Riverside International Motor Raceway

Drag races at this Riverside road course ran on its 1.1-mile backstretch. The course was a mile east of the junction of Highways 60 and 395. Bud Coons managed the drag strip in 1957, when Riverside was the only place in California running half-mile drags. Calvin Rice set the track record of 161 mph over a timed half mile on October 6, 1957 and raised it to 167 mph later that year. On October 13 wet conditions after rain forced 200 racers to be turned away. A 1957 newspaper report put the number of NHRA-sanctioned strips in the country at about 90. On December 20, 1959, Art Malone drove Don Garlits’s fuel dragster to 181.45 mph in 8.50 seconds. C. J. Hart took over the drag racing in 1961, with races on the second and fourth Sundays, and the strip record that year stood at 171 mph. The Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Races ran here from 1964 through 1969 and drew large fields of name cars with big purses. From 1968 to 1970 races were held once a month.