Ricky & Jordan Taylor take win over Ganassi V6 Turbo Ford at Long Beach Grand Prix
Magnussen & Garcia finish third in GTLM behind BMW & Ferrari
At Long Beach, the crammed schedule means that sports car racing finishes up late Saturday afternoon. The Tudor United Sports Car race limited to the DP and GTLM classes and the race is just 1 hr 40 min. Whatever, a win is a win.
Spirit of Daytona, Whelen and Action Express finished 3rd, 4th & 5th in DP
Race results compiled by Wayne Ellwood
Some Brief History
At Long Beach, the Verizon Indy Car Series takes center stage, traditionally supported by the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Challenge and Indy Lights. The Pirelli World Challenge and the KMC Super Drift contest were thrown in this year.
The LBGP began 41 years ago with a Formula 5000 street circuit race to determine if that could help revive the port city. Success led to Formula 1 which priced itself out 5 years later and was replaced by Indy Cars without a loss in attendance. Smart promotion to the Hollywood crowd and sponsorship from Toyota turned the LBGP into a circus-like event flocked to by Southern California race fans that were abandoned when the venerable Riverside Raceway was re-developed into a strip mall.
Some earlier attempts to revive the Port of Long Beach never really worked. They included the Cunard Queen Mary and the Howard Hughes Spruce Goose H 4 Hercules flying boat. When Disney took over the concession in 1988, the company paid to have it taken apart, moved and re-assembled at the Evergreen Museum in McMinville, OR. The Queen Mary is still used as a hotel.