winchester Speedway.

Catching a huge break when Mike Eddy encountered trouble, Rusty Wallace made the most of his first “Winchester 400” start as he scored the win in the 1982 running of the fall classic. For the second-straight year, Eddy dominated a large portion of the race, but he was eliminated when he couldn’t avoid an accident on the backstretch on the 326th lap. Wallace inherited the lead and paced the field for the remainder of the 200-mile grind as only nine of the 33 starters were still on the track at the checkers.

Dick Trickle grabbed the lead at the drop of the green flag, but the race was halted on lap 19 when almost the entire back quarter of the field was involved in a second-turn accident. Buddy Stewart, Wayne Emberson, Rick Rhonemus, Dave Jackson, and Kenny St. John were all finished for the day. When racing resumed, Eddy passed Trickle for the lead and began pulling away from the remaining lead-lap competitors.

Several contenders suffered problems, including fast-qualifier Bob Strait, who pitted on lap 88 with an overheating engine.Trickle’s bid for the win ended when he was forced to spend 16 laps in the pits to repair a broken throttle rod. Bob Senneker’s recent run of bad luck in the “400” continued, when his engine expired on lap 101 relegating him to a 17th place finish. Alan Kulwicki, who finished third in a 200-lap race at Winchester in June, was the leader after a round of pit stops on lap 138. Suspension problems sent the Wisconsin native to the pits on lap 213 and left him to limp around the track with a crippled car for the duration of the race.

As Eddy continued to set the pace, Wallace barely escaped disaster on lap 259 when Jack Gritter spun his Parts Mart Chevrolet and collected sixth-place runner Jeep Pflum. Pflum bounced off the wall and directly into the path of Wallace, who narrowly avoided contact. On lap 325, Eddy found himself in a similar situation, but wasn’t as fortunate. Two cars tangled and spun down the backstretch just in front of the leader. With no where to go, Eddy slammed into the spinning cars and briefly went airborne before crashing back to the track and out of the race. Once in the lead, Wallace was able to cruise to victory, beating Strait by three full laps. Kulwicki limped home in third with Trickle and Bruce VanderLaan completing the top five. Wallace collected $9,800 for the biggest win in his young career.

External links

* [http://www.winchesterspeedway.com/ Winchester Speedway website]
* [http://www.craracing.net/ Official CRA Website]