![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/GPS-100-Runabout-class.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Long Beach, Calif. is very particular about the racing it permits within city limits. While this year\u2019s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is the city\u2019s – and the country\u2019s – longest tenured road race for cars, there\u2019s another contest that\u2019s been around far longer than the Grand Prix\u2019s 45 events.<\/p>\n
That would be the Long Beach Sprint Nationals, which have been held since 1946 at the city\u2019s Marine Stadium, itself an historic site as the world\u2019s first manmade rowing stadium, constructed to be used as a 1932 Summer Olympics rowing venue.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Grand-National-Class-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
After a competitor died during last year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019d normally take a few months to do, in less than a week.<\/p>\n
The result of Wallach\u2019s hard work were 12 classes of competitors, 80-plus entrants and thousands of happy spectators lining both sides of the stadium to watch. \u201cWe had great weather and great racing,\u201d Wallach told the local Press Telegram newspaper. \u201cIt could not have gone better.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Crackerbox-class-300x180.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
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. \u201cThere are only five or six good venues left across the country,\u201d Daily said. \u201cIt would have been disappointing if this was cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winners of Sunday\u2019s races:<\/strong> Overall winner\u2019s for the 2019 Long Beach Sprint Nationals<\/strong> Long Beach, Calif. is very particular about the racing it permits within city limits. While this year\u2019s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is the city\u2019s – and the country\u2019s – longest tenured road race for cars, there\u2019s another contest that\u2019s been around far longer than the Grand Prix\u2019s 45 events.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":64845,"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":[17,3470,22],"tags":[5614,7078,41,7079],"class_list":["post-64843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-column","category-news","category-event-coverage","tag-anne-proffit","tag-long-beach","tag-news","tag-wallach"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/GPS-100-Runabout-class-e1567016927899.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-gRR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64843","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=64843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64863,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64843\/revisions\/64863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClassic Endurance: No. 61 Casey McInturf, owner; Logan Kelsey, driver<\/strong>
\nCrackerbox Pro: No. 88 Lance Sgump, owner; Scott Stump\/blakeStump, driver\/rider<\/strong>
\nGrand Nationals: No. 369 Heath Hiebert, owner\/driver<\/strong>
\nGPS100: No. 717 Frederick\/Hoffman, owner; Tim Hoffman, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Extreme: NO. 151 Gary Koeller, owner; Mike Purczynski, driver<\/strong>
\nFormula Lights: No. 41 Bill Reiter, owner; Kevin Curtis, driver<\/strong>
\nJunior Hydroplane: No. 55 Sean Davison, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Limited \u201cA\u201d Hydroplane: No. 477 Wesley Gildart, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Limited \u201cC\u201d Hydroplane: No. 7 Roger Hewson, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Limited \u201c20\u201d Hydroplane: No. 7 Kevin Curtis, driver<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nClassic Endurance Overall: No. 20 Ken Neal, owner\/driver<\/strong>
\nComp Jet Overall: No. 171 Randall Dilworth, owner\/driver<\/strong>
\nCrackerbox Pro Overall: No. 88 Lance Stump owner, Scott Stump\/Blake Stump, driver\/rider<\/strong>
\nBrand National Overall: No. 369 Heath Hiebert, owner\/driver<\/strong>
\nGPS100 Overall: No. 717 Frederick\/Hoffman, owner, Tim Hoffman, driver<\/strong>
\nKRR Overall: No 16 John Guthrie, owner, Jay Hart, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Extreme Overall: Gary Koeller, owner; Mike Purczynski, driver<\/strong>
\nUnblown Flat Overall: No. 80 Dave Rankin, owner, Ty Newton, driver<\/strong>
\nFormula Lights Overall: No. 41 Bill Reiter, owner; Kevin Curtis, driver<\/strong>
\nJunior Hydroplane Overall: Sean Davison, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Limited \u201cA\u201d Hydroplane Overall: Wesley Gildart, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Limited \u201cC\u201d Hydroplane Overall: No. 7 Roger Hewson, driver<\/strong>
\nSportsman Limited \u201c20\u201d Hydroplane Overall: No. 7 Kevin Curtis, driver<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"