Open-wheel icon Parnelli Jones joined Gurney as a Riverside NASCAR winner in 1967, as did five-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt in 1970 and USAC and NASCAR Winston West star Ray Elder in 1971. Just two years later, motorsports iconic team owner Roger Penske recorded his first NASCAR victory at the track with Mark Donohue wheeling an American Motors Matador on Jan. 21, 1973.
Bobby Allison won the most Cup Series events at RIR with six victories during his 25-year career. He also won an IROC race there in 1974.
“I really enjoyed racing at Riverside,” Allison said. “I had a lot of wins there and always felt comfortable on that track. Many drivers in NASCAR didn’t care for the road courses, but I felt like they were some of my best tracks. I drove several types of race cars there and always felt I could win there. Riverside was a place I really enjoyed going to. It was a great race track.”
Sadly, 19 drivers, one crew member and one spectator died at the track. Joe Weatherly, the reigning NASCAR champion at the time, lost his life there on Jan. 19, 1964. Ironically, John Lawrence, a sports car driver, died in the first race run at Riverside in September 1957. Fellow sports cars driver Mark Verbofsky died during the final event on July 1, 1989. The track officially closed the next day.
Throughout the 1970s, Allison, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and David Pearson dominated victory lane at Riverside Int’l Raceway. Joining them by the end of the decade were Benny Parsons and Darrell Waltrip.
Three of the most contentious Cup Series championship battles came to a head on the winding road course in 1981, ’82 and ’83 featuring Allison and Waltrip.
Waltrip won championships in Junior Johnson-owned Buicks the first two years while Allison won the title over Waltrip in 1983, driving a DiGard Racing Buick. While Allison celebrated his lone championship in the garage area that day, rising star Bill Elliott collected his first of 44 Cup Series victories with Melling Racing.
Ricky Rudd scored his first victory and the first for team owner Richard Childress in June 1983.
“That was one of my favorite race tracks when I was a driver (1969 to 1981),” Childress said. “The day we won there with Ricky Rudd in 1983, we knew we had a great car and Ricky was a great road racer, so it all worked out great. It was just a great course the way you could drive down into turns nine, 10 and 11 and it was fast. I really loved driving there during my career. I wish it was still there.”
Rudd won there again in Bud Moore’s Ford in 1985, followed by a victory by Waltrip win in June 1986 and two victories by Tim Richmond for team owner Raymond Beadle. Rusty Wallace wheeled Beadle’s Pontiac to victory at the track in November 1987 and during the final Cup Series race there on June 12, 1988.
In its later days of operation, several movies, including “Winning” with Paul Newman and Walt Disney’s “The Love Bug.” Countless television shows, such as “CHiPs,” “Knight Rider” and “The Rockford Files” were also filmed there.
Southern California race fans were heartbroken when the facility closed 30 years ago.
“That track to me was one of the most fantastic road courses I had ever run in my life. It’s probably my favorite,” Wallace added. “I loved it because of the long straightaway and big sweeping turns that it had. The esses were incredible. The track had so much rich history. It was so sad to see the track go away. I think about it all the time.
“Winning the last two races there is very, very special to me,” Wallace said, breaking out in laughter. “My son has a T-shirt that has a list of winners there and the last two have Rusty Wallace and Rusty Wallace. That’s really cool.”