Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Supplement
Ed Carpenter makes his way around the course at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.Photo by Michael Zampelli/LAist.
As a supplement to Michael's kick ass gallery, below is a summary of the Grand Prix weekend events.
Racing fans converged in Long Beach on the weekend of April 18th to partake in the excitement that is the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Crews representing the IndyCar, Firestone Indy Lights, American Le Mans, GT and Formula Drift series arrived ready to tackle the 1.97 mile long course through the streets of Shoreline Village. The main event, however, was the first ever running of an IndyCar Series race at Long Beach in its 35 year history.
Preparations began on the Thursday before the race as drivers acquainted themselves with the track and cars in a series of practice sessions spanning multiple days. Working hand-in-hand with their race crews, the various drivers fine tuned their respective cars throughout the sessions for maximum efficiency and more importantly, speed.
Defending champion, Aussie Will Power consistently turned some of the fastest times during practice behind the wheel of the #3 Team Penske car. However he was only good enough for the third best practice time, behind Scotsman Dario Franchitti in the #10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car and sophomore, Venezuelan E. J. Viso in the #13 PDVSA HVM Racing car.
A strong showing by Power, but the #3 car is normally driven by his Brazilian teammate Helio Castroneves. Power had earned the opportunity to sit behind the wheel as a result of Castroneves' legal troubles with the IRS which kept Helio away from the race track since late last year. As fate would have it, Castroneves would be acquitted on the Friday before the race and Power was forced to yield the #3 car to the Dancing with the Stars champion. No matter, Team Penske pulled another car out from its fleet for Power. It didn't sport the traditional red and white coloring of a Penske car, but the all black #12 Verizon Wireless car was all his. Power would later use that same car to win the Pole Position -- and a $10,000 bonus -- during Saturday's Firestone Fast Six qualifications.
The return of Castroneves late on Friday excited race fans and media alike, but his lack of practice at Long Beach and overall absence from racing put him at a disadvantage. Regardless, the Brazilian jumped behind the wheel and quickly took to the course, at one point turning the 2nd fastest time during Saturday morning's practice session, but also brushing the wall on at least one occasion.
Japanese star Hideki Mutoh was less fortunate. Mutoh slammed into the wall as he was about to enter turn 10 and wrecked his #27 Formula Dream car during the same session and had to be towed into the garage. Once in the garage, the 7-Eleven, Motorola and Formula Dream crews of Andretti Green Racing collectively got to work on Mutoh's car to ready it for qualifying within a 3 hour window.
While fans awaited for the Firestone Fast Six qualification, celebrities jumped behind the wheel of their Scion tCs to compete in the 33rd edition of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. The field of drivers included comedian Carlos Mencia, game show host Alex Trebek and actress Raven-Symone, but in the end, actor Keanu Reeves would take the checkered flag.
Next up were the drifters, who literally left their mark on the course. Chris Forsberg, Justin Pawlak and John Russakoff of Team Drift Alliance had won their second consecutive Team Drift Challenge once all the smoke cleared.
Only minutes after the Team Drift Challenge, the IndyCar engines once again roared to life and the Firestone Fast Six qualification process got underway. Drivers pushed their cars to the limit in their respective sessions, but Power beat all of them to claim the Pole Position while sitting behind the wheel of the #12 car. However, the process was not without its drama.
Viso and rookie Raphael Matos in the #2 U.S. Air Force/Luczo Dragon Racing car left their mark on the race by finishing in the top six after having continually improved on their times throughout practice and qualifying.
Castroneves turned in some decent times, but hit the wall and did not make the final six. Joining him was Danica Patrick in the #7 Motorola car, taking out the nose on her car early in her session. Aside from that, qualification proceeded as normal and the field was set for Sunday's main event.
Drivers from the Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series then fired up their engines and roared through the streets around Shoreline Village in the series' 100 Minutes of Long Beach. The duo of Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud in the XM Radio/Panasonic Acura ARX-02a took the overall win to close out Saturday's race activities.
Before the main event on Sunday, fans focused their attention on the Firestone Indy Lights race. J.R. Hildebran led from beginning to end in the #26 ARPO car to take the victory, ahead of rookies Richard Philippe and James Hinchcliffe.
The weather warmed up to the mid 80 degree mark under clear, sunny skies as fans enjoyed the Indy Lights race and waited for the main event. Fans took the heat in stride and used it as an opportunity to work on their tans. Then, at 1:15 PM, the call went out, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" and pit row came to life as the 23 Indy cars roared their Honda engines to life. Seconds later, they were out on the race track behind the pace car for a couple of warm up laps and a few minutes later, the green flag flew and the race was on.
Power leveraged his Pole Position start to lead the first 16 laps. Matos, the rookie, briefly took the lead shortly after that when a yellow flag came out due to a bump on Viso by the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car driven by Scott Dixon. Viso was unable to continue, an unfortunate mishap since he was one of the fastest drivers on the course at the time. In a bit of poetic justice, Dixon would later be bumped from behind by the #6 Team Penske car driven by Ryan Briscoe. The incident came late in the race just as Dixon was trying to fight his way into the top three and seemed to throw him into a bit of disarray. Briscoe would later be penalized and end in 13th, but 2 spots above Dixon.
As for Matos' lead, it was short lived and as the race progressed, Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves would take turns at the lead for varying lengths of time. Franchitti assumed the lead for the first time at the 32nd lap and took it into the 52nd when he yielded it to Castroneves after going into the pits.
No matter, Franchitti would regain the lead for good at the 56th lap, and gradually pulled away from the field on each lap. Even though a couple of yellows reeled him back in, Franchitti would once again pull away on the restarts. Eventually, Franchitti would extend his lead to 3.31 seconds over Power. Kanaan, in the #11 Team 7-Eleven/Dr. Pepper car, worked his way into 3rd after having started in the 11th spot, and the race would end in that order.
Brazilian rookie Matos was the fastest rookie on the day and 8th overall. Danica Patrick made the biggest jump, starting in the 22nd spot and finishing 4th behind Kanaan.
Lastly, once all the IndyCar Series festivities wrapped up, the SPEED GT Challenge racers took to the course. Newport Beach's James Sofronas would take the win in the #14 Global Motorsports Group/Porsche 911 GT3 by a margin of 2.4 seconds.
See you next year!