"Roar by the Shore"--Day 1 at the Champ Car Long Beach GP/33rd edition
In 1975, an expatriate British travel agent named Christopher Robin Pook had a blue sky idea: Why not have a street automobile race, similar to that in Monte Carlo, Monaco, in the streets of Long Beach, California? Thirty-three years later...the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is the signature event for the Champ Car World Series. This year, the Champ Cars are joined by the prototypes and GT cars of the American LeMans Series (whom we last saw a couple of weeks ago at St. Petersburg, FL).
The downtown of Long Beach was somewhat seedy when we covered our first LBGP in 1979...today, the city has upscale hotels, light rail transit, upscale nightspots and eateries...simply because a group of people had a vision about what could be, and acted to make that vision reality--which put Long Beach on developer's radar.
We'll show you some snapshots throughout the weekend.
Posted at 2:24 pm local time
Top (left to right)Dario Franchitti of Andretti Green Racing, after winning the pole for the American LeMans Series race in an Acura LMP2 prototype, just a tick under 100 miles an hour; Right, Rinaldo (Dindo) Cappello in the Audi LMP1 R10 diesel, a scant second slower--98 & change for the speed.
Center--Rookie Simon Pagenaud (3rd), 1st day pole sitter Will Power (lap of 104.311 miles an hour) and three-time and defending Champ Car World Series champion Sebastien Bourdais (104.234 miles an hour). Power will start no worse than second, no matter what happens tomorrow in final Champ Car Qualifying.
More to come tomorrow, especially pictures.
Posted at 4:21 pm/6:10 local time
