Grand Prix of Long Beach

 

 

Almost time for the Indycar race at Long Beach!

 

 

Past winners

2013-Takuma Sato

2012-Will Power

2011-Mike Conway

2010-Ryan Hunter-Reay

2009-Dario Franchitti

2008-Will Power

2007-Sebastien Bourdais

2006-Sebastien Bourdais

2005-Sebastien Bourdais

2004-Paul Tracy

2003-Paul Tracy

 

 

There's some other great racing at Long Beach besides Indycar:

* Pro/Celebrity Race

* TUDOR Championship

* Indy Lights Race

* Stadium Super Trucks Race

* Pirelli World Challenge Race

* Motegi Racing Super Drift Challenge Finals



See what last year's winner Takuma Sato, Ryan Hunter Reay and Josef Newgarden have to say about the GP of Long Beach

 

 

 

Watch the action on NBC Sports Network

Indycar Qualifying
Saturday (4/12) at 6:00 pm EST

Indy Lights Race
Sunday (4/13) at 2:30 pm EST
 

The Grand Prix of Long Beach
Sunday April 13th 
4:00 pm EST

 

 

Follow along with the practices

on Indycar.com Live Timing and Scoring

 

The Indy Family Foundation

Check out this cool charity!!

 

Name: The Indy Family Foundation

Goal: To work together to help people in motorsports who have financial problems from an injury, sickness, or death. 

Who they help: Race car drivers, crew members, course workers, public relations, media , team owners, their family, and more.

Why is this really great?

* They help people involved in motorsports who really need some help.

* They have lots of fun stuff that they do to raise money for people.  Like bowling tournaments, golf outings and drivers Simon Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier 'sumo wrestling' at their street festival in Speedway last year.

 

Okay, know that you know who they are, go check out their great website,

 'Indy Family Foundation'!

 

 

 

P.S.  Josef is 2nd to the left. (Alex wanted to make sure you noticed him)

Plus there's some other great drivers who support the charity pictured, like Conor Daly, James Hinchcliffe, Zach Veach Graham Rahal, Martin Plowman and Simon Pagenaud

 

 

Josef Update #2 GP of St. Pete

JOSEF finished 9th at the GP of St. Pete!

(after starting last)

Josef Newgarden started last for the GP of St. Pete  and stayed in the back for a long, long time.  Alex was almost ready to stop watching the race.  Little did she know it was tire strategy.  He used his black tires first (which he wasn't very fast on) and then had his grippier red tires left (which he was much better on) for the rest of the race.

As Josef moved up thru the field there was much smiling, cheering and jumping up and down from Alex and although ABC did not interview Josef after the race, always a disappointment, Alex was thrilled to find this post race interview from the Sarah Fisher Hartman racing team.

With a good finish after his first race with a new engineer and new chief mechanic, Alex can't wait to see how Josef does the rest of the season!  First Indycar win?...or two?

GP of St. Pete Recap

Will Power continued his winning streak from last season to three races by winning the GP of St. Pete by holding of Ryan Hunter Reay and teammate Helio Castroneves for his 22nd career win.
Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top five.  (Mikhail Aleshin was the highest rookie finishing in 12th)

It was great seeing the cars back in action and with only two cautions (back to back) after the first 75 laps were run under green, it was a lot of good racing. 

Love hearing Paul Page announcing again, check out this highlight video to hear him.

A few of the reasons why the GP of St. Pete was so awesome:

      ·         The top ten included drivers from 7 different teams and 7 different countries

·         To keep it interesting there were 5 Chevys and 5 Hondas in the top 10

·         It was cool to see Dario Franchitti back at the track helping the Ganassi drivers (but boy we really miss watching him drive)

·         It was great to see A.J. Foyt smiling as his driver (Takuma Sato) led the first 26 laps of the race

·          It was Will Powers 22nd career Indycar win tying him for 19th on the all-time win list with Tony Bettenhausen and Emerson Fittipaldi.

·         Josef Newgarden started last and got off to a slow start but it was exciting watching him move up 13 spots to finish 9^th

Other Stuff:

            *   Juan Pablo Montoya finished 15^th in his first race back in an Indycar in more than a decade

·         It’s going to take us a while to get used to the team changes and new car paint schemes, like Bourdais is driving Kanaan’s car and Kanaan is driving Dario’s car and Dario isn’t driving a car at all. 

·         Will Power gave his fellow racers an ‘accordion lesson’ they won’t soon forget. But everyone knows restarts can be tricky.

·         We saw Tricky made his rounds in St. Pete and tweeted lots of cool selfies with drivers and VIPs over the weekend….way to go Tricky!

·         Great to see Kurt Busch win at Martinsville, can’t wait to see him driving in the Indy 500!!!

Don’t miss the next Indycar race,
the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13^th!

4:00 pm on NBCSports
Indy Lights race on at 2:30

 

 



GP of St. Pete Qualifying

Takuma Sato will start on the pole for the 2014 GP of St. Pete driving for A.J. Foyt.

A four hour rain delay left a somewhat wet track and made for an (really) exciting qualifying session.

Rounding out the Top 6 was Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Scott Dixon and Marco Andretti.

In the Top Ten:

5 Chevys and 5 Hondas
5 Different Teams (A.J. Foyt Racing, Ganassi, Andretti Autosport, Penske, Bryan Herta Racing)
2 Rookies (Carlos Munoz, Jack Hawksworth)

Full Qualifying Results can be found on the Indycar site.

Josef Newgarden qualified 22nd...Alex, his #1 fan is not happy.




INDY LIGHTS:
Qualifying was canceled due to rain so the starting positions were set by practice times.

Gabby Chaves will start on pole
followed by Zach Veach and Matt Brabham

Full Qualifying Results are at Indy Lights on the Indycar site.