Round 2: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 19 - 21.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 2: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 19 - 21.

The 2024 has begun but the opening round, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, on March 8 - 10, seems a long way off.

This year's Grand Prix of Long Beach will be the 49th running of the race and the 15th running as an IndyCar event. It is the oldest running street race in North America and was founded by local travel agent Chris Pook in 1975.

This year's race will see the debut of the Aeroscreen 2.0, as well as another format for the first practice session being tried out.

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History
The inaugural race was the 7th round of the SCCA Formula 5000 series, held on September 28th 1975 and was won by British driver Brian Redman, in a Lola T332-

Chevrolet V8. Following the success of the F5000 event and only 6 months later Pook convinced FISA to hold the F1 United States Grand Prix West, which was was won by Swiss F1 veteran Clay Regazzoni, driving a Ferrari-312T. The United States Grand Prix West, as it became known, remained on the F1 calendar until 1983.

After the 1983 Grand Prix, increasing F1 costs, sanctions and shipping charges, made the race too expensive to be run as a Formula 1 Grand Prix. The venue was approached by CART to host a race, with Long Beach becoming a CART/Champ Car perennial event from 1984 to 2008.

Despite series reunification taking place in late February 2008, it emerged that there would be a calendar clash between the Champ Car Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and the IndyCar Series', Indy Japan 300 at Motegi. With both races so early on in the season and more or less finalised, neither track could change their date; particularly Long Beach, due to the preparations required for a street course. It was decided both races would go ahead, with points from Long Beach counting towards the IndyCar Series championship.

The 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, would be the final Champ Car race and was held on April 20, as part of the 2008 IndyCar Series split weekend. It was won by Will Power driving for KV Racing, in a Panoz DP01- Cosworth. Subsequently the IndyCar Series added Long Beach to the calendar and as with CART/Champ Car, it has become a perennial event, except for 2020 when the race was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

In 2018, Toyota who had been the naming rights race sponsor of The Grand Prix of Long Beach, a partnership which had continued unbroken since 1980, ended it's long term title sponsorship and partnership with The Grand Prix of Long Beach, with the naming rights going to Acura.

The race returned in 2021 but instead of canceling the race for the second year in a row, as the pandemic was still affecting the 2021 season, it was decided Long Beach would host the season finale. In 2022 the race resumed to it's usual place in the early part of the calendar.

At the beginning of January last year, Long Beach City Council announced an extension to the race through to 2028.

As of March 29 this year, Gerald Forsythe, of Forsythe Racing fame, announced he would buy the 50% of the Long Beach Grand Prix, owned by the estate of the late Kevin Kalkhoven.

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Some trivia
Driver with the most wins: 6.
Al Unser Jr., 1988 - 1991, 1994, 1995.

Team with the most wins: 7.
Team Penske 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2012, 2016, 2022.

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Track Layout
The track is a temporary street course and since the 1975 F5000 race, the layout has changed considerably. The current layout has been in use since 2000, though there was a change at Turn 6 from 2015-16, however the track reverted to its 2000 layout in 2017.

Rather than fill the intro with all the different layouts, this link
http://www.racingcircuits.info/north...l#.Vw6LfjFI6Fk
will show the various layouts the track has undergone over the years. Otherwise the original layout and current layout have been included below.


Original layout 1975-1981.
Length: 2.02 miles (3.251 km)
Turns: 12


Current layout
Length: 1.968 Miles (3.167 Km)
Turns: 11



Lap record
Colton Herta, April 9, 2022. 01:05.3095, 108.480 Mph (174.582 Km/h).
Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian
Dallara IR18-Honda HI22TT Indy V6,
NTT IndyCar Series.

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Last year's race
https://www.indycar.com/news/2023/04...longbeach-race

Last year's pole
Kyle Kirkwood,
Andretti Autosport
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT Indy V6

Last year's winner
Kyle Kirkwood,
Andretti Autosport
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT Indy V6

Laps: 85
Distance: 167.28 Miles (269.211 Km)
Race Time: 1:46:48.0102
Average Speed: 91.935 mph (147.955 Km/h)

Fastest lap: Alex Palou - Chip Ganassi Racing,
Lap 29. 67.2359 sec,
105.372 Mph (272.912 Km/h)

Caution periods: 2
Laps: 26

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Practice and Qualifications

Friday, Apr 19. Practice - 1, 5:50 PM - 7:05 PM EDT

Saturday, Apr 20. Practice 2 - 11:25 AM - 12:35 PM EDT

Saturday, Apr 20. Qualifications - Round 1 Group 1, 2:05 PM - 3:15 PM EDT

Saturday, Apr 20. Qualifications - Round 1 Group 2, 2:50 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Saturday, Apr 20. Qualifications - Round 2, 3:15 PM - 3:25 PM EDT

Saturday, Apr 20. Firestone Fast 6 - 3:40 PM - 3:55 PM EDT

Sunday, Apr 21. Warmup, 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM ET

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Race Broadcast
USA, Peacock: April 21. 3:30pm EDT, 7:30pm UTC.
Sky Sports F1: 8:00pm BST

[bjohnsonsmith]

IndyCar to try another format for the first practice session.

https://racer.com/2024/04/15/indycar...at-long-beach/

[bjohnsonsmith]

French driver Théo Pourchaire who won the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship, will make his NTT IndyCar series debut with Arrow McLaren at this weekend's Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, as David Malukas continues to recover from a left wrist injury and surgery.

https://www.indycar.com/news/2024/04...e-arrowmclaren