Riverside International Raceway

Rudy W. Cleye, who built the now-defunct Riverside International Raceway and co-founded the Blarney Castle restaurant, has died. He was 75. Cleye died Nov. 30 at his home in Carson City, Nev. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, on Dec. 4, 1917, Cleye studied engineering and hotel and restaurant management in Paris and Switzerland. He came to the United States in the 1940s and worked as a maitre d' at the Diamond Horseshoe and the Riviera in New York.

Carroll Shelby, the charismatic Texan who parlayed a short-lived racing career into a specialized business building high-performance, street-legal cars, died Thursday. He was 89. Shelby died at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, according to an announcement by his company, Carroll Shelby Licensing. A cause was not disclosed. He led a colorful, outsized life that touched virtually every corner of the automotive world, said Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

When the curtain drops on the Stroh's SCORE Off-Road World Championships and Riverside International Raceway this afternoon, it will close one of the most popular off-road racing programs ever. The layout of the course, which combines the best of desert and stadium racing, was designed and built by Walker Evans, a 49-year-old Riverside resident who is the sport's biggest winner.

Chester McGlockton Former NFL defensive tackle Chester McGlockton, 42, a former NFL defensive tackle who was a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1992 and went on to become an assistant football coach at Stanford University, died overnight Tuesday, the university said Wednesday morning. The cause of death was not immediately announced. Born Sept. 16, 1969, in Whiteville, N.C., McGlockton starred at Clemson University before being selected 16th overall by the Raiders in 1992.

Carroll Shelby, the charismatic Texan who parlayed a short-lived racing career into a specialized business building high-performance, street-legal cars, died Thursday. He was 89. Shelby died at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, according to an announcement by his company, Carroll Shelby Licensing. A cause was not disclosed. He led a colorful, outsized life that touched virtually every corner of the automotive world, said Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

The True Value Firebird International Race of Champions, a unique concept matching 12 drivers from various forms of motor racing in identically prepared cars, can't go back to its roots because there is no more Riverside International Raceway. It was there, on the twisting road course just north of March Air Force Base, that the first IROC was run on Oct. 27, 1973. The late Mark Donohue was a start-to-finish winner and the cars were Porsche Carreras, riding on Goodyear tires.

Jean (Spider) MacLean, 64, sports director of KWIZ and a track announcer at Riverside International Raceway from 1964 until its closing, died of a heart attack at his home in Garden Grove.

Duke Hoenshell of Orange, who was forced to start last in the Motorcraft/Carquest 300 after his car was found to be illegal in qualifying, came back Saturday to win the Southwest Tour event at Riverside International Raceway. Hoenshell finished eight seconds ahead of series champion Ron Esau in the 300-kilometer race.

Juan Manuel Fangio III of Argentina made a daring pass of leader Mark Wolocatiuk in sweeping Turn 9 late in the Corvette Challenge to win the one-hour race for showroom stock Chevrolets Sunday at Riverside International Raceway. Fangio, nephew of five-time World Driver's champion Juan Fangio, led the final five laps after squeezing past Wolocatiuk, an instructor at the Jim Russell Driving School in Riverside. Peter Lockhart of Canada finished second and Wolocatiuk wound up fifth.

Former Ram football guard Roy Hord Jr., who later was general manager of Riverside International Raceway and long was active in politics and community projects in Riverside, died of cancer Thursday. He was 67. Hord was born in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 25, 1934. He attended Duke University, where he played defensive tackle and offensive guard, and was named first-team All-American in 1957. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1960, and eventually played guard for three seasons.

Les Richter, twice a key force in establishing big-league auto racing in Southern California after a career as an all-pro linebacker with the Los Angeles Rams, died Saturday. He was 79. Richter died at Riverside Community Hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm Friday, said his son, Jon. Richter first led Riverside International Raceway, a twisty road-racing course, to national prominence largely by bringing NASCAR there in the early 1960s. After that track closed in 1988, he helped supervise development of Auto Club Speedway, the 92,000-seat Fontana track initially called California Speedway that opened in 1997 and now hosts two top-level NASCAR races a year.

For the last 23 years, NASCAR has opened its premier stock car racing season with the Daytona 500, long enough for many followers to think it has always been that way. But it hasn't. Riverside International Raceway, a sprawling road course that twisted its way through what is now Moreno Valley east of Riverside for three decades, was long the site of the opening race of the 1965 Grand National -- later Winston Cup and now Nextel Cup -- season.

Former Ram football guard Roy Hord Jr., who later was general manager of Riverside International Raceway and long was active in politics and community projects in Riverside, died of cancer Thursday. He was 67. Hord was born in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 25, 1934. He attended Duke University, where he played defensive tackle and offensive guard, and was named first-team All-American in 1957. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1960, and eventually played guard for three seasons.

There had been racing in Southern California since the early 1900s, when Barney Oldfield was running outrageous speeds at Agricultural Park, but not until Riverside International Raceway came along in the late 1950s did the rest of the country pay much attention. RIR was to racing what the transcontinental railway was to the nation's western movement.

The True Value Firebird International Race of Champions, a unique concept matching 12 drivers from various forms of motor racing in identically prepared cars, can't go back to its roots because there is no more Riverside International Raceway. It was there, on the twisting road course just north of March Air Force Base, that the first IROC was run on Oct. 27, 1973. The late Mark Donohue was a start-to-finish winner and the cars were Porsche Carreras, riding on Goodyear tires.

Rudy W. Cleye, who built the now-defunct Riverside International Raceway and co-founded the Blarney Castle restaurant, has died. He was 75. Cleye died Nov. 30 at his home in Carson City, Nev. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, on Dec. 4, 1917, Cleye studied engineering and hotel and restaurant management in Paris and Switzerland. He came to the United States in the 1940s and worked as a maitre d' at the Diamond Horseshoe and the Riviera in New York.

Hometown favorite Kevin Riniker scored his first victory of the NASCAR Southwest Tour when he drove a Camaro to victory in the Vons 200 Saturday at Riverside International Raceway. Riniker, 26, a Riverside mechanic whose father, Gene, drove in the first sportsman stock car race at Riverside in 1967, led the final two laps of the 48-lap race and collected $5,524. He took over the lead after pole-sitter Ron Esau and Jim Thirkettle tangled during a confusing yellow-flag caution period.

Jean (Spider) MacLean, 64, sports director of KWIZ and a track announcer at Riverside International Raceway from 1964 until its closing, died of a heart attack at his home in Garden Grove.