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Riverside International Raceway Museum

race carIn the mid 80s when I moved to Southern California the first thing I did was get season tickets to Riverside. It was a shrine for me. I grew up seeing it in movies and reading about it in magazines and watching races on TV. Within a few years I had my perfect season tickets in the top row of Turn 6. My favorite lap of all racing remains the view from that location. When the large NASCARĀ  racers came blasting up through the S’s toward Turn 6 on the first lap there was nothing like it I had ever seen before or since. The view and the action was terrific. Then, in just a couple of years it was all gone. As usual, some brilliant politicians and greedy developers plowed it up for another stupid shopping mall. I hope someday we as a society learn our lesson about what is important and what isn’t. By profession I am a City Planner and can tell you there is always another location for a mall and there is always another contribution for a politician but there was only ONE RIVERSIDE INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY.

The Riverside International Automotive Museum just recently opened in Riverside, CA. It is located deep in an industrial park but hopes to soon move to its own building near the site of the old Riverside International Raceway.

I had my expectations up for what I might find at the museum and I was somewhat disappointed. There are a number of impressive race cars on display and some old track memorabilia but not enough to get the heart pumping. Museum Director Bruce Ward (no relation to Roger) was extremely pleasant and even escorted me through the collection pointing out many unique historical facts about the more significant cars.

There was a notable shortage of vehicles that would have raced at the famous road course. There was not one single old NASCAR or GTP car present and only a very small number of sorts cars. I hope as the museum grows these valuable assets will be found and placed into the collection.

There is a good representation of Indy Cars, especially from local hero Dan Gurney and his All American Eagle race cars but, to my knowledge, there was never an Indy Car race at Riverside.

Riverside Raceway Museum March Air Force Track

This is the layout for the first sports car race held at the March Air Force Base in 1953.


Riverside Raceway Museum

Entry and gift shop at the museum.

Corvette

Corvette race car.

Indy Car

There are a lot of cars in a little space.

For the real Riverside International Raceway fan this will be a little bit of a disappointment but it is a museum with a bright future. I hope when it reaches its final home there will be more photos of the old raceway, a variety of vintage NASCAR and GTP cars on display and maybe even some of the off road vehicles that once raced there.

Will I go back? Yes, I believe in a few years this museum could well be on the must do list but for now it is just a disjointed collection of interesting cars.

To read more about the Riverside International Raceway Museum and to see many more photos Click Here.

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Richard

I grew up and lived in Iowa for a good portion of my life before moving to Southern California. After 20+ years we now live outside Nashville Tennessee. I have been into cars since I was old enough to remember. I don't have a brand loyalty although I do prefer American Muscle especially the 1969/1970 NASCAR Aero Cars. (Check out our other web site at www.TalladegaSpoilerRegistry.com site) As long as it has four wheels and an engine I get excited. Few men are lucky enough to be able to share their passion for cars with the woman they love. Fortunately, my wife, Katriana, is also a gear head and many of our activities revolve around the cars. We have a small collection that includes at least one car from each of the Big Three. It includes a Best of Show winner, a survivor, a driver with lots of patina and several others. Katrina prefers all original cars while I like to modify them so we have a few of each. When we aren't playing with cars we are out working with or showing our miniature donkeys. You can see more about that part of our lives at http://www.LegendaryFarms.com.

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2 Comments

  1. Dan Gurney won numerous races at RIR including the Rex Mays 300 Champ (Indy) car races. The ’68 Rex Mays race was also a battle for the USAC championship and the last race for the Lotus Turbine cars.

  2. I attended the 1st race back in 1966 and for the next 10 yrs, crewed for several teams while owning part of Art’s Foreign Car Service on 3rd & Park Ave. I also crewed for Joe Zebor and his class H winning Austin Healy Sprite out of Riverside., For the only Formula One race, I crewed on the JPL special from Great Britain. . Those were “fabulous” days. “Cheers” Sam

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