Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: A Day at Riverside Raceway, circa 1958 Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Thanks for posting. Not all of the film is Riverside International Raceway. I grew up in Riverside spent a lot of time at the raceway in the mid 70s until they closed in 88? I also sold programs there and I don't have one program from there? Saw a lot of races there. Raced my my 67 Camaro there in the early 80s when they had bracket racing. Doug Magnon started the Riverside International Auto Museum On Marlborough Ave in Riverside, Ca in the early 2000's,unfortunately it closed in 2015 when he passed away and the collection was auctioned off. Too bad they closed the raceway for a crappy mall. Have lots of memories of it. Thanks again for posting.
Those were not sprint cars but "Champ" cars. The race is at the mile track at the old California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. The drivers are the cream of the crop Indy stars racing on the Championship Trail for the National Championship. Far removed from Riverside. The sound of a full field taking the green flag with the booming sound of the big Offies is something that one would never forget if you were lucky enough to be there. 100 laps for 100 miles. Totally awe inspiring.
What's even sadder is because I live about 9 mi from there The mall is fairly dead like every mall. I am just old enough to remember the race track pretty vividly and I'm still shocked that it went down but by that same rationale I can't figure out how they just killed irwindale I mean it was surrounded by two rock quarries and a freeway and some warehouses but I digress. It is a sad thing about living in Southern California, we have quite a vivid car culture starting back in the late 1930s all the way to the current times and yet we have no race tracks other than barona in San Diego and another track in Bakersfield that I've never been to, both aren't exactly close to LA Orange Riverside San Bernardino areas, I think barona is roughly a hundred miles south from the average what you would consider typical Southern California and I think Bakersfield is probably 150 miles from me maybe 120ish from downtown LA It's definitely not close. You're not going to go there on a Wednesday work night and do some passes and then go home that's for sure.
It took me a minute to dig this up I bought this at a local estate sale probably a year or two ago I just thought it was cool Not quite on topic but really close and it is Riverside raceway
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