Long Beach Sprint Nationals take over Marine Stadium

Long Beach, Calif. is very particular about the racing it permits within city limits. While this year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is the city’s – and the country’s – longest tenured road race for cars, there’s another contest that’s been around far longer than the Grand Prix’s 45 events.

That would be the Long Beach Sprint Nationals, which have been held since 1946 at the city’s Marine Stadium, itself an historic site as the world’s first manmade rowing stadium, constructed to be used as a 1932 Summer Olympics rowing venue.

After a competitor died during last year’s speed-boat contest, the city made obtaining a permit for the festivities extremely difficult for promoter Ross Wallach, who has been putting on the Long Beach Sprint Nationals for 20 years. It took months of discussion between the city and sanctioning group Southern California Speedboat Club (SCSC), of which Wallach is president.

Finally, with little over a week to spare and with the infusion of a $10 million liability insurance certificate to the city, Wallach had his permit in hand and needed to perform the promotional and organizational duties he’d normally take a few months to do, in less than a week.

The result of Wallach’s hard work were 12 classes of competitors, 80-plus entrants and thousands of happy spectators lining both sides of the stadium to watch. “We had great weather and great racing,” Wallach told the local Press Telegram newspaper. “It could not have gone better.”

There were no incidents to report, aside from the occasional high-powered boat unable to get started or unable to continue the short races around buoys lining the long, interior stadium. Competitors came from nearby and from as far away as Florida, including longtime speedboat racer Duff Daily. “There are only five or six good venues left across the country,” Daily said. “It would have been disappointing if this was cancelled.”

Winners of Sunday’s races:
Classic Endurance: No. 61 Casey McInturf, owner; Logan Kelsey, driver
Crackerbox Pro: No. 88 Lance Sgump, owner; Scott Stump/blakeStump, driver/rider
Grand Nationals: No. 369 Heath Hiebert, owner/driver
GPS100: No. 717 Frederick/Hoffman, owner; Tim Hoffman, driver
Sportsman Extreme: NO. 151 Gary Koeller, owner; Mike Purczynski, driver
Formula Lights: No. 41 Bill Reiter, owner; Kevin Curtis, driver
Junior Hydroplane: No. 55 Sean Davison, driver
Sportsman Limited “A” Hydroplane: No. 477 Wesley Gildart, driver
Sportsman Limited “C” Hydroplane: No. 7 Roger Hewson, driver
Sportsman Limited “20” Hydroplane: No. 7 Kevin Curtis, driver

Overall winner’s for the 2019 Long Beach Sprint Nationals
Classic Endurance Overall: No. 20 Ken Neal, owner/driver
Comp Jet Overall: No. 171 Randall Dilworth, owner/driver
Crackerbox Pro Overall: No. 88 Lance Stump owner, Scott Stump/Blake Stump, driver/rider
Brand National Overall: No. 369 Heath Hiebert, owner/driver
GPS100 Overall: No. 717 Frederick/Hoffman, owner, Tim Hoffman, driver
KRR Overall: No 16 John Guthrie, owner, Jay Hart, driver
Sportsman Extreme Overall: Gary Koeller, owner; Mike Purczynski, driver
Unblown Flat Overall: No. 80 Dave Rankin, owner, Ty Newton, driver
Formula Lights Overall: No. 41 Bill Reiter, owner; Kevin Curtis, driver
Junior Hydroplane Overall: Sean Davison, driver
Sportsman Limited “A” Hydroplane Overall: Wesley Gildart, driver
Sportsman Limited “C” Hydroplane Overall: No. 7 Roger Hewson, driver
Sportsman Limited “20” Hydroplane Overall: No. 7 Kevin Curtis, driver

About Anne Proffit 1237 Articles
Anne Proffit traces her love of racing - in particular drag racing - to her childhood days in Philadelphia, where Atco Dragway, Englishtown and Maple Grove Raceway were destinations just made for her. As a diversion, she was the first editor of IMSA’s Arrow newsletter, and now writes about and photographs sports cars, Indy cars, Formula 1, MotoGP, NASCAR, Formula Drift, Red Bull Global Rallycross - in addition to her first love of NHRA drag racing. A specialty is a particular admiration for the people that build and tune drag racing engines.

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