Racing History Minute - December 1, 1957

The famed Riverside International Raceway opened in September 1957. The first two events were sports car races in September and November.

The first stock car race on the southern California road course, however, took place on December 1, 1957. USAC brought its stock car division to town for a 76-lap, 250-mile race promoted by J.C. Agajanian.

Aggie Agajanian promoted the race as a farewell tribute to Sam Hanks. Though he was entered in the stock car race, Hanks announced his retirement from open wheel racing in victory lane after winning the 1957 Indy 500 six months earlier. Hanks raced a handful of USAC stock car races the rest of the year, and the Riverside one was to be his last career event.

Seems to be Hanks was a very pragmatic driver. Perhaps he simply realized he'd been lucky to not succumb to the same fate as many who raced the Brickyard in the 1940s and 50s. He raced in the 1930s, served in World War II (and survived), returned to race after the war and finally won the Indy 500 in 1957. How many times should one stare fate in the face before blinking?

I also think he was practical in the sense he didn't buy into traditional superstitions. This too may have served him well in his years in Indy racing. But he certainly wouldn't have bonded well with the multiple NASCAR drivers who very much subscribed to multiple superstitions.

Other star power drivers (some at the time - some realized through history) made the long trek to the west coast to race in the event including:

• Johnnie Parsons, 1950 Indy 500 winner
• Troy Ruttman, 1952 Indy 500 winner (coincidentally in Agajanian's roadster)
• Jimmy Bryan, who won the 1958 Indy 500 six months after the Riverside stock car race
• Ralph Moody, who'd later partner with John Holman to form a racing powerhouse with Ford Motor Company
• a couple of New Mexico brothers: Jerry and Bobby Unser
• Ron Hornaday Sr., and
• Johnny Mantz, winner of the inaugural Southern 500 in 1950 (thanks Russ Thompson for the picture)

I haven't found enough details at this point to know if the race was a single-day event or a multi-day one. Nor did I find any qualifying speeds or a full race line-up. But the info I found indicated Bobby Unser won the top starting spot. Ruttman started alongside him. Jerry Unser and Hanks made up the second row.

Race preview (click article to open larger version in separate tab)

The race was to be the season-ender for the division. Jerry Unser was leading the points, but Moody still had the opportunity to claim the title. A Moody win would have required a top five finish for Jerry in order for Unser to win the championship.

Jerry Unser wanted to win the title by running competitively in the race - not by coasting throughout the day with a plan of simply keeping up with Moody. Though a full field rundown apparently isn't known, what IS known is that Jerry indeed accomplished his plan.

Ruttman's front row starting spot didn't yield him any benefits. He burned a piston and finished deep in the field. Similarly, pole winner Bobby Unser lost an engine and finished 17th.

Jerry stayed near the front as did Moody. Both watched as Jimmy Bryan lead late in the race. But then Moody fell by the wayside. Barring a catastrophe, Jerry was in great position to win the title. Yet Bryan continued to lead.

Then with just a few laps to go, Bryan developed an engine problem in his Mercury and faded to an 11th place finish. From there, Jerry went to the front, won the race and captured the season title.

As the calendar turned to 1958, Jerry raced in three western states USAC stock car races. Then he headed to the midwest in May for the Indy 500. He survived the month of May and made the show. During the race, however, he was involved in a multi-car wreck that resulted in him catapulting over the wall. Fortunately, he wasn't seriously injured. Sadly, however, the same could not be said one year later. Unser died during a practice run crash while attempting to make his 2nd Indy 500 start.

Interesting to note that the program cover lists the track name as Los Angeles International Motor Raceway, but the newspaper ad promotes the race at Riverside Int. Raceway. That name change happened a lot quicker (before the first stock car race) than Alabama International Motor Speedway (A.I.M.S.) becoming Talladega Superspeedway. Kinda like we never said we were going to a race at North Carolina Motor Speedway. We went to Rockingham.

Plenty of confusion here. The type on the program says Los Angeles. But the logo says Riverside International Motor Racing - of which the "Motor" was soon dropped. I don't know if LA was an original part of the track's name - or if perhaps someone didn't do their job with mark-up or proofreading for the program cover.

And later came....

Well done sir. Well done.

Found a more in-depth race report this morning from the Pasadena Independent newspaper archives. The article references a field of 36 - yet lists only 29 names.