Inside Line: Under-the-Radar Long Beach Moment?

Fox Sports

04-04-2025

INDYCAR
Today's question: The Acura Long Beach Grand Prix celebrates its 50th edition April 11-13 as one of the marquee events in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. What is an under-the-radar aspect of the event or its history that resonates with you?
Curt Cavin: There are so many cool elements to Long Beach's history, which makes it difficult to single out one. It was both the first and last INDYCAR SERIES win of Michael Andretti's career, and the first series outing for two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi (he finished fourth in the 1984 race). It's where Scott Dixon won the first race of his title-winning Indy Lights season in 2000 and where Katherine Legge, in her first start in Atlantics in 2005, became the first woman to win a major developmental race in North America. It's where Paul Tracy, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mike Conway, Takuma Sato and Kyle Kirkwood scored their first INDYCAR SERIES race wins (Tracy also won there in Indy Lights). But a single greatest moment? Surely it was when Chris Pook, a former travel agent from England, convinced city officials to stage a street race in what was then a depressed, industrial city without an identity. I wasn't there for the first event, a Formula 5000 race held in September 1975 as a dry run for Formula One to be held six months later, but it must have been a Herculean effort even as longtime event president Jim Michaelian said many of the 62,000 on hand walked in without paying.
Eric Smith: Will Power recently told me the 2008 race at Long Beach stood out to him because it was considered the final race of the Champ Car era. That's my nugget because 17 years later, I kind of forgot about that moment and presume a lot of folks did, too. That year's race was the first event to take place after the open-wheel reunification joining the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Champ Car as one series. Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict arose between Long Beach (Champ Car) and the race at Motegi, Japan (INDYCAR SERIES). A compromise was made that the former Champ Car teams competed at Long Beach, while established INDYCAR SERIES teams competed in Japan. Both races paid full points to the INDYCAR SERIES championship. In Long Beach, 20 cars used the turbocharged Cosworth/Panoz DP01 for the last time. Power led 81 of 83 laps to earn the victory.
Arni Sribhen: An under-the-radar aspect of Long Beach – literally and figuratively – is the marine layer typical of the morning on the Pacific coast. The marine layer forms when a warmer air mass travels over a cooler body of water, like the ocean. The low lump stratus clouds can keep the air temperature up at night as it reflects radiant heat from the ground down, but it can also slow the warming of the track in the morning. It's easy to be fooled by the marine layer when it comes to setting up a car. The conditions may be opposite of the weather forecast, and with multiple series sharing the track at Long Beach, what you learn in morning practice may not apply by the time you return for the afternoon sessions. Worse, it could lead a team or driver in the wrong direction come qualifying or race time.
Paul Kelly: The 2009 Long Beach Grand Prix always will be surreal to me, not because of who was there but because of who almost wasn't there. Helio Castroneves was on trial for six counts of tax evasion at U.S. District Court in Miami in late March and early April 2009, and a guilty verdict almost certainly would have resulted in a prison term and the end of the then two-time Indianapolis 500 winner's driving career in North America. Tense times for Castroneves and his legions of fans, to say the least. The jury acquitted Castroneves of all six counts of tax evasion April 17, the opening day of that year's Long Beach Grand Prix, with Castroneves openly weeping in the courtroom after learning of his freedom. Castroneves then flew to Long Beach, qualified eighth and finished seventh in an exceptional performance considering he didn't know if he would be a free man 72 hours earlier. Will Power was a temporary fill-in for the on-trial Castroneves that season at the season opener at St. Petersburg, finishing sixth. Team Penske had Power on standby again for Castroneves' No. 3 at Long Beach but fielded car No. 12 for Power once it learned Castroneves was free to race that weekend. Power won the pole, finished second and parlayed that super-sub performance into a full-time ride with the team in 2010, and he's been there ever since.
recommended