"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

Saturday, 3/31/2007, from St. Petersburg

Dan Wheldon crashed his car in practice for IndyCar qualifying later this afternoon...it's the second hard whack he has taken in successive weeks. Wheldon's OK, not so the car. Dario Franchitti hit in Turn 8...he's also OK.

The GT American LeMans series cars are louder than the LeMans, Sebring and 2006 LeMans Prototype 1 championship winning 12 cylinder Audi R10 TDi diesel powered LMP1 car. No diesel clatter, smoke or anything like the stereotypical truck diesel from the tailpipe of either Audi.

We'll add a picture or two from our travels later on.

Paul Kaminski

11:34 am

Add Tony Kanaan to the crashers...he was the fastest IndyCar qualifier, crashed in the Fast Six session to decide the pole. Kanaan's time was scratched because he brought out the yellow; defending winner Helio Castroneves from Team Penske (above, after post qualifying news conference) sets a track record of 105.052 miles an hour to win the pole. Marco Andretti starts 2nd.

3:44 pm

Pictures from the Pit & Paddock at St. Petersburg's Honda Indy Grand Prix and Acura Sports Car Challenge

Top--The Andretti-Green Racing Acura ARX-01a (LeMans Prototype 2 winner at Sebring) driven by Bryan Herta, and Marino Franchitti (Dario's brother). The car will start 5th in Saturday's American LeMans Series street debut for 2007. Penske Racing's Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard start their Porsche RS Spyder on the pole (102.794 miles per hour).

Middle--The Audi R10 TDi diesel (LeMans Prototype 1 winner at Sebring), driven by Rinaldo Capello, Alan McNish and the ace of LeMans (24 Hours), 4 time winner Tom Kristensen. The car will start 3rd overall (102.184 miles per hour). McNish qualified the car, but crashed during qualifying.

Bottom--Tony Kanaan's 7-11 Dallara Honda after the first practice session.

IndyCar Top 2 in Combined Qualifying--Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan were 1-2. The 2 time Indy 500 winner clocked in with a 105.192 mile per hour lap; Kanaan a tick slower at 105.043 mph.

That's it for Friday; Saturday is pole day for the IndyCars and race day for the American Le Mans cars.

Paul Kaminski

3/30/2007

Chip Ganassi back to back at the 24; Jeff Gordon 3rd

The Chip Ganassi Racing Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran won overall honors at the 24 Hours of Daytona Grand-Am Rolex series classic on the Speedway's 3.56 mile road course. That car completed 668 laps in 24:00:55.002. Montoya is a NASCAR Nextel Cup series rookie, reunited with racing maven and team owner Ganassi for 2007. Not a bad result for JPM. Pruett has 7 class wins at Daytona (most of any driver) and now has 13 Rolex series wins. JPM joins a list of nine other drivers to win a sports car race at Daytona, and the Indianapolis 500 (for the record, they include Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Arie Luyendyk, Bobby Rahal, Mark Donohue, Al Unser Sr. & Al Unser Jr., and Dan Wheldon.

Gordon impressed a lot of observers with the 3rd place drive. The Wayne Taylor machine got behind and the team (Gordon, Taylor, Max Angelelli, and Jan Magnussen) clawed its way back to the lead lap, before a late race brake pad change knocked them off the lead lap.

Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish had a long race...finishing 9th...some 40 laps down to the winner. Props to Hornish for getting road racing experience the hard way...it will pay off.

The Indy Racing League will test here Wednesday and Thursday. We'll blog some stuff your way.

Paul Kaminski

1/28/2007

Sports Cars @ Daytona--24 Hours

Race-Talk listeners know that I like to see racers race in other series. Tony Stewart has run in 22 kinds of different series...and has victories in all but sports car racing. It's not for lack of trying; in 2005, he was leading overall with 18 minutes to go, when a wheel bearing gave out. So 'Smoke' has unfinished business today.

Michael Shank Racing has 2 Indy 500 winners (Sam Hornish, and Penske teammate Helio Castroneves), plus the "thrill from West Hill" (Ontario, Canada), Paul Tracy. Dan Wheldon (2005 Indy 500 winner) is driving for Chip Ganassi (he, Scott Dixon and Casey Mears won in 2006).

Richard Petty is the Grand Marshal for the race.

We'll post nuggets as they are unearthed from the "World Center of Racing".

Paul Kaminski

1/27/2007