Riverview Raceways

When racing ended at the CLE a new location was needed for racing locally. Riverview was opened in 1967 and ran until 1993. I did attend a few races at the CLE but it was really at Riverview where my love of racing formed. I loved the early years with the 55-57 Chevies and the Studebaker's the Nesbitt's and a few others raced and in the fall fell in love with the sprint cars! Remember the Hobby Stock Feature starting three abreast,and the Figure 8 season ending race,and of course the Demo Derbies?

Riverview Raceways

by Jeff Caldwell

Located on Highway 61 on the edge of Thunder Bay, Riverview was a 3/8 mile dirt oval that operated from 1967 to July 1994. The roots of Riverview Raceway can be traced back as early as 1956 when permits were approved by the Municipality of Neebing, Municiple Board of Ontario, Department of Highways and the approval by plebicite for Sunday sports in Neebing. EJ (Jim)Bernosky had tried to attract the Lakehead Stock Car Club to relocate to his location, attending their meetings annually,but had been unsuccessful. When weekly racing ceased at the CLE Fairgrounds in 1964,Club officials Al Massaro and Ed Colosimo approached Bernosky in the winter of 1965 in an attempt to kick start local racing. A tentative deal was reached, but fell through after the parties couldn’t agree on the length of the deal.. In the early sixties, a group of local hot-rodders formed a car club, calling themselves the Northern Ontario Timing Association. As their name would suggest, there were several drag racing enthusiasts, with one of the objective’s being the building of a local drag strip. Thus, in the fall of 1966 members of the approached EJ Bernosky and a mutual agreement to proceed with the building of a stock car track came after several meetings between the two parties. The club would build the track, Bernosky would build the seating and concessions. The club would then use its funds from the dirt track to build its drag strip on the same property at a later date. With the assistance of several local businesses and countless hours of volunteer labour Riverview Raceways became a reality and would have both property owner E.J. Bernosky and the Northern Ontario Timing Association as co-operators of the track. The initial track plan was patterned after the half mile CLE track, but during its construction was reduced to a three eighths mile, similar to Proctor Speedway in Duluth MN.
Riverview would host Late Models and Hobby Stocks in 1967 Sunday afternoon’s on a weekly basis with the first race taking place July 10th 1967,with 24 cars competing, and a crowd of more than 2500 fans. Flagged by Pappy Fowler, feature wins were taken by CLE veteran Al Massaro in the Late Model's and Richard Foreman in the Hobby Stock's. The quick times for the day, though they would be broken almost every following week that season were. Al Massaro and Riece Stewart at 27.0 seconds in Late Model,Terry Cuff and Billy Rea at 32.0 seconds in the Hobby Stocks. As with most race tracks there were grumblings from neighbors about noise and dust though they had little effect as the proper channels were followed in its construction and racing would continue unimpeded. Though the track first opened on July 10th,the "official opening" was held July 17th with local dignitaries on hand,the track records would fall dramatically as well, with Don Young knocking 2 full seconds off the Late Model time with a lap at 25.0 seconds, three full seconds were knocked off the Hobby stock time by Bunny Massaro and Gary Young at 29.0 seconds. Tom Nesbitt would win his first Riverview feature that day in the Late Model class, this would of course be a very common occurance in the following years, Billy Rea won the Hobby Feature, and Riverview was officially on its way. With each race day, both car counts and the crowd size would increase, crowds would vary in size from 1500 fans to as high as 3,300 plus for a regular race day. Riverview would in late summer have to contend with the re-opening of the Murillo Speedway, headed by Al Massaro under the name, Lakehead Stock Car Racing Association, the two tracks would go head to head on Sunday afternoon's the rest of the season. In 1968 Murillo would switch to Saturday nights as it had tried on its first meet in '67. The premier season at Riverview was a resounding success with large crowds and high car counts, including some USA racers appearing for some weekly shows,a number of special features which included "Powder Puff" and "Media" races. Tom Nesbitt took the lions share of feature wins in the Late Models ,winning races , took the most wins in the Hobby Stock class. Through the season, the track got faster and faster as each week the fast time would be a new track record,at seasons end it would drop to 22.0 seconds, set by Johnny Asse of Duluth, MN a full 5 seconds faster than opening day! The track champions in that first year were Don Young in Late Model and Bill Rea in Hobby Stocks. In the fall Invitational Championships held on September 16 & 17th,the classes would be,Late Models, Super Modifieds/Sprints and Sportsman. The Invitationals were a huge sucess with an announced crowd of 7,000 fans present,fast times were, Ron Belland in a Late Model at 21.3,Jack Solinger in a Sportsman 22.2 and the fastest time was Bud Peterson and Russ Laursen in Super Modifieds at 20.9. Trophy Dash winners were Tom Nesbitt in Late Model, Bill Nelson in Sportsman and Barry Kettering in Super Modified. The 25 lap feature winners were Johnny Asse in Late Model, Bill Nelson in Sportsman and Russ Laursen in the 50 lap Super Modified feature, top local racers were Tom Nesbitt 3rd in Late Models and Lyn McIntosh 6th in Super Modifieds. Former local racer Barry Kettering now from Richfield, Minnesota finished in front of McIntosh in 5th and they would finish one behind the other an incredible amount through their careers. Riverview ran Sunday afternoon's from 1967 through 1972,with regular racing ending in mid 1972. The fall Invitational Sprint & LateModel races were run 1973 through 1976 when there was no weekly racing at the track. The track re-opened weekly racing in 1976 on Wednesday nights (a local race night previously at the CLE track) with Late Model Street Stock and Diamond classes,more to come.....