The 34th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach came to a close yesterday, sending out the Champ Car Series with a bang as it now merges with the Indy Racing League. It was a dramatic weekend of racing from green to checkered flag, so LBPOSTSports.com spent all weekend covering every angle of every event. Check out all of the great stories we’ve been following…
Our 27th edition of the Sports Night podcast touches on the atmosphere of the entire weekend from Wednesday to Sunday, and we go over our favorite parts of the weekend as well as what the future holds for the Long Beach Grand Prix.
In the main event, Will Power used great strategy to overtake race favorite Justin Wilson, who had major troubles. Read the race report here, then skip over to Ryan and JJ’s running diary of the final Champ Car race ever.
We were also lucky enough to spend a few minutes with the race’s Grand Marshall and racing legend Bobby Rahal. In this exclusive interview, Rahal talks about the future of open-wheel racing, what it’s like to compete against his own son, and the true meaning of the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Get ready to immerse yourself in one of the oddest racing stories you’ll ever hear, and find out how Tafel Racing used incredibly risky strategy and an unlikely omen to bring their Ferrari F430GT to victory in the GT2 class in the American Le Mans Series race.
With six different races and an unlimited amount of story lines, we did our best to keep you updated with in-depth coverage and beautiful photos on our Grand Prix running blog, here. Check it out to see how things went down.
We also spent a little time getting familiar with the atmosphere. J.J. Fiddler spent Friday perusing the many exhibits in the Convention Center, and shot this video to bring you a wide variety of products, show cars, entertainment and smiling faces. Out in the team garages, we figured that with this being the final race in Champ Car Series history, you might want to get a good look at the Panoz chassis used by the series before they’re replaced by the Indy Racing League’s Dallara car. So we talked #29 Imperial Capital Bank driver Alex Figge into showing us around his own car, pointing out features and making predictions for the weekend. See that video here.
Auto racing is an worldwide phenomenon, and the Champ Car Series is no exception. After the first day, Brit Justin Wilson leads an international field – but here are three American drivers he should watch out for in his rear-view. And just for fun, we take a moment to examine the delicate relationship between driver and car, with a great story from Long Beach City Councilwoman Rae Gabelich’s late husband – and former land speed record holder – Gary Gabelich.
Hope you enjoyed the weekend’s action as much as we did, and thanks to Russell Conroy for his amazing images! The countdown to the 2009 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach begins now.
Just 364 days away!