Category: Auto Racing

Quick Thoughts- Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

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Photo by Joe Skibinski

For those who enjoy tactical races, this one was a beauty. Several pit strategies were in play, but Kyle Kirkwood’s crew made he right calls. Kirkwood won his third career race and second Long Beach Grand Prix in three years.

There was some passing and some contact, but nothing that warranted a caution. In three 2025 races, the only caution took place at the start of the season opener at St. Pete. Christian Lundgaard thinks the hybrid has contributed o the lack of cautions since the drivers can refire the cars. Plaou thinks it is just a coincidence.

Kirkwood drove a masterful race. He maintained pace and there was perfect execution in the pits.

Kirkwood said that winning the 50th Long Beach Grand Prix was “massive.” He thanked Honda for their efforts over the off season, which led to improvements.

Top Drives

Christian Lundgaard drove a great race as one the six drivers starting on primary tires. His tire choice got him to the front and he stayed in the lead group all day.

Felix Rosenqvist finished where he started in fourth. He lost third to Lundgaard near the end of the race.

Will Power had another great drive, finishing fifth from 13th onn the starting grid. If Power can qualify in the top 12 or six, he will probably win a race or two.

Notes

Kirkwood is now second in points, just 34 points behind Palou. Lundgaard, in third is slightly more than a race behind Palou.

Josef Newgarden’s seat belt issue is the second for Team Penske in the last four races. Will Power had the same problem at Nashville in the 2024 season finale. I find this concerning that one team has had this problem twice over such a brief number of races.

There were 169 passes and 9 lead changes among six drivers, the most since 2012.

Unlike many races I have attended, most ofthe fans in the stands between turns 9 and 10 stayed for the entire race. Incan think of several tracks where fans began leaving before the halfway point.

Thanks for following along this weekend. Tomorrow is a travel day. On Tuesday I will have a wrap-up of this historic weekend.

Race Day at Long Beach

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Today’s Schedule All times Pacific

9 am-9:30 am IndyCar Warm Up

1:30 pm- Fox broadcast begins.

1:52 pm- Green Flag

It’s another cool and cloudy morning at Long Beach, but green flag temperature for the 50th Long Beach Grand Prix should be around 63 degrees with mostly sunny skies.

Warm Up

In the just completed warmup period, Graham Rahal led the way followed by Josef Newgarden. Pole sitter Kyle Kirkwood was fifth.

There was one red flag when Colton Herta ran into the back of Jacob Abel, who appeared to slow down, Herta received a 5 minute hold penalty. Both cars returned to the track.

Tire strategy is the talk f the paddock, and the starting tire choices may determine the outcome of the race.

I am sticking with hedged prediction that one of the front row cars, either Kyle Kirkwood or Colton Herta, will win today. Kirkwood is just a bit hungrier for a victory, and I give him a slight edge.

Honoring the Past

In the exhibition area of the convention center, the Grand Prix had the historic cars on display and an area displaying the winners of every grand prix.

Special plaques honored Brian Redman, winner of the first rac, and Dan Gurney, one of the founders of the Grand Prix.

Redman’s winning Formula 5000 car from 1975
Some winners of the Formula 1 races at Long Beach

Long Beach Qualifying-Andretti Lockout, Lundgaard Heartbreak

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Andretti Global swept the front row with Kyle Kirkwood winning the pole and Colton Herta second. The third Andretti car of Marcus Ericsson will start fifth. Kirkwood led his first round group, and Herta was second in his segment. Kirkwood and Herta also finished 1-2 in the second round.

The pole is Kirkwood’s second in the last four races. he won the pole for the 2024 season finale at Nashville.

Penske Entertainment photo by Travis Hinkle

The hard luck story of qualifying is Christian Lundgaard. Lundgaard led Round 1, Group 1 after two strong practices. He was on track to solidly be in the Fast Six when he crashed on his final lap in round two, relegating him to 12th.

Team Penske was strong in the practice sessions, but only Scott McLaughlin made it to the final round. The lone Chevy in the Fast Six will start sixth. Meanwhile teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden will start 13th and 15th.

Tomorrow’s race will be similar to St. Pete. Tire strategy, beginning with the starting rubber choice, will be crucial.

Results

Qualifying Day at Long Beach; Wickens Returns

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Today’s Schedule: All times pacific.

8:30 am-9:30 am- IndyCar Practice 2

11:30 am- 1:00 pm- IndyCar Qualifying

2:00 pm- IMSA race (100 minutes) GTP and GTD

Based on yesterday’s practice, the alternates are faster, but how long will they last? Teams appeared to be saving primaries for the race, resulting in less on track action. Will Power, yesterday’s leader, completed only 20 laps.

Maybe IndyCar should shorten the first practice a bit to encourage cars to be on track for the entire session.

IMSA

BMW locked out the front row with their third straight pole of the season. The team has yet to have success in a race. The Penske Porsches are in Row 2 and poised to take their third straight victory.

Today’s race marks the return of Robert Wickens to major competition. He will start eight in the GTD field. He called his qualifying effort “frustrating.”

Wickens will be in the ble Corvette (I know) number 36.

I’ll be back after practice with the qualifying groups,

Long Beach Practice 1:Two Team Battle Shaping Up

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While I don’t put a lot of stock in Friday practice, it5 appears that supremacy by the seas may come down to Penske versus Andretti. Will Power grabbed the top spot on his final lap, nipping Marcus Ericsson, who was just 0.002 seconds ahead of his teammate Kyle Kirkwood. Power’s stablemate Josef Newgarden finished sixth overall, but he led part of the 45 minute portion of the split practice.

Points leader Alex Palou was seventh quick, the fastest of the Ganassi cars.

Meyer Shank racing had a strong showing, with Marcus Armstrong fourth and Felix Rosenqvist fifth.

Notes

The grandstands in turns nine and 10 were nearly at capacity for practice. I haven’t been to Long Beach in three years, but I don’t remember the seats this full for the first practice.

The Grand Prix organization has gone all out to mark the 50th anniversary of a race on the streets. Their merchandise booth has very nice commemorative shirts and outerwear.

For the Golden Anniversary, even the event cars are gold.

IndyCar practice 2 is at 8:30 am Pacific, and qualifying is at 11:30 PT.

IMSA note– Robert Wickens just qualified eighth for tomorrow’s race.

Results

Morning at Long Beach- A Step Back in Time

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Photo: Historic cars warm uo for practice

The session lasted only 20 minutes, but it was the best 20 minutes od the morning as the historic cars took to to the track for their first practice. Formula 500, F1, and Indycars- all formulae that have raced in an iteration of the Long Beach Grand Prix -were represented.

Another highlight of the morning was seeing the ar Robert Wickens will drive during IMSA practice.

Robert Wickens will drive this Corvette in tomorrow’s IMSA race.

A look at the timing screen with the car makes gave me chills and great memories.

Here are some photos of the historic cars. I’ve included one of each.

F 5000 1975 Eagle
F1 1974 March
Indycar Eagle

IndyCar practice begins in about 90 minutes. I’s an 80 minute session on FS1.

Good Morning From Long Beach

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Photo: Brian Redman winning the first long Beach race in Formula 5000

Fog is lifting and the SRO series just completed practice 1. IMSA takes the track to begin a very busy day for them with practice 1 at 9 AM Pacific time.

IndyCar Practice is at 3 PM Pacific/6 PM Eastern on FS1.

IMSA qualifying is at 5:10 Pacific time.

I am really excited to see the historic cars on track later this morning, and the display featuring Brian Radman’s Formula 500 car, which won the first race held at Long Beach in 1975. Formula 5000 is a series that I never had a chance to witness live.

I did not think the city of Long Beach could do any more to embrace this event than what I saw on my first two trips here, but walking around yesterday I there seemed to many more businesses than I remembered displaying checkered flags and banners.

It is a remarkable achievement for a city to continue a street race for 50 years, through changes in city council membership and mayors. Long Beach loves this event as much as Indianapolis loves the 500. I remember on my first visit here how shocked I was when the agent at the rental car center knew about the race. This the only place where that has happened.

I will be back in a bit before IndyCar practice and then have a practice wrapup.

Long Beach Preview

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The 2025 Long Beach weekend is one I have been anticipating since my last visit to southern California since my last trip in 2022. Sunday’s Indycar race marks 50 years of racing on the streets of this city by the sea.

It is the 41st race IndyCar. The first race was Formula 5000 event in 1975, followed eight years of Formula 1. How special is this place? Formula 1 tried to return a few years ago and was rebuffed by the city and the grand prix owners. NASCAR turned an eye toward staging a race here as well.

IndyCar resolved the issue by buy the late Kevin Kalkhoven’s half of the franchise. Since by law only one weekend a year can be used for a race in the streets, it is solely for IndyCar as long as they wish.

The third race of the 2025 season should play out much like the St. Pete opener, although there are a couple of added twists.

Longer Race

The race distance is now 90 laps, up from 85 the past few years. How will the new distance affect fuel strategy? Can someone still make it on two stops? And if fuel isn’t the question mark, tires certainly will be.

Changing Colors?

Firestone will bring the same compound to Long Beach that was used at St. Pete. We can assume high wear on the alternates. IndyCar has returned to the new allotment formula of five sets of primaries and five sets of alternates.

Long Beach has traditionally been a race for the alternate tires, but with the alternate rubber’s shorter life this year, is this now a race favoring the primary tires?

Kyle Kirkwood said in the media conference that it is too soon to tell

“In the past, it’s typically been a red tire race. That’s
obviously going to change now, considering it’s the same
tire as St. Pete. That’s really the only question mark we
have in our minds right now. We need to get through the
first practice to know exactly how bad or good it’s going to
be.”

Palou Goes for Three

Alex Palou has a chance Sunday to match teammate Scott Dixon’s feat in 2020 of winning the first three races of the season. I say he will not win this weekend.

Andretti Global looks to be reasserting their street course dominance. Both Colton herta and Kyle Kirkwood have each won at Long Beach. Look for one of them to be in Victory Lane after 90 laps.

IMSA

A highlight of Long Beach is the IMSA event which accompanies the IndyCar race. Saturday’s 100-minute race has some added interest for IndyCar fans.

Robert Wickens makes his return to major league motorsport, driving a Corvette in the GTD class. Wickens won several races and the championship in the Michelin Pilot Challenge.

It will be a thrill to watch him race at this high level again. I have a feeling some fans who use the IMSA race time to just walk around the track will be watching this race.