Category: Auto Racing

Today’s Scehdule:

Friday, April 8, 2022- All Times Pacific

7:30 AM Spectator Gates Open
7:45 AM – 8:25 AM Porsche Carrera Cup (PCC) Practice #1
9:15 AM – 10:15 AM IMSA Practice #1
10:30 AM – 10:50 AM Historic IMSA GTP Challenge (GTP) Practice #1
11:05 AM – 11:35 AM PCC Practice #2
12:40 PM – 1:00 PM Stadium SUPER Trucks (SST) Practice #1
1:15 PM – 3:00 PM IMSA Practice #2
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM INDYCAR Practice #1– Peacock
4:30 PM – 5:00 PM PCC Qualifying
4:55 PM – 5:55 PM INDYCAR Autograph Session (INDYCAR Paddock – free to all spectators)
5:10 PM – 5:55 PM IMSA Qualifying
6:30 PM – 6:50 PM Super Drift Practice
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Formula D Super Drift Challenge Competition #1

Good morning from beautiful, very warm Long Beach. The temperature is forecast to be in the mid 90s today before cooling down for the weekend.

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach returns to its traditional April date on the NTT Indycar Series calendar after moving to the season finale in 2021. Sunday’s race will be the 38th Indycar race on the streets of Long Beach, Formula 5000 held the first street race here in1975, followed by F1 until 1983. At that point, the Grand Prix Association decided F1 was too expensive and signed with CART to keep the annual event running. The pandemic year of 2020 was the only year there was no race here,

The Indycar paddock enters the third race of the season with two teams, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing, filling the top of the points standings. Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden have won the first two races. Defending series champion Alex Palou sits third behind Penske’s Will Power. Palou is just ahead of Newgarden. Two team which were expected to also challenge for first place have been noticeably absent.

Can Andretti and AMSP Rebound?

Andretti Autosport, perennially a factor in the title hunt, has been the victim of some bad luck and strategy this season. Colton Herta leads the team at seventh in the standings, The addition of Romain Grosjean was expected to strengthen the team, but the results haven’t been there yet.

Sunday’s race may help the team get back on track. Andretti cars and drivers have dominated this track the last four years. Alexander Rossi won this race back to back in 2018 and 2019. Herta won the season final last September. Sunday is Andretti’s best chance to begin the return to contention. I think they will have a good weekend,

AMSP Tries to Turn Season Around

The high hopes some fans had for the Arrow McLaren SP squad have not panned out. Felix Rosenqvist’s pole at Texas has been the high point of the year, but the joy of that moment faded before the end of the opening lap. Bad pit stops by Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward spoiled their races. Another bad weekend will make it difficult for either driver to get back into title consideration.

The team has had some decent street course results, and this weekend is almost a must to get a top five.

Harvey Returns

Jack Harvey sat out the Texas race after suffering a concussion in a hard crash at Texas. Harvey has been an enigma since joining the Indycar series. he is a talented driver, but has produced just one podium in his career, I thought the switch to a stringer team would help him, but we are still waiting for some good results.

The Race

Colton Herta has won the last three races in California, dating back to his 2019 victory at Laguna Seca. I think he will find a way to win again, and Rossi and Grosjean will also have good weekends.

Once a driver falls behind in points, it is difficult to catch up.

Newgarden, McLaughlin, Power, Palou, and Dixon will be chasing Herta and all will help their positions in the points.

My friend Sally, who gave me the three Hulman glasses, also gave me a box of old Long Beach programs. I have a couple of Indianapolis 500 programs, and I find the programs from other races fascinating.

The programs provide a glimpse of local culture and lets fans see how other races are run. The better programs also provide some history of the race. I find that part of a program invaluable, especially for the races that have run for the longest time. The King Beach programs don’t disappoint in that area.

The program for the 2008 race caught my eye. The race was to be Champ Car’s last race, and coincide with the Champ Car drivers’ first IRL points paying race. IRL and Champ Car had agreed to merge in February 2008, and the Long Beach weekend would have the last separate races for the two series. The IRL raced Motegi, Japan on Saturday, April 19, and Champ Car’s last race took place the following afternoon. Drivers could only race in one of the races.

Champ Car Tribute

The program pays tribute to Champ Car with the feature “Champ Car’s Last Hurrah. CART began racing at Long Beach in 1984. Formula 1 had become too expensive for the Grand Prix Association.

Jim Michaelian, Long Beach Grand Prix President, concludes that

“Just like back in 1984, we’re not going to miss a beat. There will be more world -class racing in store when the Indy racing League(IRL)-which includes many drivers who battled it out on our streets-makes its debut…next year.”

The weekend included Formula Atlantics and ALMS. The Atlantics race had Jonathan Bomarito on pole with Simona De Silvestro also on the front row. James Hinchcliffe started 10th, and Dane Cameron started 11th.

IN ALMS, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta teamed up in an LMP2 Acura.

All series seem to get equal coverage in the program. The Champ Car driver features are divided by teams, which makes it easy to find a favorite driver.

Starting Lineup

A bonus I love finding in an old program is the starting grid sheet. This one is a treasure as it marks the end of a series. Most of the drivers did drive in the IRL at some point in their career. Will Power and Graham Rahal are the only two drivers still active in Indycar.

Power won the race. His photo from the 2008 program:

I am glad I have this program. It is arguably one of the four most important programs in Long Beach Grand Prix history. The others are the first F1 race, the CART race, and the first IRL race.

This weekend marks the 38th Indycar race at Long Beach, the longest running Indycar outside of the Indianapolis 500.