The No. 55 Team RLL BMW M3 takes its turn around the picturesque downtown Long Beach street circuit on Friday morning. Photo by Nate Toering.
The 37th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach raced off to a fast start on Friday, which several classes speeding through practice and qualifying for this weekend’s races. Check out the results and the Saturday schedule!
IZOD IndyCar Series
In the main event of the weekend, the IZOD IndyCar Series, the whopping field of 27 cars took to the circuit on Friday for two practice sessions with few surprises at the top of the standings. Defending champion Ryan Hunter-Reay took the fastest lap of the day with a 1:10.998. The first thirteen cars set times within one second of each other.
“The competition is so tight right now that if you sneeze the wrong way you’re going to be at the back of the pack,” said Hunter-Reay. “Every hundredth of a second helps, and if you have a little trick in one corner that might get you half a tenth of a second it’s worth its weight in gold.”
Such a huge field could be a blessing or a curse during Sunday’s race. The IndyCars reach tremendous speeds approaching 180mph on the main Shoreline Drive straightaway, the only real opportunity to pass a slower competitor. Everywhere else, it makes sense to simply hold your line and not push too hard – lest you catch some errant rubber and end up in the wall. In the past, this has led to races more like parades, that are decided in qualifying and simply trotted out single-file for two hours. They are just too fast with too little room to maneuver to take risks. This makes Saturday’s qualifying session crucial to anyone interested in scoring significant points on Sunday.
Qualifying begins at 2:30pm on Saturday.
American Le Mans Series
In the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) action, the four classes of cars in the 31-car field took to practice and then qualifying on Friday as they prep for racing on Saturday afternoon. Guy Smith of Dyson Racing captured an emotional pole position for Mazda in the P1 prototype class. The team is still reeling from the after-effects of the devastating earthquake in Japan last month.
“The people of Japan have been through a ton, so all of us at Mazda, Guy and the Dyson team dedicate our performance to them,” said John Doonan, MAZDASPEED team manager. “We’ve worked really hard, and our little car company keeps working hard. This comes when our company and the people of Japan need some good news.”
Smith put down a blazing 1:14.001 to capture pole, with Klaus Graf of Muscle Milk Motorsport close behind with a 1:14.453 in his stunningly-gorgeous Aston Martin prototype.
ALMS is unique in that it pits four classes of cars with varying levels of performance on the track at the same time, with two prototype classes (P1 and PC) and two sportscar classes (GT and GTC). This leads to frequent passing as the faster prototypes fly by the GT cars, and slower drivers must stay out of the way without losing position. Last year’s race was a nail-biting battle when Simon Pagenaud brought his Acura ARX-01c around the Aston Martin of Adrian Fernandez on the final lap.
These cars are built for endurance racing, usually of six, twelve or even twenty-four consecutive hours of driving. In comparison, the 100-minute Long Beach race is a sprint. There will be no letting off the gas in tomorrow’s sportscar battle royale. Unfortunately, it also means there are drawbacks. Many top level teams that use the ALMS as preparation for the longer races do not bother with Long Beach because it is too short to gather useful data, and the circuit is too tight for the big, expensive cars. Audi and Peugeot are the biggest names to bypass the event, but Level 5 Motorsports has also withdrawn its lovely coupe from the weekend to prep it for the 24 Hours of Le Mans this June.
The race begins at 5:00pm on Saturday.
Celebrity/Pro Race
In the qualifying session on Friday, actor Stephen Moyer of the HBO vamp-erotic show True Blood captured pole position despite flipping his car upside down. Moyer was unhurt, but conjured up reminders that despite a month of training, the celebrity crowd is a novelty first and skilled second. Maybe third. Remember when movie-god George Lucas forced not one, but two consecutive celebrity races to end early due to blasphemous crashes?
Doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, though. Defending celebrity champ Brian Austin Green (ye of 90210 fame) qualified second, while the pro drivers that will start at the back of the field include drifter Ken Gushi on pole and Frankie Muniz a close second.
The race begins at 11:40am on Saturday.
I wrote in this month’s inaugural print edition of the Long Beach Post about the best places around the track to catch the action. Pick up a copy at one of these downtown locations to read that and much more from our Long Beach Grand Prix preview.
IndyCar Series
Saturday: Practice 10:25am-11:25am, Qualifying 2:30pm-3:50pm
Sunday: Practice 9:15am-9:45am, RACE 1:15pm-3:30pmTequila Patron American Le Mans Series
Saturday: RACE 4:30pm-6:30pmFirestone Indy Lights
Saturday: Practice 8:00am-8:45am, Qualifying 12:55pm-1:55pm
Sunday: Practice 8:00am-8:15am, RACE 11:05am-12:05pmToyota Pro/Celebrity
Saturday: RACE 11:40am-12:40pmPirelli World Challenge Championship
Saturday: Practice 7:15am-7:45am
Sunday: Qualifying 8:25am-8:55am, RACE 4:15pm-5:15pmTeam Drifting
Saturday: 8:55am-9:20am
Sunday: 3:40pm-3:55pm
Make sure you follow us on Twitter ar @LBPOSTSports for up-to-the-minute updates, driver interviews, jokes and jokes and jokes and much more!
Michael Curry and Gavin Rice wave the flag from the stands during Grand Prix on Friday. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
No racing article is complete without a gratuitous shot of the gorgeous green-and-yellow Lotus. Photo by Nate Toering.
2008 Long Beach Grand Prix Will Power was robbed of a victory last year by a faulty transmission and made it clear that he intends to make up for lost opportunities with consistently fast laps on Friday. Photo by Nate Toering.
Danica Patrick has not had the best of luck in Long Beach, but is looking for a good finish this weekend. Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Dario Franchitti, winner of the 2009 Grand Prix of Long Beach, finished a disappointing 12th last year but already has a win this season. Photo by Dale Brown.
A Chevrolet Corvette C6.R leads the ALMS field down the Shoreline Drive straight during Friday morning practice. Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Megyn Price drives past Jerry Westlund’s wrecked car during the Pro/Celebrity practice run on Friday. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Jerry Westlund stands beside the car he crashed during the Pro/Celebrity practice run on Friday. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
A wrecked Indy Lights race car gets towed off the course. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
A wrecked Indy Lights race car gets towed off the course. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
WCC Practice. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Party Boat: Free Admission, but how much to get off? Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Watching toy cars on the Tamiya Race Course inside the Auto Club Lifestyle Expo. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Sabrina Ostermann (4 yrs), Ryan Ostermann (6 yrs) and Jack Wilson-Shomer (6 yrs) watch model cars race on the Tamiya Race Course inside the Auto Club Lifestyle Expo. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Nate Toering.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Photo by Dale Brown.
Glam rockers Moderatto proved that their popularity reaches beyond their Mexico City roots by rocking the crowd outside the Terrace Theatre with hits including, “Si Mi Delito Es Rockear (Me Declaro Culpable) [If Rocking Is My Crime (Then I Plead Guilty)].” By Daniel DeBoom
Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Photo by Daniel DeBoom.
Photo by Daniel DeBoom.