On September 28, 1975, a new racing era began in a Southern California city that had assumed the nickname “Iowa by the Sea.” Long Beach, Calif. was just another sleepy Navy town, with a shipyard a few miles away at the time. Chris Pook, a UK-born travel agent – and dreamer – decided he wanted to bring big-time motorsports to his adopted town.
Pook got the city on board and had the backing of America’s first Formula One champion, Phil Hill and Dan Gurney, former racer and proprietor of All American Racers, which was building and campaigning cars in Formula 5000 at the time. Their support definitely helped persuade the city that this was a good idea.
Somehow, despite having to build some of the circuit on Friday morning of race weekend (with both Gurney and Hill putting the fences together), the show went on, was sufficiently successful as Brian Redman earned the first Long Beach Grand Prix winner’s trophy. Afterwards, the governing body of the Formula One World Championship, the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) gave permission to hold the first F1 race in Long Beach exactly six months later, on March 28, 1976, won by Clay Regazzoni and Ferrari.
F1 raced in Long Beach from 1976 through 1983, when the costs became prohibitively high and Pook elected to have CART be the premier show of race weekend. CART, Champ Car, the Indy Racing League and, now, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES have, since 1984, been the springtime stars of Long Beach, a vastly changed city, thanks to this race.
It was the second, 1977 F1 race, won by Mario Andretti for Team Lotus, that ensured the race’s ongoing success. Andretti also won the first, second and fourth CART races (Michael Andretti took the third). Al Unser Jr. became “King of the Beach” by taking six overall and four consecrative LBGP races.
The 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is set for April 11-13, and on race day the nearly 200,000 in attendance will gather beneath sunny skies – it’s never rained on race day – to watch the Indy cars compete on this street circuit, now run on Shoreline Drive, through an area that contains Long Beach’s aquarium, down Pine Avenue to Seaside Way, through a parking lot to its treacherous hairpin and back down Shoreline Drive again. It’s a short, 1.968-mile, 11-corner circuit, treacherous and unforgiving, built to reward the brave who dare to challenge it.
Race day, April 13 is the birth date of Dan Gurney, one of the founders of this race; he’s one of the initial recipients of a plaque on Pine Avenue’s Walk of Fame, which will have its annual induction the day before racing begins, Thursday, April 10. At that time, six-time INDYCAR champion and two-time Long Bech winner Scott Dixon will receive his plaque, as will former mayor Beverly O’Neill and Jim Michaelian, longtime president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association.
When this race changed from its international basis to an American series, it took a while to regain fan interest, but with a full three days – and nights – of visual and aural entertainment, the longest-running street race in the United States has become the second-most important , and popular, event of the INDYCAR season, with the Indianapolis 500 the sole race with more longevity and significance. The 109th Indy 500 takes place the Sunday before Memorial Day.
Long Beach is the third race in a 17-contest INDYCAR season. There will be 27 entries vying for the top spot on a three-driver podium. In addition to Sunday’s main event, fans will be dazzled by the first short-course sprint (100 minutes) race in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) 2025 season. The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship completed its 36 Hours of Florida: the Rolex 24 at Daytona, together with Mobil One 12 Hours of Sebring. Both GTP prototypes (11) and GTD sports cars with 16 cars on the docket will compete. One of those GTD cars is the DXDT Corvette for Robert Wickens, a partially paralyzed champion in IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge who will fight on these city streets with hand controls allowing him to race in the series’ GTD class.
The weekend also features GT America, Historic formula cars in exhibition laps, Robby Gordon’s popular Stadium Super Trucks and an exhibition by Formula Drift both Friday and Saturday nights, following their season-starter on April 5, won by Fredric Aasbo for the first time since 2020. In addition to on-track escapades, the weekend features an indoor expo that includes the paddocks of sub-series, plus a concert on both Friday and Saturday nights, with DVBBS featured on Friday night’s schedule and Foreigner as the headliner on Saturday.
While all three mornings and evenings will feature what Long Beachers call “June Gloom” of patchy fog conditions, the balance of each day should render partly sunny skies with temps ranging from low 70s to high 60s for all three days. If the fog persists, the schedule might have to be adjusted as medical helicopters need clear skies to operate. No rain is predicted, which means this 50th edition of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach should come off without any weather-related hitches for, well, the 50th time!
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