The City of Corona's Motorsports Roots...

It would be impossible to grow up in the City of Corona without being affected by the strong motorsports influence that pervades the town. No, Corona is nothing like Daytona, Indianapolis or Monterey. But, for a small town, it has a surprisingly rich motorsports heritage. The earliest roots are steeped in Corona's stage as the site of the Corona 300-mile Road Race in the early 1900's. Grand Avenue, which at one time circumscribed the entire town, was the 3-mile track that hosted such legends as Earl Cooper and Terrible Teddy Tetzlaff. The town has grown quite a bit since the early 1900's, but Grand Avenue remains.
The WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker, shown below, even ran the race:


The race ran several years, from 1913 to 1916. After a few high-profile fatalities, because of Grand Avenue's unbanked curves, the race was eventually moved to an alternate location. The April 8, 1916, New York Times quotes, "Bob Burman of Detroit, noted automobile racer; his mechanician, Eric Schroeder of Chicago, and a track guard are dead tonight as a result of the overturning of Burman's car in the Corona road race here today. Five spectators were injured, several seriously."

Because the track was dirt, drivers were required to wear masks that funneled filtered air:

Amazingly, some drivers were able to make the 300 mile race without a single stop:

Riverside International Raceway, in operation from 1957 until 1989, was home to several classic showdowns involving such drivers as AJ Foyt, Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney, and was also the place Carroll Shelby chose for the first test drives of the 1965 Shelby GT 350. It was just a few miles down the road from Corona:

Several scenes from the Steve McQueen film Grand Prix were shot at the Riverside Raceway:
There was also the "Corona Raceway": home to a tight 1/4 mile dirt track, a 1/2 mile dirt track, a figure 8 dirt track, and an off road coarse that went throughout the whole place. The raceway closed in the mid-1980's.

Corona is also the home to several motorsports companies, such as Pro Circuit Racing, Eibach Springs, Troy Lee Designs, Barry's Speed Shop, West Coast Customs, Gibson Exhaust, and Monster Energy Race Team just to name a few. In addition, the Auto Club Speedway, host to several Nascar and other motorsports events, and the Pomona Raceway, are just a few miles down the road, in Fontana and Pomona, respectively.