This weekend is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a celebration of all things motive that occurs in this California city adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. This Long Beach gathering is the 48th, a converging that began in 1975 with the USAC/SCCA-sanctioned Formula 5000 series, then became a Formula One race for eight years before CART, Champ Car and later INDYCAR took over as the primary rationale to come to this city each spring and see this event.
Of course the prime draw is the third race of the 2023 17-contest NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, with its missile-like open wheel single-seaters that can reach speeds nearing 200mph on the front and back straights of this 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course. There have been two races thus far, a street course contest in St Petersburg, FL, won by 2022 Indianapolis 500 victor Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing and the first oval of the year at Texas Motor Speedway, earned for a second straight occasion by Josef Newgarden of Team Penske.
That’s a single score for Honda and one for Chevrolet, both of whom are eyeing breaking that stalemate on these tough, concrete-lined streets. Newgarden took the win last year on these streets and, of course, is hoping to repeat here as well. It won’t be easy as there are 28 cars entered in this 85-lap race; Alexander Rossi was the last driver to repeat on these streets, in 2018 and 2019, but his hold was broken by Colton Herta in September of 2021 and by Newgarden last year. Ganassi retains the six-time champion Scott Dixon and Alex Palou, with rookie Marcus Armstrong contesting the road/street courses and Tacoma Sato driving the ovals in Ganassi’s No. 11 Honda.
Rossi has moved from Andretti Autosport to Arrow McLaren, gong from Honda to Chevrolet, and is excited about his prospects with this event, where livery for three of the four Arrow McLaren Indy 500 cars will be revealed at the fan Expo in Long Beach’s convention center on Friday morning. His teammates, both Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist are hoping to learn something from Rossi that might help them beat him! Over at Andretti Autosport, the lineup includes 2022’s P2 finisher Romain Grosjean, Kyle Kirkwood, Herta and Devlin DeFrancesco.
Team Penske returns with reigning 2022 INDYCAR champion Will Power, who earned his second title at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca last September, Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin. Dale Coyne Racing’s Honda-powered cars have David Malukas and INDY NXT grad Sting Ray Robb, while the Chevy-powered A.J. Foyt Racing team, currently mourning the loss of their patriarch’s wife Lucy, competes with the always entertaining Santino Ferrucci and newcomer Benjamin Pedersen.
Ed Carpenter Racing returns with Conor Daly and Rinus Veejay again this year in its Chevy-powered Dallaras, while Juncos Hollinger Racing’s pair of Chevys see Callum Ilott and Argentinian Agustin Canapino. Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s three Hondas see Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey on the move, while Meyer Shank Racing’s pair of Honda Dallaras house four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud, who are reprising teammates, having worked together for several years at Team Penske.
IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is returning to The Beach – also conducting its third race of the year after the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, together with Porsche Carrera Cup, Historic F1 cars from 1978-1983 (when they raced at Long Beach), with 22 cars expected to compete, Robby Gordon’s Stadium Super Trucks and Friday/Saturday evening Super Drift Challenge are also on the docket. In addition, there’s a LifeStyle Expo, paddock passes and concerts both Friday and Saturday nights to keep everyone occupied. No wonder GPALB calls this event a “200mph Beach Party.”
During the pre-race media day, held a week before the race and just a few days before Formula Drift opened its 2023 campaign, this writer had the opportunity to take a ride in a Porsche Carrera Cup car just completed and not yet designated for a specific driver. Oriol Servia, already a member of the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame – Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe join him Thursday morning – took me around the track and tried very hard to scare me. Sorry, Oriol, it takes a lot more than that ride to scare this girl! The Porsche Carrera Cup has two races, one on Saturday, while its second race is the closing competition on Sunday afternoon.
Acura and its racing arm, Honda Performance Development (HPD) brought its CR-V Hybrid Racer Honda to the track for media day and it will likely be on-site, perhaps giving rides to Honda/Acura guests over the race weekend. This vehicle is equipped with the engine combination that INDYCAR intended to introduce for 2023 but has pushed back to 2024, citing supply chain issues. Because of this delay, HPD elected to create the CR-V Hybrid Racer, which it considers a rolling laboratory for the equipment it’s producing for the next era of Indy car racing.
Dressed in wild blue and red variegated colors and equipped with every aerodynamic tweak HPD needed to keep the car on the ground and moving quickly, the less-than-stock-looking CR-V Hybrid Racer houses a tube-frame chassis and a 2.2-liter V-6 engine like those that will be in an upcoming Indy car. Using the fully renewable Shell fuel that INDYCAR employs in its race cars, the CR-V Hybrid Racer makes about 800 horsepower and is paired with an Xtrac six-speed sequential paddle shift gearbox and a unique hybrid system that holds an Empel-developed electric motor and a supercapacitator from Skeleton Technologies. HPD elected to use a supercapitator due to its reduced energy usage and ability to create added power.The rear suspension and brakes are adapted from the current Indy car built by Dallara; front suspension and brakes come from an Acura NSX GT-3 Evo22. Rubber, of course, is Firestone Indy 500 summer tires.
While no IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers or cars were on the track on media day, Meyer Shank Racing’s Colin Braun came out to promote the 100-minute Saturday afternoon race, which touts six GTP hybridized prototypes, five GTD PRO entries and 15 GTD sports cars. Another driver on-hand was Sheena Monk, who shares the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 with 2005 Toyota Atlantic Championship Long Beach winner Katherine Legge, who is making a return to the Indianapolis 500 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR) this May. While Monk chatted up the media, Legge was at Texas Motor Speedway, where she first experienced American ovals, performing her refresher test before returning to Indy next month.
Long Beach has been inundated with rain over the past several months, but for media day, for the Formula Drift opener – won by fan favorite Matt Field in a Borla-sponsored Chevrolet Corvette – both were held under warm, sunny skies. While the start to the weekend could be cool, in the mid-60s, the balance of the weekend promises clear or partly cloudy skies with temps in the low 70s, perfect for the cars, the drivers and for race fans. In 47 attempts, it has not rained on race day at Long Beach. No doubt the same will hold true in 2023.