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Bargain Travel West guide to unique destinations, sight-seeing, budget travel
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TOYOTA
LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX
IndyCar Racing Returns to the Shoreline Streets in April
On April 21, 2013, open wheel racing cars will roar through the street
of Long Beach for the 39th straight year. In 1976, Long Beach had fallen,
like many cities into a spiral of urban blight. The RMS Queen Mary ocean
liner had found a permanent berth in retirement as a hotel and was attracting
visitors to the harbor, and the ferry to Catalina was busy, but the downtown
streets where showing a bit of seediness. An auto race fan and travel
agent named Chris Pook struck on an audacious idea to put Long Beach
on the international radar as a destination and spark a financial and
tourist revival. He proposed an auto race through the streets. At the
time, the Monaco
Grand Prix was the only world class racing event held
on major city streets, and its legendary history had made it famous.
Pook imagined a formula one race could do the same for Long Beach.
The
first race through the streets was a Formula 5000 race, the American
version of open wheel road racing which had appeared at Laguna Seca,
Watkins Glen and other road circuits, while Indy cars were still just
going in circles. A year later, the first Formula 1 Grand Prix race
ran through the streets of Long Beach, won by Clay Regazzoni in a Ferrari.
Not quite enough to peak the American imagination, but when Mario Andretti
beat Jody Scheckter and Niki Lauda across the finish line to become
the
first American driver to win an F1 race in a U.S. Grand Prix, Long
Beach was firmly on the map. For the next six years the Formula One
stars and
international flair came to the streets every spring with the likes
of Jacques Laffite, World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet,
and
Carlos Reutemann, behind the wheels of marques like Marlborough McLaren,
Lotus, Brabham, and Renault now
still to be seen in historic
races.
Toyota’s North American headquarters
was just across the 405 Freeway and in 1980, the race took on the moniker,
the Toyota Grand Prix of Long
Beach, but the costs of the Bernie Ecclestone’s international
F1 circus were growing, and Indy Champ cars were adding road courses
to
the ovals. In 1984, the Long Beach Grand Prix, switched from F1 to
the strictly American open wheel race cars and never looked back. In
2008,
the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach signed with the current INDYCAR
organization and the first IZOD sponsored IndyCar races ran in 2011.
The
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is now home to the sleek new cars powered
by turbocharged engines from Honda and Chevrolet
driven by Indy racing royalty like 2012 series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay,
former Long Beach winners Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti and
Will Power, along with Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal charging through
the the streets of the revitalized ocean side city for teams like
Andretti
Autosport and Penske.
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach for 2013, April 19-21
A “race” event is more than just roaring cars. To attract
and entertain scores of fans for the weekend the circuit features live
music concerts, family activities, and a Lifestyle expo. The racing
weekend features a number of racing styles, aside from the main event
IZOD IndyCar
Series on Sunday, the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series
will run on Saturday afternoon, with five classes of the most exotic
sports
cars, race prepared version of Ferraris, Porsches, Corvettes, Aston
Martins, BMWs, along with the top running Le Mans racing prototypes
from Audi
and McLaren. The popular Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race is a 10-lap sprint
on Saturday where famous faces from movies, music and sports race for
charity, banging door to door with professional race drivers in identically
prepared Scions. Formula Drift is a new fan favorite with the best
drifting drivers smoking tires as they slide through 11 tricky turns
on the Grand
Prix circuit, held on all three days of the event between the main
races. On Sunday following the IZOD IndyCars, the Pirelli World Challenge
will
see hot exotics like Porsche, Lamborghini, Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang,
Cadillac, Volvo, Nissan bang and bump each other for an hour. Firestone
Indy Lights, featuring the young future stars of Indianapolis racing
will compete in an hour long race on Sunday morning and Robby Gordon’s
OFF-ROAD Stadium SUPER Trucks will get airbourne from metal rams on
Shoreline Drive for a 20 minute exhibition of horsepower and big tires.
Music
Concerts
The
LBGP Weekend also offers concerts for race fans after the motors hanve
gone quiet. After the racing cars have finished on Friday
night, the Tecate Light
Fiesta
Friday Concert will feature the best in Latino music. Past acts
have included Belanova, El Tri, Moderatto, Fobia and Molotov. On
Saturday night, the Tecate Light Rock-N-Roar Concert is headlined
by a top rock-n-roll
band. Past performers have included Cheap Trick, Third Eye Blind,
Goo Goo Dolls, Gin Blossoms and Pennywise. For 2013 Joan Jett returns
for
another rockin’ rave. © Bargain
Travel West
Compare the best hotel deals in Long Beach on TripAdvisor
Web
Info
Toyoto Grand
Prix Long Beach
These articles are copyrighted
and the sole property of Bargain Travel West and WLEV,
LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission. IndyCar photos
coutesy LBGP.
See these other articles on Bargain Travel West:
FERRARI STORE - BEVERLY CENTER
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