GPWizard F1 Forum
Other Sports => Other Sports => Topic started by: cosworth151 on May 28, 2020, 04:07:45 PM
-
The Trans Am Series will return to the legendary Riverside International Raceway on Saturday, May 30th! Well, sorta.....
Like many series, the Trans Am is holding esports races. In a stroke of genius, they will hold their next race at Riverside. The great track was destroyed after the 1989 season to make way for a soon defunct shopping mall. In its time, it was home to everything from drag racing & NASCAR to Can Am & F1.
https://racer.com/2020/05/26/riverside-raceway-resurrected-for-next-trans-am-esports-round/
-
Saw several races at Riverside, a Can-Am during the 5 liter, ground effects era, the IMSA 6 hour, and an AMA bike race. Kenny Roberts won 750cc GP and Cook Neilson won Superbike on a Ducati, about the only bike that didn't wobble coming off a corner. The AMA didn't care where you watched from as long as you weren't right on the track, so we went right out to the Armco. I could almost read Roberts' instruments as he went by. When he wasn't on track his 750cc Yamaha stood in front of his garage with no one around it except one mechanic against the back wall in a lawn chair. Imagine F1 or IndyCar leaving a top level car virtually unattended.
During the Can-Am I was shocked to discover the body side fins that supported the wing were made of that super exotic material...marine plywood. I was also shocked at how high they revved those small block Chevvies. When they first came out to practice I kept waiting for them to shift and they would just go a couple thousand RPM higher.
The 6 hour featured a fascinating duel between a Porsche 935 and a Lola T600. The Porsche was an absolute rocket down the long, long straight, but the ground effects Lola was much quicker through the corners, particularly from turn 1 through the esses and up to turn 5. Every time the Lola had to get by he was forced to pass the 935 several times, gaining just a little ground overall with each pass until he could finally make it stick. Then he would pit and the whole process would start again.
I really miss Riverside.
-
(https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/car/4956/Lola-T600-Chevrolet-39246.jpg)
-
(https://images.hgmsites.net/med/an-andial-prepped-porsche-935--image-andial_100419338_m.jpg)
-
Riverside was a fairly new facility at the time. The garages were not up to F1 requirements. So, like many F1 venues of the day, the teams used garages in town & drove the cars to the track on public highways. Here are John Surtees driving his Lotus Climax 18 down University Avenue & Maurice Trintignant southbound on Interstate 15 in his Cooper Maserati T51. That had to have been so much fun!
-
Maurice actually looks like he's on CA 60, the Riverside Fwy., which ran right along the north edge of the track. Great pictures. My Dad had a wagon just like the one in the Surtees picture.
-
I wondered about that. I went with the info that came with the pix, but I didn't think that I-15 had made it out that far by 1960.