| Riverside International Raceway |
The Golden Era of Sports Car Racing
Riverside International Raceway heralded in the new era of permanent road racing circuits in the 1950's. Reputed to be the third such track to be built in the U.S. (preceded only by Willows Springs and the defunct Paramount track); it was undoubtedly the greatest road racing circuit in the West.
European Sports Racers; Formula One Grand Prix; NASCAR; Can-Am; USAC; IMSA; IROC; CART all made pilgrimages to Riverside. Many of the world's greatest drivers answered the challenge of Riverside's famous corners: Phil Hill; Stirling Moss; Mario Andretti; Carrol Shelby; Parnelli Jones; Bob Bodurant; Bill Krause; Skip Hudson; and Chuck Daigh all helped to make riverside famous during the "Golden Era", but no driver succeeded in carving out Riverside victories like Dan Gurney.
Riverside is sometimes referred to as the track that Gurney built. He raced more variety of series and had more victories at RIR than any other racer. In fact, Dan grew up in Riverside, racing motorcycles around the hills of Riverside, even before there was a track. Dan began his illustrious career and cut his teeth at RIR.
The International Race of Champions (IROC) was born at Riverside. The brainchild RIR President Les Richter, the series pitted top echelon drivers from F1, USAC, SCCA and NASCAR in equally prepared cars on America's most challenging circuits, Riverside and Daytona. First in Porsche Carrera RSRs and later in race prepped Chevrolet Cameros.
Sadly, all this history was lost in the late 1980's when RIR was torn down and replaced by a shopping mall approved by the then newly formed City of Moreno Valley (RIR never was in the Riverside's city limits). RIR is still revered to this day in the hearts and minds of racing fans. Recent museum events and historic races pay homage to the greatest road racing circuit too ever grace the U.S.
RIAM's RIR Collection is one of the world's most complete collections of Riverside International Raceway artifacts. From original race programs and posters to recorded sounds, the collection serves as a repository of relevant objects covering some thirty years, from 1957 to 1988.
An ongoing project of the museum is the digitization of these artifacts to create a permanent archive available to journalists and scholars and preserve an online record for all to learn and benefit from.
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| Riverside International Raceway was not just another competition venue for the entrants and source of entertainment for the community: The Los Angeles Times Grand Prix was sponsored by the Los Angeles Times to produce money for its charities. This is one of the many ways in which the racing community and industry contributed to the greater good of California. |
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Examples from RIAM's RIR Digital Archive:
• RIR race programs, 1957 - 1979
Video Examples of RIR