Motor Racing : Is This the Year That Riverside Finally Closes?

Dale Earnhardt was named winner of the Jerry Titus Memorial Award for 1987 at the annual banquet of the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Assn. last Saturday night, but no sooner had the cheering subsided for the Winston Cup stock car champion than talk centered on this year’s racing season.

The Titus Award, named for the late racing driver and journalist, is given to the driver who polls the most votes in the AARWBA’s annual All-American team balloting.

For Southern Californians, the 1988 season figures to be bittersweet, filled with nostalgia and disappointment as Riverside International Raceway--possibly the most famous road racing course in America and one of the highest regarded in the world--finally closes its gates.

There have been false alarms before about the 30-year-old raceway yielding to the Inland Empire’s building boom and becoming a Moreno Valley shopping mall, but this time the signs are strong.

NASCAR has dropped the Winston Western 500 race in November at Riverside, after a run of 26 years, and replaced it with a race on the mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway.

The final major event scheduled at the old racing facility east of Riverside is the SCORE International world closed-course off-road championships, Aug. 13-14.

Before that, racing fans will get their final looks at the nine-turn course during an International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GT program April 30-May 1, the International Race of Champions June 11 and the Budweiser 400 NASCAR race June 12.

For the first time since the International Motor Sports Assn. series began at Riverside in 1979, the event will not be sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and it will not include the prototype GTP cars such as Porsche 962, Ford Mustang Probe, Corvette GTP, Nissan ZX or the Jaguar XJR-7 that won last year’s race with Hurley Haywood and John Morton driving. Only GTU and GTO cars will be featured this year.

The race, as yet unsponsored, will be called the Riverside Grand Prix.

The biggest disappointment to area racing enthusiasts is that there seem to be no signs of another racing facility on the horizon in Southern California. Many sites have been mentioned as possibilities--Corona, Perris, Lake Elsinore, San Bernardino, San Diego County, Simi Valley and the Palmdale-Lancaster region--but no ground has been broken and there are no plans in the works.

NASCAR officials, who have said it is imperative to have a West Coast date on the Winston Cup schedule, have given up on a Southern California site for 1989 and are planning to use the mile oval in San Jose, on the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds property. Plans are to pave the existing dirt track and increase the seating capacity from 7,000 to 30,000.

Anaheim Stadium will serve as the jumping-off point for the 1988 racing season with three consecutive weekends of activity starting Saturday night with a truck and tractor pull and Sunday with mud bog drag racing.

Mickey Thompson’s Entertainment Group will move in the next weekend with the opening event of his Gran Prix off-road series and Thunder Drags. The three-weekend splurge of racing will conclude Jan. 30 with the $52,000 Super Crown of Stadium Motocross.

The tentative West Coast racing schedule for 1988:

INDY CARS

Apr. 10--Checker 200, CART oval race, Phoenix International Raceway.

Apr. 17--Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, CART street race, Long Beach.

May 1--American Indy-Car stock block series, Willow Springs Raceway, Rosamond.

Oct. 16--Champion Spark Plug 300k, CART road race, Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey.

STOCK CARS

Mar. 19--Factory stock enduro, season opener, Saugus Speedway.

Mar. 20--Winston Racing Series opener, Ascot Park.

Mar. 26--Southwest Tour opener, Saugus Speedway.

May 21--Winston West series, Mesa Marin Raceway, Bakersfield.

June 12--Budweiser 400k, NASCAR Winston Cup series, Riverside International Raceway.

Aug. 6--Winston West series, Mesa Marin.

Sept. 10--Southwest Tour race, Saugus.

Nov. 6--Checker 500, NASCAR Winston Cup series, Phoenix International Raceway.

DRAG RACING

Jan. 24--Thunder drags, Thompson stadium series, Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim.

Feb. 4-7--Chief Auto Parts Winternationals, National Hot Rod Assn., L. A. County Fairgrounds, Pomona.

Feb. 14--Thunder drags, Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego.

Apr. 16-17--U.S. Fuel and Gas championships, NHRA, Famoso strip, Bakersfield.

July 9--Thunder drags, Coliseum.

Oct., 27-30--Winston Finals, NHRA, L.A. County Fairgrounds, Pomona.

SPORTS CARS

Feb. 6-7--Cal Club nationals, SCCA, Riverside International Raceway.

April 30-May 1--Riverside Grand Prix, International Motor Sports Assn., Riverside.

June 11--International Race of Champions, Riverside.

Oct. 23--Camel Grand Prix of Southern California, IMSA, Del Mar.

OFF-ROAD

Jan. 23--Mickey Thompson Gran Prix, closed-course series, Anaheim Stadium.

Jan. 30--Parker 400, SCORE International, Parker, Ariz.

Feb. 13--Thompson GP, closed-course series, Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego.

Mar. 5--Gold Coast 250, High Desert Racing Assn., Las Vegas.

Apr. 2--Great Mojave 250, SCORE, Lucerne Valley, Calif.

Apr. 29-30--Mint 400, HDRA, Las Vegas.

May 7--Thompson GP, closed-course series, Rose Bowl, Pasadena.

June 4--Baja Internacional, SCORE, Ensenada, Mexico.

July 2--Fireworks 250, HDRA, Barstow.

July 23--Thompson GP, closed-course series, Coliseum, Los Angeles.

Aug. 13-14--World closed-course championships, SCORE, Riverside International Raceway.

Sept. 10-11--Nevada 500, HDRA, Las Vegas.

Oct. 1--Thompson GP, closed-course series, Silver Bowl, Las Vegas.

Nov. 12-13--Baja 1000, SCORE, Ensenada, Mexico.

SPRINT CARS-MIDGETS

Feb. 19-20--World of Outlaws, winged sprint cars, Ascot Park.

Mar. 9--California Racing Assn. season opener, wingless sprint cars, Ascot Park.

Mar. 27--Western States Jolly Ranchers series opener, midgets, United States Auto Club regional, Ascot Park.

May 7--Western States midgets, USAC regional, Saugus Speedway.

May 28--Salute to Indy, CRA wingless sprint cars, Ascot Park.

July 2--Firecracker 50, CRA wingless sprint cars, Ascot Park.

Aug. 20--Western States midgets, USAC regional, Saugus.

Sept. 3--CRA Labor Day Sweepstakes, CRA wingless sprint cars, Ascot Park.

Oct. 13-15--Pacific Coast Nationals, World of Outlaws winged sprint cars, Ascot Park.

Oct. 16--Non-wing Challenge, CRA wingless sprint cars, Ascot Park.

Nov. 19--Don Peabody Memorial, CRA wingless sprint cars, Ascot Park.

Nov. 24--Turkey Night Grand Prix, midgets, USAC national championship, Ascot Park.

MOTOCROSS

Jan. 24--Dodge Truck Golden State Nationals, Continental Motosport Club, Carlsbad Raceway, Carlsbad.

Jan. 30--Super Crown series, Anaheim Stadium.

Jan. 31--Golden State Nationals, CMC, Sunrise Valley Park, Adelanto.

Feb. 20--Supercross, AMA, Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego.

Feb. 21--Golden State Nationals, Glen Helen Park, San Bernardino.

June 18--Super Crown, Coliseum.

June 26--U.S. Grand Prix, 500cc, Hollister, Calif.

MOTORCYCLES

Feb. 7--Formula USA, WSMA road race season opener, Willow Springs Raceway, Rosamond.

Mar. 5-6--Viewfinders Grand Prix, road race, Riverside International Raceway.

Apr. 10--World championship 250cc and 500cc road races, AMA, Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey.

Apr. 23--National TT steeplechase, AMA dirt track, Ascot Park.

May 7--National half-mile, AMA dirt track, Ascot Park.

Aug. 18-20--U.S. vs. World Challenge, speedway bikes, Ascot Park.

Sept. 24--National half-mile, AMA dirt track, Ascot Park.

INDY CARS--Scott Atchison, national Super Vee champion from Bakersfield, will skip the American Racing Series to concentrate on an Indy car ride with the Machinists’ Union team. Atchison will begin testing with Rick Mears and the Penske team later this month at Phoenix in hopes of putting the Machinists’ 1986 March into the starting field April 10 at Phoenix. . . . Indy car drivers Bobby Rahal and Al Unser and son Al Jr. have been added to the 12-driver field for the International Race of Champions series.

FORMULA ATLANTIC--Contrary to reports, the popular series will continue on the West Coast this year despite the withdrawal of Stefan Petroff Industries as the season sponsor. Paul Cava and Tim Fortner have formed Cava-Fortner Sports Management Inc., to produce a West Coast Formula Atlantic series for the Sports Car Club of America.