|| *Comments on Riverside International Raceway:* View the most recent comment <#29> | Post a comment <#post> 1. Cooper posted: 03.27.2010 - 7:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Riverside International Raceway (Sometimes known as RIR or Riverside Raceway) was a race track or road course in Riverside, California. The track was in operation from September 22, 1957, to July 2, 1989. The original course design proved to be dangerous, and it was partially reconfigured in 1969. The track was built to accommodate several different races. By closing off certain sections of the track, the route drivers had to follow could be altered. The three options on Riverside Raceway were the long course 3.27 miles , the short course 2.5 miles, and the NASCAR 2.62 miles course. The original racetrack had a 1.1-mile backstretch from 1957 to 1968. When the track was redesigned in 1969, turn 9 was made wide and a dogleg was added to scrub speed from the race cars. Their were plans to build a new Road Course in California, to mirror this layout, but plans have now halted. 2. kup posted: 06.05.2010 - 9:39 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) And where to find maps of Riverside track? Maybe all 3 options: 3.27 miles, 2.5 miles and 2.62. 3. 18fan posted: 08.24.2010 - 1:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) Replaced now by housing development. I would definitely have gone if it hadn't closed before I was born. 4. Destroyahirismix666 posted: 10.15.2010 - 9:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) Personal OP: This track ranks as greatest track with Bathrust in Australia and Montreal in Canada 5. Anonymous posted: 06.03.2011 - 12:53 am Rate this comment: (2) (4) One of the best tracks ever. And a prime example of why NASCAR should stop taking races from the tracks that have made NASCAR what it is today. You don't see them tearing down Rockingham or North Wilkesboro to build a damn subdivision, at least not until the fool that is Brian France took over. 6. DieselDan posted: 06.09.2011 - 2:23 am Rate this comment: (5) (1) Anonymous, you are a load of bad information. The France family and NASCAR had nothing to do with the sale of Riverside and its subsequent development as the Inland Empire spread east of LA. 7. RaceFanX posted: 06.23.2011 - 9:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) The land simply got too valuable to be used for racing. It was torn down and replaced by a mall and a subdivision, I've heard the subdivision reused some of the track as it's streets. When the track was demolished it was thought that Riverside was on the verge of becoming a huge city. That bubble eventually burst and I've had the mall on the former track property is now in trouble. 8. Unser1 posted: 07.02.2011 - 4:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) After the majority of the track was torn down the course's signature Turn 9 hairpin remained for several years, acting as a ghostly reminder of the track before it was finally bulldozed. 9. chris o posted: 01.06.2013 - 7:33 pm Rate this comment: (2) (1) one of my favorite tracks. it was old, bumpy, fast, and dangerous. Kind of a wild card race, if you made it through a riverside race, you were ok. 10. Dr. V posted: 02.20.2013 - 2:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was a great track. I lived in the area in high school. Got to see an AMC Matador win there in 1973. 11. Ron@crall.com posted: 03.17.2015 - 9:37 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) I own a 1963 Avanti that Andy Granatelli raced at Riverside (1/2 mile drags). Before he passed we spoke and he said that the car held the 1/2 mile record for awhile. I'd love to find out what kind of time/speed the car did in the 1/2 mile. I have some old Hot Rod Magazine road tests with 1/4 mile times of 13.41 @ 107.78 using 7,000 rpm. Andy said he had to use 8,000 to beat the Hemi's in the 1/2 mile. Any idea if there are any records for the 1/2 mile drags? This would have been from summer 1962 to fall of 1963 12. RaceFanX posted: 12.19.2015 - 7:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This track hosted the first SCCA National Championship Runoffs in 1964. It hosted the event again in 1966 and 1968, part of an East Coast/West Coast alternating plan with Daytona International Speedway, before the event moved to Road Atlanta. 13. RACE34 posted: 01.21.2016 - 10:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Watched an episode of CHIPS today that featured this track. Really a shame that land development closed down this place. Wish they wouldn't have closed it down because it put on a heck of a show!!! 14. RaceFanX posted: 10.17.2016 - 12:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This track was a favorite for years whenever Hollywood movies and TV shows wanted a track to be the setting for a racing-themed episode or film. Much of the plot of the "Knight Rider" episode "Knight Racer" revolved around a CART race here and an unaired episode of the failed TV series "Gemini Man" filmed here was used to make the show's movie "Riding with Death," famously featured in "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Movies that filmed racing scenes here include "The Love Bug," "Winning," and "Red Line 7000." 15. RaceFanX posted: 01.08.2017 - 6:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Los Angeles Times Grand Prix was held here throughout the track's three decades of operation, lasting from 1957 to 1987 with a few breaks in the 1970s. The first race was a round of the SCCA National Championship before it became a round of the USAC Road Racing Championship from 1958 to 1962 (when one Roger Penske won it) and later a non-championship exhibition race from 1963 to 1965. It was later a Can-Am race through 1973 then a IMSA GT Championship race in 1975 and from 1979 onward. The final race in 1987 was won by the famous Group 44 Jaguar GTP team, their penultimate IMSA win. 16. TeamDCR fan posted: 02.11.2018 - 11:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Correct me if I'm wrong, but Riverside has to be the only track to host 3 events in one season of the modern era of NASCAR 17. JSPorts posted: 02.11.2018 - 11:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) That's right. I doubt we'll ever see it again unless the series was to go to a schedule like they had before 1972. 18. Andy U posted: 12.11.2018 - 7:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well for those of you who don't know the area or history of that track, you can see it on the USGS 1980 Riverside East map. I am gonna make the call that the southernmost point of the latest track layout was at the drainage culvert in the open field just north of Cottonwood and west of Arbor Park Ln. New dogleg joined back up wiht the older track at about Lilac Ct. Straight up to the bus stop on the east side of the mall. Quick 180 and out the mall main door. Down around the pool at Fresco Apts and then another 180 back to the loading dock at JC Penney. Around the theatres adn back SW into the esses. Esses down to Aldi and then a long left turn to the finish at the Silver Valley Lane. And of course I just realized I went the wrong way around the track. 19. Sector posted: 11.04.2019 - 11:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dan Gurney is to Riverside as Dale Earnhardt is as to Daytona. I sincerely wish Riverside was still around to witness it live in modern time. 20. RacingDude00 posted: 06.04.2020 - 1:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I wasn't around when this joint was around but I can see WHY so many people loved it fast & competitive 21. Timothy_Eklund posted: 06.04.2020 - 1:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And just 2 years later nascar is going to run 3 races at a single track in the same season. 22. Foote posted: 06.04.2020 - 2:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Can someone tell me why F1 only visited this track once, in 1960? You'd think this would have made for a great F1 track. 23. RaceFanX posted: 06.04.2020 - 3:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @22 The 1960 Grand Prix at Riverside was a notable financial failure which led to the track being replaced by Watkins Glen as the host for 1961. After failing in both Sebring and Riverside the U.S. Grand Prix at the Glen was finally a hit so F1 never returned here while the New York track became an iconic part of the schedule through the rest of the 1960s and 1970s. 24. Corey posted: 06.04.2020 - 3:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @17 Two years and a coronavirus later. We get not one, but two tracks hosting three races in season. While Charlotte will use two different configurations, all three of Darlington's races will be the same. 25. RaceFanX posted: 07.28.2020 - 12:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) From 1986 onward there were constant rumors of Riverside being about to close down and be demolished. They briefly became a punchline as the track held off for as long as it could against the odds to continue operating. When the final decision to plow it into the ground it thankfully came with fans and racers still able to have enough time for proper final races and goodbyes. The last major race of any type held here was in August 1988, about two months after the final weekend of road course racing highlighted by Rusty Wallace's Cup victory, when SCORE held off-road events on a track set up in the infield. Demolition of the property had actually already begun when the race took place. Robby Gordon won the buggy class race then hoped in one of Jim Venable's Ford Trophy Trucks and went worse-to-first to put himself in the record books as the winner of the track's final race. Coincidentally, Gordon would later score a NASCAR Cup win at Sonoma in 2003, the track that replaced Riverside on the schedule. 26. Mile501 posted: 08.06.2020 - 4:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 2020 will be the first season that NASCAR's premier division has not had a true road course race (although there are 2 "Roval" races) since 1962. In the 1950s, there was the Daytona Beach course, which is classified as a road course (though it was really more of a street and beach course). A few other road courses came and went from the schedule in the early years as well. In 1958, 1961, and then from 1963 through 1988, NASCAR raced at Riverside at least once (and often twice) per year. Over the last 3 decades, Watkins Glen and Sonoma have taken those slots on the schedule, but both of those races were cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19. 27. possum posted: 08.06.2020 - 6:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @26 - classifying the Beach course as a road course is actually kind of weird, since it consisted of two long straights with two 180 degree left turns, schematically no different than Martinsville (altho much longer). You certainly wouldn't call it a street course, tho, since the relevant bit of pavement was quite remote at the time (today it looks like a city street, back then it looked like a backroads highway). Still, no great loss not having Watkins Glen and Sears Point (especially not Sears Point) since neither track suits Cup cars anywhere near as well as Riverside did, and the "improvements" made over the years have significantly degraded both tracks. 28. Jimmie4life posted: 10.02.2020 - 8:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Just unfortunate that Suburban Expansion lead to this tracks demise. But, you can't fix that. But, here is a question: Should a road course decide the championship like Riverside used to? Personally, I wouldn't, but if I was NASCAR, get another road course in the playoffs like COTA. It'd boost the race ratings and be a good challenge for drivers. 29. RaceFanX posted: 10.27.2020 - 10:13 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Updating @16, @17 Riverside held the record for being the last track to host three Cup races in a season for nearly four decades. It finally happened again, unintentionally, in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic forced a major reshuffling of the NASCAR Cup series schedule that required Darlington to host three races that season instead of just the Southern 500. Daytona and Charlotte would also host three races that year but with their regular two oval races accompanied by one on their infield road courses, which count as a separate track for NASCAR record keeping. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: