Riverside International Raceway
| Riverside International Raceway |
|---|
| Opened: September, 1957 |
| Closed: June, 1989 |
| Cause of Closure: Urban sprawl from the Los Angeles area |
Riverside International Raceway (Sometimes known as RIR or Riverside Raceway) was a racing track or road course in Riverside, California. A driver died during the first weekend after the opening and several more drivers perished while the track was in operation from 1957 to 1989.
The track was built to accommodate several different races. By closing of certain sections of the track the route drivers had to follow could be altered. The three options on the Riverside Raceway were the long course (3.27 miles), the short course (2.5 miles), and the NASCAR (2.5 Mi.) courses. The original racetrack design had a 1.1 mile backstretch from 1957 to 1968 and when the track was redesigned in 1969, turn 9 was made wide and a dogleg was added.
Movies and television
RIR was also a prime spot for movie shoots and advertisements. Parts of CHiPs and Knight Rider were shot on location at RIR. RIR was also a location in the [[[film|movies]]: The Love Bug, Roadracers, On the Beach, Speedway, Stacey, The Rockford Files, Thunder Alley, and Winning. In addition, the movie, The Killers, starring Ronald Reagan, was filmed at RIR.
As well as the above, the TV show Simon and Simon and the HBO program Super Dave Osborn not to mention many many commercials and advertisements were also filmed/shot at RIR.
Random facts
Footage exists of classic races like the 1986 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix in which the Chevy Corvette of Doc Bundy hit the Ford Probe of Lyn St. James and the Jaguar of Chip Robinson at Turn 1. St. James' car caught fire, and Chip Robinson nearly cartwheeled into the crowd, but fortunately she survived the flames and he escaped uninjured within the track bounds.
Sadly, Riverside was the site of the only fatality in IMSA GTP history, when in the 1983 running of the Times Grand Prix, Rolf Stommelen's Joest-constructed Porsche 935 lost its rear wing at the Dogleg, went down an old section of track, and hit two freeway-type barriers sending it into a horrific roll at Turn 9.
When the racetrack was proposed in the mid 1950s, Riverside International Motor Raceway (as it was called at the time) was planned to ultimately be 5.0 miles long, but the club extension was never constructed and the track's final length (after Turn 9 was adjusted in 1969 to a 10 degree banked sweeper) was 3.3 miles.
Of all the road course races run at RIR, there was at least one that was run in a counter-clockwise direction sometime in the 1960s.
ESPN taped the June 12, 1988, Budweiser 400 race at RIR and caught racer Ruben Garcia crashing hard off turn 9, this footage and race can be seen on ESPN Classic.
NASCAR did loose racer Joe Weatherly at the track back in January of 1964. For a final tribute, he has the old version of Riverside Raceway on his headstone as a final joke since Joe was a joker.
Closure and RIR's transformation into a shopping mall
After former Los Angeles Rams player Les Richter sold the property to Fritz Duda (an attorney from Riverside who later moved to Texas) 1988 would be the final year of active racing for Riverside International Raceway. On June 12, 1988, NASCAR held its final race at RIR - a race won by Rusty Wallace (a Caution flag was out for Ruben Garcia when he came off Turn 9 and lost control of his car and hit a wall, missing the grandstands). In 1989, after the Score Off Road Series held its last race, the track finally closed its gates after 32 years of racing after a Cal-Club racer died and the track ended the way it started: racer dead. Fritz Duda turned the "House that Dan Gurney built" into a shopping mall which opened in 1992. The Moreno Valley Mall at Towngate is on the northern end of the former Raceway Property and houses now occupy the southern end of the old racetrack (where Tim Richmond and Dale Earnhardt raced). In a 1994 topographical map, the remains of Riverside's Turn 9 and a wall were still visible. However, nowadays nothing is left of the Riverside International Raceway except for memorabilia from the racetrack and the Administation Building which is part of a driving range.
Back in 2003, the remainder of the old Riverside International Raceway was torn up, the sign that was at California 60 and Day Street was removed to make way for a Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse. The old Turn 9 of the old track is now home to houses and the legendary site of the old Riverside International Raceway where you could have heard the roar of engines is now a shopper's heaven and houses.
Races held at Riverside International Raceway
- The NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now NEXTEL): Motor Trend 500, Nascar Winston Western 500, and NAPA 400
- The CART PPG/Indycar World Series (now Champcar): AirCal 500 (1981-1983)
- Various USAC Championship Trail (Indycar) events
- The Los Angeles Times Grand Prix of Endurance
- The 1960 USGP
- (Unofficial) 24 hours of Riverside, testing the Chevy Corvair
- IROC
Reference
- Riverside Raceway, Palace Of Speed by Dick Wallen
- Motorsport Memorial entry on Rolf Stommelen (2005), [1]. Retreived February 1, 2005.
External links
- Riverside International Raceway's Yahoo! Group
- Riverside International Raceway's Picture Pages from Frank Sheffield, a former RIR corner worker
- Dick Wallen's Racing Classics - Contains videos and books related to Riverside Raceway.
- The Riverside Today message board at AtlasF1.com
- The old Riverside Raceway property back in 2002