Construction on the track that will host the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in April began Thursday morning just five months after the annual race zoomed through Downtown in the fall due to the pandemic.
This is the second time organizers have had to set up the track on such short notice, the first time being when the race was moved to April after the inaugural event in 1975. The 2021 race was held in September and was one of the first mega-events in Southern California after stadiums largely sat empty since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Jim Michaelian, the CEO and president of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, said the race is riding a lot of momentum coming out of the September event, when Long Beach hosted a championship race for the first time. But Michaelian added that it feels good to be back on the race’s normal schedule with this year’s event April 8-10.
“We’re delighted,” he said. “We actually trademarked the name ‘Southern California’s Official Spring Break’ an so we’re back in the spring time and it feels good.”
A new addition to the April race will be the Porsche Carrera Cup North America series, which will run Saturday and Sunday. Two 45-minute races will include up to 35 identical Porsche race cars, a first for the city’s track.
Michaelian said the April race could look a little different from September now that Los Angeles County health officials have lifted mask wearing requirements for outdoor mega-events like the Grand Prix.
In addition to mask wearing, attendees had to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to get into the September race. As of now, that could still be the case by the time race weekend arrives but Michaelian said they would comply with whatever health orders are in place at the time.
“We’ll adhere to whatever the protocols are,” he said. “If masking came back in as a requirement, we’d have to adhere to it.”
The 50-day setup window is expected to conclude by the Thursday before race weekend. Crews would then have three weeks to take down the race track infrastructure.
The City Council voted in October to let race organizers keep up about 1,000 concrete railings from the September event to help with the quick turnaround but also reduced the setup window from 53 days to 50 days.
In December, the council approved a five-year extension with the Grand Prix and also provides organizers with a seat at the table for any future developments that might happen on the “Elephant Lot,” the parking lot east of the Long Beach Convention Center that serves as an area for pit crews, grandstands and some of the race’s turns.
That extension requires the the Grand Prix Association to pay an annual contribution of $30,000 to help restore streets that are damaged during the race and will also lead to a complete resurfacing of the stretch of Pine Avenue that is affected by race activities.
While Michaelian said interest is high for the April race despite it being just months removed from the Grand Prix’s previous race, hosting two races per year is not something that is being explored.
“If you run another event it better be something substantial because the stakeholders are going to endure having the streets shutdown, etcetera,” he said. “A logical request on [the city’s] part is that there be a significant economic impact. If you can’t deliver that it makes it difficult to justify shutting these streets down for another whole weekend of racing activities.”
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