Lost Circuits: Riverside International Raceway
Owing to the large scale abandonment of temporary street circuits on safety grounds, the late 1950s saw a dramatic rise in the number of permanent motor sport facilities around the USA.
One of the first to open in California was Riverside International Raceway.
Based in the Edgemont area of Riverside County, 50 miles east of Los Angeles, the track stood in the foothills of the epic San Bernardino mountain range. It was preceded by Willow Springs (opened 1953) and Paramount Ranch (opened 1956).
The Riverside circuit was built by the West Coast Automotive Testing Corporation run by amateur racing driver and restaurateur, Rudy Cleye. However, within a short space of time, the corporation found itself in financial difficulty. Fortunately, millionaire playboy and racing team owner, John Edgar, stepped in with the funds required for completion.
The result was one of the best tracks in the USA and Riverside quickly established itself as the home of road racing in Southern California.
The hot and dusty location with its spectacular backdrop contained a complex and dangerous circuit that wound around the natural topography. There were nine bends and a series of challenging esses, one sequence of which led on to a long downhill back straight culminating with a 180° hairpin that became the scene of many accidents.
The facility was built to accommodate the notorious 2.6 mile Long Course in addition to several shorter configurations and a drag strip. 20 fatalities in 31 years ensured it became renowned as one of the most dangerous tracks in the USA.
Nevertheless, Riverside hosted everything from Formula 1 to IMSA and Can-Am to NASCAR. It was also a frequent destination for the TV and movie industry owing to the location’s proximity to Hollywood.
The first racing took place over the weekend of September 21st and 22nd 1957. In the headline one hour race for over 1500cc Sports cars, Richie Ginther won in John Edgar’s Ferrari 410 Sport. 15 year old Ricardo Rodriguez took victory in the sub 1.5-litre event driving his family’s Porsche 550.
Unfortunately, the meeting was marred by the fatal accident of under 1500cc Production Car champion, John Lawrence, who crashed his MGA in the eleven lap MG race. Lawrence walked away but died later that day of a brain injury.
1958 was a significant year as Riverside hosted the first ever NASCAR race not to take place on an oval circuit. The 500 mile contest was won by Eddie Gray in a Ford and unusually took place with the circuit’s normal clockwise direction reversed.
Later in the year, the Los Angeles Times began a long-standing arrangement to sponsor the annual 200 miles Riverside Grand Prix for Sports cars. The contest went on to offer the biggest prize fund for a sports car race in the country. The inaugural event was won by Chuck Daigh in Lance Reventlow’s Scarab Mk2.
In 1960, the Formula 1 World Championship made its one any only visit to Riverside. The race was the last of the season and was won by Stirling Moss driving a Rob Walker Lotus 18. Afterwards, the event moved on to Watkins Glen.
Earlier in 1960, the Riverside circuit had been sold to oil magnate Ed Pauley, investor Fred Levy and comedian Bob Hope for around $800,000. Les Richter was recruited as the track’s new promoter and he convinced NASCAR to return for an annual event.
On August 17th 1966, Riverside claimed the life of its eleventh and most famous driver yet. While testing Ford’s experimental J-car, Ken Miles lost control as he approached the end of the mile long back straight. Travelling at around 200mph, the Ford looped end over end, crashed and caught fire. Poor Ken Miles was ejected from the car and died instantly.
Following another two fatal accidents, $1.25m was raised for safety improvements in 1969. Most importantly, the hairpin at the end of the back straight was reconfigured with a dogleg approach. In addition, the pit lane was switched to the opposite side of the track which allowed Turn 1 to be slightly realigned. This meant the end of the circuit’s rarely used short oval courses.
In 1971, the track’s owners (American Raceways Inc., which also owned four other circuits) declared bankruptcy. Riverside was sold to four-man consortium headed by real estate developed, Fritz Duda. The consortium acquired 80% of the stock for $400,000.
Between 1981 and 1983, the return of Indy Car racing to Riverside gave the circuit a temporary boost. The single seat series made the trip following the closure of the nearby Ontario Motor Speedway.
However, 1983 also saw the Riverside track claim another high profile driver’s life. During that year’s Los Angeles Times Grand Prix (which was round five of the popular IMSA GT series), Rolf Stommelen was killed at the infamous Turn 9. Stommelen had only just taken over the John Fitpatrick Porsche 935 when the rear wing broke as a result of a brush with the barriers shortly beforehand.
With the rear spoiler detached, Stommelen lost control and slammed into a concrete wall which sent the car into a series of violent rolls. Rolf Stommelen died of a heart attack en route to hospital.
Later in 1983, Fritz Duda acquired the remaining stock and his consortium took sole ownership of the circuit.
Riverside continued to host several high profile series such as NASCAR and IMSA, but safety concerns and the inexorable spread of Los Angeles’ urban sprawl meant the writing was on the wall.
Residents of the newly incorporated and rapidly expanding Moreno Valley became hostile to the track noise as what had started out as a facility more or less in open desert was now surrounded by homes and businesses.
This had the knock-on effect of making the land far more valuable than had ever been envisaged.
Inevitably, 1988 was announced as the last year professional racing would take place at Riverside.
A shortened version of the circuit was used up until July 1989. Unfortunately, the last event, a Can-Am race on July 1st, claimed the life of the 19th driver to die at Riverside, Mark Verbofsky. In its 31 year history, one spectator and one pit crew member had also been fatally injured.
After closing, the site was turned into a shopping mall and several residential estates. The last of the track was torn up in 2003 and today nothing remains of this fast but unforgiving circuit.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Supercar Nostalgia & unattributed
