MOTOR RACING : Arciero Spurns Palm Springs to Build Track in Moreno Valley

Construction magnate Frank Arciero has changed the site of his proposed $30-million motor racing track from Palm Springs to the area of Moreno Valley, near the old Riverside International Raceway.

“This site has much better access, more space to expand and is more flexible,” Arciero told a group of civic leaders at a meeting Wednesday at March Air Force Base. “It is a much better location.”

The new 1,300-acre site is about six miles beyond the old Riverside International Raceway on U.S. 60 and is adjacent to the county-owned De Anza Cycle Park in a region known as the Badlands. It is located between Theodore Street and Gilman Springs Road on the north side of U.S. 60, east of the city limits of Moreno Valley, a rapidly growing community incorporated in 1984.

Arciero revealed plans for his proposed Palm Springs International Raceway in April 1988, with the opening of the facility scheduled for 1989. Even though Mayor Sonny Bono was supportive of the track, several roadblocks prevented construction from starting.

“Frank just got tired of waiting for the Palm Springs thing to jell, and when he found the right piece of property in Moreno Valley, he decided to move the whole project,” said Jim Guthrie, who has been Arciero’s project manager since before Riverside International Raceway closed and left Southern California without a major racing facility. “The last parcel of land we needed went into escrow last Friday.

“When Palm Springs (officials) decided to put the project on the Nov. 5 ballot, it was just another delay,” Guthrie added. “We’ve been working four months putting the new land deal together. Now we’re ready to go to work.”

Plans are the same as were announced for Palm Springs--a 1 1/2-mile paved oval for Indy cars and NASCAR Winston Cup stock cars, a 2 1/4-mile road course and a quarter-mile drag strip.

It will be a permanent facility, with grandstand seats for 35,000 and berm seating for another 15,000, plus pit suites, garages, corporate offices and a hotel.

Guthrie said that after approval is granted by Riverside County supervisors, work will begin on an Environmental Impact Report. He estimates it will be about 18 months before construction can begin, with the track opening for the 1995 season.

Norton Younglove, supervisor for the Fifth District, where the proposed track is located, said he welcomed the project.

“I went to races at Riverside Raceway for about 15 years, and I enjoyed the activities surrounding them,” Younglove said. “I believe it will be a good thing for the economy.”

Roy Hord, former vice president and general manager of Riverside Raceway, is Younglove’s administrative assistant.

“Riverside has missed racing. I know that for sure,” Hord said. “This new track Arciero is planning is so close to the old place that in a few years people will think it’s the same place.”

Arciero is insistent that it will be better than the old road racing facility, which was one of the first built in the United States when it opened in 1957.

“I never did think Riverside was a first-class track,” Arciero said. “Most of its facilities were temporary or seemed that way. I want a place that is permanent, where people can come to races and not feel like they’re camping out.”

UC Riverside will be involved in the project with the building of an automotive research center, a branch of the university’s new School of Engineering, on the property. It will use the tracks for on-site testing, such as for environmental air quality.

Arciero & Sons, the Anaheim-based firm that owns the 1,300-acre plot, will finance construction of the track.

“Construction is our business,” said Frank Arciero, 66. “We can move the ground, pour the concrete and pave the roads. That’s what we do every day, and we have all the equipment we need to do this job.”

Arciero will leave today for Monterey, where he has a car entered in Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix, an Indy car race at Laguna Seca Raceway. John Jones of Canada is Arciero’s driver.

LAGUNA SECA--Michael Andretti, seeking his first Indy car national championship, and Bobby Rahal, seeking his third, will decide the 1991 PPG Cup title Sunday in the Toyota Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. Michael, whose father, Mario Andretti, has won it four times, leads by 12 points and can win the $500,000 bonus by finishing fifth or better even if Rahal wins.

Also at stake will be the championship of the closest Atlantic professional series competition in 25 years between Jim Vasser of San Francisco and Jovy Marcelo of the Philippines. Vasser has a one-point lead going into 62-mile races Saturday and Sunday.

SPRINT CARS--Ron Shuman will continue his quest for an unprecedented fourth consecutive California Racing Assn. title Saturday night when the wingless sprinters race at the Imperial County Fairgrounds in El Centro. Shuman leads his Arizona neighbor, Lealand McSpadden, by 102 points with four races remaining.

OFF-ROAD--Robby Gordon, two-time champion of the Mickey Thompson Gran Prix series, will return to the series Saturday night in the Las Vegas Silver Bowl, replacing his father, Bob Gordon, who is sidelined because of two cracked ribs. Robby was 19 when he became the youngest champion of stadium racing in 1988 in a Super 1,600. He won the following year in a sports truck. He will drive the family Super 1,600 buggy in Las Vegas.

MIDGETS--Ventura Raceway’s one-fifth-mile oval will play host to the U.S. Auto Club western regional full midget and three-quarter midget doubleheader Saturday night. Also on the program will be vintage cars of the Western Racing Assn.

AIS--Defending series champion Bill Tempero took a commanding lead over Kevin Whitesides and Robby Unser with his victory last Sunday in the American IndyCar Series race at Lafayette, Ind. Tempero has 138 points to 127 for Whitesides and 124 for Unser, youngest son of three-time Indy 500 winner Bobby Unser, with the season finale, the fourth annual Los Angeles Grand Prix, on Oct. 27 at Willow Springs Raceway.

SPORTS CARS--P.J. Jones, who has campaigned successfully this year in Indy Lights, U.S. Auto Club midgets and the Firestone Firehawk series, will drive for Dan Gurney’s Toyota Eagle team in the 1992 IMSA Camel GT season. He will be Juan Manuel Fangio II’s teammate, replacing Rocky Moran.

Jordan Harris of Malibu and Skip Streets of Long Beach were the only Southern California drivers to win classes in the Sports Car Club of America’s Valvoline Runoffs last weekend at Road Atlanta. Harris, 37, driving in his first final, won Formula Atlantic. Streets, 27, won Formula Vee.

MISCELLANY--Santa Maria Speedway will close its season Saturday night with the Don Roberts Memorial, a 150-lap main event for late model stock cars. . . . The Nostalgia Drag Racing Assn. will conduct two days of vintage racing in a salute to Irwindale Raceway Saturday and Sunday at the L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale. . . . American Road Racing Assn. riders will compete Sunday in a series of Grand Prix motorcycle races at Willow Springs.