{"id":105304,"date":"2026-03-23T05:58:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=105304"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:22:16","slug":"acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach-ceo-president-jim-michaelian-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach-ceo-president-jim-michaelian-passes\/","title":{"rendered":"Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach CEO\/President Jim Michaelian passes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jim Michaelian at the Motorsports Walk of Fame ceremonies – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The heart of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach stopped beating Saturday, March 21. Jim Michaelian, 83, who had been part of Chris Pook\u2019s magic dream to transport \u201cIowa by the Sea\u201d from a sleepy naval town to a destination city, died on Saturday, March 21, less than a month before the 51st edition of the race that he helped make into one of the most storied events in motorsports.<\/p>\n

Michaelian originally joined Pook\u2019s small organizational group on the financial side, serving as controller, COO, CEO and president since 2001, and his love of the sport and his enthusiasm for this event soon saw him take on more responsibilities. Once Pook left the Grand Prix Association, the race had Jim\u2019s imprint as he helped make it CART\u2019s, Champ Car\u2019s and finally the NTT INDYCAR SERIES\u2019 second-most popular event after the historic Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.<\/p>\n

The news of Michaelian\u2019s death – no details were given – came from INDYCAR and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Roger Penske, who co-owns the Speedway, INDYCAR, the Long Beach race and his Team Penske INDYCAR and IMSA teams noted, \u201cEveryone at Penske Entertainment and within the INDYCAR community is deeply saddened by the passing of Jim Michaelian. Jim was a leader of a small, passionate group who believed in the concept of bringing elite open-wheel competition to Long Beach in the 1970s, worked tirelessly to make it happen despite steep odds and then helped nurture the Grand Prix of Long Beach into becoming America\u2019s premier street race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis vision and energy surrounding this great event remained boundless for 50 years,\u201d Penske said, \u201cas no task was too small for Jim even while he served in numerous leadership roles,\u201d including as president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association. \u201cPenske Entertainment,\u201d which is the current owner of this race, \u201cis committed to honoring Jim\u2019s legacy of putting fans and competitors first as we continue to build the strong foundation he and his staff created for a half-century in Long Beach. Our deepest sympathies are with his wife, Mary, and their sons, Bob and Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Michaelian above pit road at Long Beach – IMSA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even as the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring continued on the airport circuit in Florida, IMSA President John Doonan had to stop and remember the man who championed sports car racing and who drove in many IMSA competitions over the years, including both races that constitute IMSA\u2019s \u201c36 Hours of Florida,\u201d the Rolex 24 at Daytona and this weekend\u2019s Sebring race: \u201cAll of us here at IMSA are shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of longtime Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President and CEO Jim Michaelian,\u201d Doonan remarked.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim was a racer\u2019s racer and adware friend to isa and the motorsports community at large. In addition to his stewardship of the Long Beach event, Jim was a frequent competitor in IMSA races over the years,\u201d Doonan reminded. “We will sorely miss his presence at Long Beach and racetracks everywhere (Michaelian could be seen in videos at last weekend\u2019s INDYCAR race in Arlington, TX). Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim\u2019s family, friends and colleagues. This is a devastating loss for our motorsports family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michaelian, who intended to pass the baton to Jim Liaw after this 51st, was omnipresent at each Long Beach race, using a scooter to get around the tough circuit. He was intimately involved in most every aspect of the event, and always made time to speak with anyone, a fan, a worker, team owners, crew members and drivers. He would come to the Dan Gurney Media Center post-race each year to thank the media for its contributions. When this writer thanked him for his work at the Grand Prix, Michaelian said he intended to consult with Penske Entertainment. \u201cI\u2019m staying here in Long Beach; can\u2019t get rid of me that easily!\u201d If only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michaelian’s passing comes just a month before the 51st running of the Long Beach Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":105305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,3699,5029],"tags":[6637,11729,9492,915,955,6635,13170,9155,5981,450],"class_list":["post-105304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-other-racing","category-racing","tag-acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach","tag-chris-pook","tag-imsa-weathertech-sportscar-championship","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-jim-michaelian","tag-mobil1-12-hours-of-sebring","tag-ntt-indycar-series","tag-roger-penske","tag-rolex-24-at-daytona"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jim-Michaelian.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-ros","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105304"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105329,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105304\/revisions\/105329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}