From avenue racing threat to IndyCar mainstay: How Lengthy Seaside Grand Prix has thrived for 50 years

Source link : https://motorsports-news.org/2025/04/11/indycar/from-avenue-racing-threat-to-indycar-mainstay-how-lengthy-seaside-grand-prix-has-thrived-for-50-years/

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Within the 50 years because the quaint Navy city of Lengthy Seaside was launched to the world on a world racing stage, a minimum of two dozen cities on the American open-wheel calendar have tried to spring-board off the southern California metropolis’s thought of boosting its model and revamping its picture by way of racing on metropolis streets.

Solely 4 stay alive. Three of these — all however the Acura Grand Prix of Lengthy Seaside — had been both first launched because the flip of the millennium (St. Pete) or have seen pauses of a minimum of one 12 months for non-pandemic occasions exterior the race promoters’ management (Detroit and Toronto).

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Different main U.S. cities (Cleveland, Denver, Houston, San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Baltimore and Nashville) have tried and failed — generally a number of occasions. Sao Paulo, Edmonton, Vancouver, Surfers Paradise, Monterey and South Korea have sputtered out, regardless of worldwide aptitude, and proposed avenue races in Boston and China, although introduced, by no means made their debuts.

So how then has Lengthy Seaside, by way of three eras with System 5000, System 1 and numerous iterations of CART, Champ Automotive and , managed to outlast potential monetary pitfalls, political sea adjustments and the all the time attainable basic wane of public curiosity?

Forward of the race’s fiftieth anniversary this weekend, longtime Grand Prix Affiliation of Lengthy Seaside president and…

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Author : Motorsports

Publish date : 2025-04-11 09:56:00

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