News

Riverside International Automotive Museum

The gloom still hung in the air when Bob and I arrived at our shop, Premier Auto, in Riverside, Saturday the 20th of June. We turned on the lights, rolled up the metal doors, laid out the promised donuts and waited for our friends and guests to arrive. Soon Nick and Char Desimone, Bob Davis, Roger Chrislip, Tony Cipponeri, Richard Butler and guests Doug Albee and Janet LaPolla, Mighty Mopar Dave Maynard and Alan Christofellos were all milling about chit-chatting, drinking their coffee and looking at some of the vintage cars at the shop.

At 9:30 our caravan proceeded to our appointed destination of the day, The Riverside International Automotive Museum. We took Tyler Ave down to Victoria and took a slow cruise. Victoria is a charming and historic street with a wide median between the two one-way lanes. The median has several different colorful flowering trees and shrubs growing and some very old and tall eucalyptus, palm trees and an occasional orange grove lining the sides. At the end of Victoria we turned right onto University over to Chicago and right on Marlborough.

The museum is in an industrial park all the way at the end of Marlborough. We arrived about 10:15 and so did our latecomer, Bruce Lofgren. Our docent for the day, Pat Flynn, was there to meet us at the door and welcome us in. RIAM is dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of motor sports, the Riverside International Raceway and the Ontario Motor Speedway.

The museum has only been there about a year and is somewhat small but has already collected quite a bit of memorabilia to see. There is a video that plays for the observer to learn about the history the raceway, the cars and the drivers. This is all located in the front lobby section of the museum. But the exciting part for the group was through the glass double doors to the back section. Maserati, Ferrari, Jaguar and Porsche are all represented as well as some Penske and Gurney Indy racers.

You could see the evolution of the racecar through the years. They have a shop there that takes on the restoration of some of these old racers. We spent over 2 hours admiring the vehicles and questioning our docent about them.

Just as we were about to leave, our late, latecomer, Darrell Harris, arrived. He had to work and missed the museum but headed on over to Delia's Grinders with us for some lunch. With our hunger satiated, Nick brought a short meeting to order on the patio. Treasurer reports $3553.00 in the bank and Bob reported that 37 members so far have renewed their membership. Next months event will be the Prado Park picnic so bring your best potluck and join in. A possible drive-in meet is still in the works and the annual meet in September is being set up by Robin. October will be Darrell Harris house party and November will be at Zebs in Costa Mesa. For the Christmas party this year I hope to be able to adopt a family though the Orangewood Foundation for our club to donate to. More will be posted later for that at the events section. With the meeting adjourned we all found our way home with some memories of a pleasant day spent with our friends. 

Edited on 2009-07-25 by Margie Amos

® Plymouth is a registered trademark of Chrysler Motors and is used with special permission