What happened to the Mulholland "King of the Hill" RSR?

[gostraight]

Originally Posted by TooTall

OK, here are a few I had laying around from 1978, 1980 and 1983.



Ciao Babies,

Kurt O.

If those pants would have a bit higher waist, she would not need a bra. or suspenders

[TooTall]

Radu,

Considering that she is now probably well over 50, those pants may well serve as a bra. Remember, rust never sleeps and neither does gravity!

Cheers,
Kurt O. (who is now ducking for cover!)

[TomPabst]

Hi Guys,

First of all, I want to apologize to those of you who tried sending me Riverside pictures via email. My webmaster is working on the problem as it seems Go Daddy (our website provider) has made changes to the spam filtering program settings without notifying its website clients (at least we didn't get notified). It will be another day or so before it gets fixed.

I also want to thank Ron Cortez (CRE) for agreeing to make a post in this forum with my request for photos of Riverside International Raceway. And many thanks to those of you who quickly responsded to that request. There were several pictures I hadn't seen yet and a few of them were "key" photos of things I was desperate to find.

You guys seem like a great bunch and we all have "racing" as a common bond. Ron speaks of you often when he wanders down to my race shop at Infineon in the late afternoon or evenings. I've decided to just register in this forum and that way I can interface with all of you directly, especially in regard to this "Bring Back Riverside" simulation track project I'm doing.

Let me briefly explain what "Bring Back Riverside" is all about..............

I own a start-up business at Infineon Raceway that is involved with designing, engineering and building professtional-level racing simulators....and then using those simulators to coach professional race car drivers. Primarily, we coach/train NASCAR drivers in road racing but our clients also include many sports car drivers. Scott Pruett is one of those, and he trains here regularly (monthly). I'm sure you've all heard stories about drivers using racing simulators of some kind to learn a race track and then going on to race at that track and winning or doing far beyond what was expected of them for their first race. The original "name" driver to do that was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the late 90's who used a Papyrus NASCAR racing game to learn Watkins Glen.....then Dale proceeded to take the pole at Watkins Glen for his first Busch race there. Last year, Denny Hamlin used a later version of the same racing game Dale, Jr. used and proceeded to win both NASCAR races at Pocono!

Those drivers all have what's called "desktop simulators" in their homes or motorhomes (as do a couple million racing fans who use their desktop rigs to race online in racing leagues all over the world). What I do is add a realistic race car cockpit, real racing wheels, pedals and shifters (the same found in the cars they race), and sophisticated graphic programming of the tracks. I'm just taking all this racing simulation stuff.....to the next level.

There's a lot more to it than that, but there isn't space (or time) to cover everything we do with our racing simulators, here.

The reason I'm building a new (from scratch) version of the Riverside International Raceway (simulated) track......is because I can!

Part of what we do at Pabst-Racing.com is build the simulated tracks we use in our simulators. We have to do this in cases where there are either no racing games that contain tracks we need, or the existing "game tracks" are so far off it's easier to build one from scratch rather than modify an existing game track.

The program I use for this is called "SandBox" and it is a 3D world modeling program. This is the same program several gaming manufacturers use (including EA Sports). SandBox is capable of building very realistic 3D worlds and because we don't have size limitations (as do the gaming companies) we can build those worlds with high-detailed graphics. A kid playing a racing game might not need the most realistic graphics of a track he's racing on......but Jeff Gordon does! And it's the "Jeff Gordons" of real-world racing who are my clients.

Why am I building Riverside International Raceway for our simulators?

After all, that track doesn't even exist anymore so who needs to "train or be coached" on it? Believe it or not, even though I build simulators and program simulated tracks for my living....it's also my hobby and my first love! I get to get up every morning and go do what I absolutely love to do......and paid myself to do for many years (race)......and I've managed to find a way to get people to pay me to do it now! I am very, very lucky and I don't ever forget that! I am building this Riverside simulated track (in as much detail and realism as my skills will allow) for all the people who used to race there.......and long to do that again. Now they can, in our simulators. I'm also building it for all the drivers of today.....who will never know what an awesome race track Riverside International Raceway really was unless I can create it for our simulators so they can race on it! And I'm also building it for myself........because I can! I only got to race at Riverside twice before it was torn down (a sad day, indeed). It was back in the late 80's at two Firehawk races there. But my first recollection of ever seeing a race car in person was with my uncle Norm, at Riverside Raceway.....I think I was five or six years old. He would take me out to Riverside in his Austin Healey Sprite (bugeye) from Whittier, CA (where I was born and raised). I can remember the smell of the fuel and the tires....and the sounds of the racing engines......as if those days with my uncle were only yesterday! Those jaunts on a warm summer day out to Riverside with my uncle in his (various) sports cars.....went on for years until I was a young adult and went off to college! The ground at Riverside is sacred to me, the men (and women) who worked there in white uniforms are heros to me, and the men who drove those race cars are legends in my memory.

Well, enough of the sappy stuff......with your help, I am going to recreate Riverside International Raceway as best I can......and then I can race on it again.....mixing those images I create today, with my memories. I can't wait!

And so can anyone who manages to make it to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA and comes into my shop!

This post is getting a little long so I will make another one with some details of what versions of the track I'm building initially, what years and so forth.

Thanks again to all of you who posted pictures.....and to all of you who will post photos in the future.....and answer my dumb questions, too!

Take care and regards to you all,

Tom Pabst
Pabst-Racing.com

[TomPabst]

Hi Guys (again)............

Here's the specs of what I'm initially building in SandBox, and will eventually build over time.

Initially I'm building the full-length (sports car) course in the latest era of Riverside's existence (late 80's). This track will have the most detail and TSO's ("track side objects") of any other version. When completed, I will copy that track to new folder, rename it and then cut it up and add the NASCAR course, and then "ditto" for the club or SCCA course (three seperate tracks). I will have to adjust the TSO's for those two additional courses and perhaps add some things native/specific to those configurations.

When those tracks are completed, I want to build an early version of Riverside, perhaps 1960's style or so......and then I will put only vintage (simulated) race cars in that program for our simulators.

All Riverside tracks will run in NASCAR 2003 game simulation initially. Then, I will convert all of the tracks so they run in GTR2 (the current sports car simulation we use as a base sim program). When done, you'll be able to drive anything from an old Porsche 911 or 962 up to a modern FIA GT Lamborghini or Lister Storm race car. And all years/versions of NASCAR stock cars! And those of you who may be fans of the Aussie V8 SuperCar series in Australia, you can drive one of those cars on Riverside too!

Photo Specs
If you post your photos in the body of these messages I can right-click and download them as needed. Try not to duplicate photos but don't worry if I already have them as it would be impossible to let you know every photo I already have. As a great side benefit, we all get to look at some great photos of an awesome time in racing history! Black and white photos are welcome. Color photos with faded or bad coloring are okay too, as I know how to enhance or correct colors in old photos so I can get a good idea of what the objects were like ...."back in the day!"

Any "babes" or other "detail" that accidentally happen to be included in the Riverside photos posted......will probably end up in the track simulation (sitting in some grandstand or standing at a fence up in Turn 6)! LOL......

I do have one request.......guys...I am a race car driver....so no crash pictures please!

But probably one of the most important ways you guys can help me with this project is by answering questions about sizes, lengths, locations and so forth.....of various things like buildings, walls, towers and the like. Photos don't always accurately place objects (especially telephoto prints) and perspectives of some photos can fool you very easily!

When the first sports car version of this simulated Riverside track is done (or virtually done......as it's possible this project will never be done as there is no detail I can not add or include down the road)....we will hold some type of a hospitality event or "racing party" at our race shop at Infineon Raceway for any of you (or your friends and racing buddies) so you guys can drive Riverside in our simulators for yourselves! I don't know when that will be, but it will happen for certain!

I am herebey nominating Ron Cortez as chairman of the "Simulated Riverside International Raceway - Race Party" at Pabst-Racing.com's race shop at Infineon Raceway......an all day event (maybe we need two days?)! Do I hear a "second" of that nomination?

Some of you guys have a ton of stuff and if you'd like to communicate with me directly through email, that's fine. I'm thinking perhaps of John Condren who has a ton of drawings and programs.....perhaps some others too. Just don't send photos just yet until I get this problem with my website provider (spam filter) fixed! My email address is listed in my profile.

That's it for now.....off to send some drawings off to one of my model makers of all the various telephone poles at Riverside....he's going to make fresh models of them for me.

Much regards,

Tom Pabst
Pabst-Racing.com

[TooTall]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the post. I'll be happy to help in any way possible. I have probably over 1000 pics from Riverside from 1976 up until the end. I went to the last SCCA race there, just to say goodbye. If you can give me an idea of anything specific you need I'll see what I can dig up. I also know a number of other Riverside fans outside of this forum who would jump at the chance to help out. Here's a link to a site run by Frank Sheffield in San Diego;
http://home.san.rr.com/fsheff/rirpicts.htm

Cheers,
Kurt Oblinger
Redondo Beach, Ca.

[CRE]

Originally Posted by TomPabst

Hi Guys (again)............

Here's the specs of what I'm initially building in SandBox, and will eventually build over time.

Initially I'm building the full-length (sports car) course in the latest era of Riverside's existence (late 80's). This track will have the most detail and TSO's ("track side objects") of any other version. When completed, I will copy that track to new folder, rename it and then cut it up and add the NASCAR course, and then "ditto" for the club or SCCA course (three seperate tracks). I will have to adjust the TSO's for those two additional courses and perhaps add some things native/specific to those configurations.

When those tracks are completed, I want to build an early version of Riverside, perhaps 1960's style or so......and then I will put only vintage (simulated) race cars in that program for our simulators.

All Riverside tracks will run in NASCAR 2003 game simulation initially. Then, I will convert all of the tracks so they run in GTR2 (the current sports car simulation we use as a base sim program). When done, you'll be able to drive anything from an old Porsche 911 or 962 up to a modern FIA GT Lamborghini or Lister Storm race car. And all years/versions of NASCAR stock cars! And those of you who may be fans of the Aussie V8 SuperCar series in Australia, you can drive one of those cars on Riverside too!

Photo Specs
If you post your photos in the body of these messages I can right-click and download them as needed. Try not to duplicate photos but don't worry if I already have them as it would be impossible to let you know every photo I already have. As a great side benefit, we all get to look at some great photos of an awesome time in racing history! Black and white photos are welcome. Color photos with faded or bad coloring are okay too, as I know how to enhance or correct colors in old photos so I can get a good idea of what the objects were like ...."back in the day!"

Any "babes" or other "detail" that accidentally happen to be included in the Riverside photos posted......will probably end up in the track simulation (sitting in some grandstand or standing at a fence up in Turn 6)! LOL......

I do have one request.......guys...I am a race car driver....so no crash pictures please!

But probably one of the most important ways you guys can help me with this project is by answering questions about sizes, lengths, locations and so forth.....of various things like buildings, walls, towers and the like. Photos don't always accurately place objects (especially telephoto prints) and perspectives of some photos can fool you very easily!

When the first sports car version of this simulated Riverside track is done (or virtually done......as it's possible this project will never be done as there is no detail I can not add or include down the road)....we will hold some type of a hospitality event or "racing party" at our race shop at Infineon Raceway for any of you (or your friends and racing buddies) so you guys can drive Riverside in our simulators for yourselves! I don't know when that will be, but it will happen for certain!

I am herebey nominating Ron Cortez as chairman of the "Simulated Riverside International Raceway - Race Party" at Pabst-Racing.com's race shop at Infineon Raceway......an all day event (maybe we need two days?)! Do I hear a "second" of that nomination?

Some of you guys have a ton of stuff and if you'd like to communicate with me directly through email, that's fine. I'm thinking perhaps of John Condren who has a ton of drawings and programs.....perhaps some others too. Just don't send photos just yet until I get this problem with my website provider (spam filter) fixed! My email address is listed in my profile.

That's it for now.....off to send some drawings off to one of my model makers of all the various telephone poles at Riverside....he's going to make fresh models of them for me.

Much regards,

Tom Pabst
Pabst-Racing.com

___________________--
Oh S*&% ..... I've been volunteered again. Sigh....

[CRE]

Pat, Don't you have a photo of your mustang with an axle and tire assy ready to depart somewhere in your closet?

[CRE]

Oh, I should tell you guys that the 'shifter' on Tom's sym is a real one from the Flying Lizards
Seq. box!

[TomPabst]

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for the link to Frank's site in San Diego (my old hometown).........I've been to it previously and have the pics I need from the late era. His site will be really good when I get to building the older RIR track.

Thanks to you guys, I'm temporarily okay for pics as I'm still doing the esses (elevations and basic TSO layout)...working my way back from Turn 6.

Although, I don't think the "Oasis" building (restroom, snackstand, etc.) up in Turn 6 that I have placed there is correct (flat roof, style). Anyone have a shot of that building....or a partial shot of it so I can see what style of a building it really is? And if I'm not mistaken there is a duplicate of that building up behind the grandstands on the left side of the esses (off T-2) I think? Is that correct?

Hmmmm???? Mr. Cortez! Are you trying to "second" your own nomination? I don't think that's allowed? Someone else has to do that!

I think we should also assign the task of insuring that plenty of "detail" is also invited to the sim racing RIR party at our shop.....to the currently nominated sim party chairman! A good task for Mr. Cortez because every time I see him at the track he is always "dripping" with little "details" hanging all around his neck! I don't know how he does this?

Regards,

Tom

[Banning]

Originally Posted by TomPabst

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for the link to Frank's site in San Diego (my old hometown).........I've been to it previously and have the pics I need from the late era. His site will be really good when I get to building the older RIR track.

Thanks to you guys, I'm temporarily okay for pics as I'm still doing the esses (elevations and basic TSO layout)...working my way back from Turn 6.

Although, I don't think the "Oasis" building (restroom, snackstand, etc.) up in Turn 6 that I have placed there is correct (flat roof, style). Anyone have a shot of that building....or a partial shot of it so I can see what style of a building it really is? And if I'm not mistaken there is a duplicate of that building up behind the grandstands on the left side of the esses (off T-2) I think? Is that correct?

Hmmmm???? Mr. Cortez! Are you trying to "second" your own nomination? I don't think that's allowed? Someone else has to do that!

I think we should also assign the task of insuring that plenty of "detail" is also invited to the sim racing RIR party at our shop.....to the currently nominated sim party chairman! A good task for Mr. Cortez because every time I see him at the track he is always "dripping" with little "details" hanging all around his neck! I don't know how he does this?

Regards,

Tom

I have never met Mr. Cortez, however from what I have heard thru the grapevine tells me that he would be "the Man" for the job. He is knowledgable about RIR, probably much more than the rest of us except for Victor (and a few other CRE members).

So.... I hearby "second" the nomination of Ron Cortez.

[CRE]

Gee, Thanks. There Are Many With Far Greater Knowledge About Rir
Than I. Dick G., Peter B. Was The Driving Instructor At Shelby's School There And So Many More I'm Quite Certain.

[Banning]

Originally Posted by CRE

Gee, Thanks. There Are Many With Far Greater Knowledge About Rir
Than I. Dick G., Peter B. Was The Driving Instructor At Shelby's School There And So Many More I'm Quite Certain.

That may be true, however Mr. Guldstrand and Mr. Brock and other famous RIR racers(Hill, Donahue, etc.) will probably never see or contribute to this thread, which is fine. They are beyond our acomplishments. But aside from them, you are at the top of the list.

[LateBrakeU2]

I saw this entry posted on the tower at Buttonwillow a few months back..Quite possibly the most illustrious grid ever assembled at RIR


http://www.5pointsmotorsports.com/Swanson%20history%20p3Copy.jpg

[TooTall]

Originally Posted by LateBrakeU2

I saw this entry posted on the tower at Buttonwillow a few months back..Quite possibly the most illustrious grid ever assembled at RIR


http://www.5pointsmotorsports.com/Swanson%20history%20p3Copy.jpg

That is a hell of a grid on any day at any track. Two things to think about, how many World Driving Champions, Indy/Lemans/Daytona/Sebring winners, or other major series champions are in that field. The other thing is how many of those guys lost their lives racing.

Kurt O.

[LateBrakeU2]

Originally Posted by TooTall

That is a hell of a grid on any day at any track. Two things to think about, how many World Driving Champions, Indy/Lemans/Daytona/Sebring winners, or other major series champions are in that field. The other thing is how many of those guys lost their lives racing.

Kurt O.

I just laughed and stopped counting after the five world champions.Truly the halcyon days of road raciing when club racers could run against F1 drivers..I'm sure Ken Miles would have been near the front of that one not sure why he wasn't entered..

[TomPabst]

That's an incredible entry list! And, wow.....what a "deja vu" for me to see it. I was at that race!

Whenever cousin Augie came to the west coast, he'd always call my dad (Bob Pabst). My dad was a genious with anything mechanical. A watchmaker by day, and a "you name it" maker by night. I saw him take an old crank adding machine (didn't work) completely apart on the kitchen table one Saturday afternoon.....catelogue each part and fix those that were not working correctly.....put it all back together.......just for fun. He'd never seen one prior! Augie didn't call my dad to work on the race cars, he called him to fix every other piece of equipment the team had in their trailer. Augie always knew he'd go back to Milwaukie with all his pit and racing equipment working perfect.....usually better.....than when he came out to California. My dad was in heaven doing stuff like that.

I had graduated from High School in June of that year and was going to UCLA Pharmacy School. Augie always made sure there were tickets for "Tommy and Norm" - Norm being my uncle (mom's side) with the bugeye Sprite and Augie always called me "Tommy" for some reason. This was the last race at Riverside I ever saw with my uncle Norm. It just never worked out ever again to go there with him. I didn't hang out in the garage as the race cars didn't interest me (except on track). I hung out where ever the drivers were......and it was all very casual in the racing paddock back in those days. A bonus to hanging out with the drivers was that was also where all the girls were! LOL.... Man, those short-short white shorts with most of their "detail" showing out the bottom....and those "candies" heels with little puff balls on the toes! Yikes! Guess that's why I became a driver?

Twenty two years later at almost the same time of year, I am sitting on the pre-grid to start an ESCORT Endurance race at Elkhart Lake (I drove for the BMW team), and somebody bangs on the top of my car with their hand. We'd just gotten the "five minute warning" so I was belted and connected.....couldn't move my head to see who this was? All of suddent this voice is yelling at me through the window net, "Are you Tommy Pabst from L.A.? Is your dad Bob Pabst?" I'm thinking, "What the hell is this guy about?" I yelled back, "Yes!" Still can't see who is yelling at me and he says, "Well I'll be dammed. I'm your cousin Augie and I'm starting right behind you!" Oh my God!

I won't say that was the highlight of my racing career (short as it was), but it was one of them!

Tom ("Tommy") Pabst

PS: Augie is still in the biz.....though his son is doing most of the work these days. If you go to my website, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see a link to Augie's website there (many people come to mine looking for Augie's).

[TomPabst]

Hey Guys....

I've got a favor to ask any of you who sent me an email with RIR pics in it and it got kicked back.

If you still have it in your in-box, can you forward it to me in total.....complete with what ever rejection message it might have contained. My email address is in my profile on this Forum. Go Daddy (my website service provider) wants to a see a copy of their rejection message as it contains data that will help them determine why this happened. Guess I wasn't the only website of theirs that complained or had the problem.

That would be way cool.....thank you!

Tom Pabst

[Jeff Hail]

Originally Posted by TomPabst

Hey Guys....

I've got a favor to ask any of you who sent me an email with RIR pics in it and it got kicked back.

If you still have it in your in-box, can you forward it to me in total.....complete with what ever rejection message it might have contained. My email address is in my profile on this Forum. Go Daddy (my website service provider) wants to a see a copy of their rejection message as it contains data that will help them determine why this happened. Guess I wasn't the only website of theirs that complained or had the problem.

That would be way cool.....thank you!

Tom Pabst

I forwarded the delivery failure notice and it got kicked back too.

If you are using a Go Daddy account you probably have the same problem that everyone else has had. You need to go into the administration/ setup (online) section and have your mail automatically moved from new mail to inbox. Its like having two inbox's except the new mail is online/ web based and the storage size is very small. Your inbox is the software on your desktop you use such as Outlook or Express to read email. Go Daddy web client forwards email to itself by integrating with your email software. Sounds like everyone is sending you large file size emails of photos and the web client is full.

Are you getting any new emails or email without attachments?

[TooTall]

Tom,

That's a great story about your cousin Augie. Does he still own the Meister Brauser Scarab? I've been fortunate to meet and talk to a number of the "old" guys. Some of them act younger than me!

I'm going through some of my stuff looking for trackside structures since that seems to be what you are looking for. Some things I remember. There was a snackstand/bathroom on the inside of 6 as well as one behind the grandstands on the outside. There was another outside of the esses near the grandstands there as well, don't remember exactly where. I'll try and dig up my old programs, I saved them all. Also, near the esses grandstands, I believe to the north side, was the control tower. Now this was an actual control tower that was surplus from a WW2 army airfield that was moved to Riverside. It pre-dated the big grandstands opposite the pits. I seem to remember a snackstand/bathroom in the infield near between 1 & 2. I remember that when you drove through the tunnel, it was just on your left. Anyone else remember that? I think (???) there was another one about half way up the infield near the turn 7 grandstands. Also at turn 7, on drivers right just after the crest of the hill, there was a chainlink enclosure about 8'x12' with one of those giant Winston boxes. There was a ladder up inside of it and there was a platform inside where you could stand and look out the top. Every time I tried to go up there I got chased off.

Tom, are you interested in garage shots? Are you going to model the garages, the 76 station? You know, another great resource would be John Morton. He goes back to the Shelby Racing School days and ran about anything with wheels at RIR.

That's all for now.

Cheers,
Kurt O.

[t6dpilot]

Hey Guys, I have been catching up on your conversations since I have not posted in a while. Been tied up getting a new business started.

Tom, I wondered if you were related to Augie. I got to know Augie pretty well about 10 years ago when I was heavily involved in vintage racing (Lotus 20 FJr.) and through my family's (and Augie's partcipation in the Colorado Grand). At the time he was "hanging out" with my girlfriend's (at the time) aunt. Soooo, I got to do a lot of socializing with Augie. He is a great guy. Super nice, very soft spoken, and one hell of a driver. I always enjoyed watching him driving at RA, especially when he would dice with Bob Akin (another good family friend) in his Cooper Monaco. One time we went to dinner at the Pabst family home in Oconomowoc, WI. I got to hang with Augie (which was kind of regular at that point) and chat with him about his racing exploits. He still has a fairly sizeable glass case with trophies and photos. All I could say at the time is WOW - I was kind of speachless, but had to maintain composure.

I also got a tour of his garage with many nice toys. And yes, he still does own the Scarab. I believe his son drives it now. It was at the BRIC at RA in July. Actually, my father got to live a dream a few years ago and Augie let him drive it on the track at one of the vintage races. Now that is generousity! Way cool. I don't see Augie much any more, but I truly enjoyed the time that I spent with him. He is a gentleman of the highest order IMO.

OK, sorry for the OT for a sec, just wanted to add a comment. Back to Mul. See ya.