Round 2: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 7-9.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 2: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 7-9.

After nearly a month long gap since the season opener at St. Pete's, the 43rd running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is almost upon us. It is the oldest running street race in North America and was founded by local travel agent Chris Pook in 1975.

The first race was a round of the SCCA Formula 5000 series and was won by British driver Brian Redman in a Lola T332-Chevrolet V8. Following the success of the F5000 event and only 6 months later Pook convinced FISA to hold the F1 United States Grand Prix West, which was was won by Swiss F1 veteran Clay Regazzoni, driving a Ferrari-312T. The United States Grand Prix West remained on the F1 calendar until 1983. Interestingly, it wasn't until 1980, that Toyota became the race sponsor.

After the 1983 Grand Prix, with the increasing costs of sanctions and shipping charges, it was felt F1 was too expensive to run and having been approached by CART to host a race. The following yea, Long Beach became a CART/Champ Car perenial event until the final Champ Car race, held on April 20, 2008 as part of the 2008 IndyCar Series split weekend.

Although series reunification took place in late February 2008, it emerged there was a calendar clash between Long Beach and the IndyCar Series round at Motegi in Japan. With both races so early on in the year and more or less finalised, neither venue could change their date; particularly Long Beach, due to the preparations required for a street course. It was decided both races would go ahead, with points from Long Beach counting towards the the IndyCar Series championship. It was won by Will Power driving for KV Racing, in a Panoz DP01-Cosworth. The race became part of the IndyCar Series calendar the following year.

Last year's race was the first since 1989 without a caution period and subsequently was the fastest race in the history of the event, at 01:33:54. It was also the closest finish, with Simon Pagenaud winning 0.3032 seconds ahead of Scott Dixon but not without controversy. During the second round of stops, Pagenaud was able to get out of the pits just ahead of Dixon and take the lead. However, Pagenaud had placed two tires over the blend line of the acceleration lane at the exit of pit lane, while trying to beat Dixon to turn one. Pagenaud’s pit exit was deemed an infraction per Rule 7.10.1.1. 'Lane Usage' of the INDYCAR Penalty Guidelines: Failing to follow designated procedures entering or exiting the pit area, including the proper use of the acceleration and deceleration lanes. Despite protests from Ganassi, IndyCar officials let Pagenaud off with a warning for the incident.

Recently there were rumours as to the future of the race. However, the Grand Prix Association, which owns and promotes the race and the City of Long Beach, signed a new three-year agreement after the 2015 race, with an additional two-year option.

Some trivia:
The driver with the most wins: 6. Al Unser Jr., 1988 - 1991, 1994, 1995.
The team with the most wins: 6.
Newman/Haas Racing. 1984, 1985, 1987, 2005, 2006, 2007.
Chip Ganassi Racing. 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2009, 2015.
Team Penske 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2012, 2016.

Track layout:
The track is a temporary road course and since the 1975 F5000 race, the layout has changed noticeably, from the original. Below are the original and current layouts. However, rather than fill the intro with all the various track changes that have taken place, this link shows them all.

http://www.racingcircuits.info/north...l#.Vw6LfjFI6Fk

Original 1975-1981 layout:
Length: 2.02 miles (3.251 km)
Turns: 13


Current layout:
Length: 1.968 Miles (3.167 Km)
Turns: 11


Lap record: Hélio Castroneves, April 19, 2015. 1:06.6294, 106.331 Mph (171.12 Km/h). Team Penske,

Dallara DW12-Chevrolet, Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's race:
Pole: Hélio Castroneves 1:07.12, 105.547 mph (169.861 km/h). Team Penske, Dallara. DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Winner:
Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Laps: 80
Distance: 157.44 Miles (253.375 Km)
Race Time: 01:33:54
Average Speed: 100.592 mph (161.88 Km/h)
Caution periods: 0

Race Broadcast:
NBCSN. April 17. 4:00pm ET.

[NaBUru38]

Same 21 entries.

Liveries:

o- Penske: Paganaud has yellow Menards; Castroneves has blue / white AAA; Power has grey Verizon; Newgarden has black Hum.
o- Ganassi: Dixon has blue / yellow NTT Data; Kanaan has blue NTT Data; Chilton has blue / white Gllagher; Kimball has black / green Tresiba.
o- Andretti: RHR has yellow / red DHL; Sato has blue and white Panasonic; Rossi has yellow / blue Napa; Andretti has light blue UFD.
o- Rahal: Graham has black / grey MiJack / PennGrade.
o- Carpenter: Hildebrand has white Preferred; Pigot has green Loki.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying:

Apart from Castroneves and Penske, the rest of the Fast Six are all Hondas. The next Chevy is Newgarden in 8th. I couldn't watch Quali, so I have no idea why Pagenaud is 21st.

I'm looking forward this.

1 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m06.2254s
2 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 0.1869s
3 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 0.2147s
4 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda 0.3037s
5 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 0.3341s
6 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 0.5308s
7 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 0.3150s
8 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0.3820s
9 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0.3891s
10 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 0.3968s
11 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 0.4008s
12 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 0.5599s
13 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1.3578s
14 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1.1529s
15 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1.4677s
16 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda 1.1639s
17 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1.5723s
18 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1.2445s
19 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1.6188s
20 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1.3079s
21 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1.8185s

[bjohnsonsmith]

It looks nice at Long Beach, in complete contrast to Shanghai, where it was cold and wet. Hopefully the race will be in complete contrast.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A very clean start until they got past the Fountain and Kimble collected Power and it's the first FCY of the race.

Not too sure what happened to Castroneves, looked like he tried to slow the field and caught himself out.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Staying out that extra lap did the trick for Hinchcliffe. He's now got ahead of RH-R.

[bjohnsonsmith]

2nd FCY of the race, as Rossi's engine gives up. The restart will be interesting.

[gert]

FCY is taking AAAAAGES.

How difficult is it to clean up one single car?

Maybe the safety crew should go and visit the Monaco F1 Grand Prix and learn something from the marshalls there

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by gert

FCY is taking AAAAAGES.

How difficult is it to clean up one single car?

Maybe the safety crew should go and visit the Monaco F1 Grand Prix and learn something from the marshalls there

There was no debris but maybe a lot of oil. Still, it went on for far too long. I just wonder if they did it on purpose, so no one had to pit again for fuel?

[gert]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I just wonder if they did it on purpose, so no one had to pit again for fuel?

That's race-fixing...

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was unfortunate for TK.

[bjohnsonsmith]

3rd FCY as RH-R's Honda gives up the ghost. It looks like the same thing happened to Rossi and Sato. That's all the Andretti cars out.

[gert]

If it takes as long to remove the 28 car as the 98, they might as well throw the finish flag right now.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by gert

If it takes as long to remove the 28 car as the 98, they might as well throw the finish flag right now.

One more caution lap.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to the Mayor. A deserved and popular win. Another win for Honda and another good drive from Bourdais, considering what happened to his car.

[FormulaFox]

7/10; 5 for the race itself +2 for my absolute favorite driver winning.

[NaBUru38]

I'm a bit too old to keep up with so many different pitstop strategies. Or perhaps TV graphics aren't the best to do it.

Anyway, after the last pitstops it got interesting, as cars got bunched up.

And the Golden Bowling Ball goes to... Hildebrand!

[bjohnsonsmith]

It wasn't an exciting race but with the different strategies, it was an absorbing race and more enjoyable than the Chinese GP. My major criticism, was the length of the 2nd and 3rd FCYs.

[MrBloodmuffins]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

It wasn't an exciting race but with the different strategies, it was an absorbing race and more enjoyable than the Chinese GP. My major criticism, was the length of the 2nd and 3rd FCYs.

People present at that section of the track report that the 2nd FCY (the abnormally long one) was because of oil spill from Rossi's car.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by MrBloodmuffins

People present at that section of the track report that the 2nd FCY (the abnormally long one) was because of oil spill from Rossi's car.

At the time, I thought it might be oil. The 3rd was definitely too long. An extra lap might have made the difference to Newgarden catching Bourdais.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Result:
Honda's resurgence continues, after St. Pete and now today, though with the entire Andretti team retiring, that will give some thought for concern.

1 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1h50m28.9818s
2 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1.4940s
3 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2.3160s
4 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 2.7832s
5 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 3.3934s
6 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 5.7951s
7 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 6.9393s
8 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 9.0570s
9 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 9.3403s
10 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 17.8632s
11 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. Contact
12 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1 Lap
13 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1 Lap
14 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1 Lap
15 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1 Lap
16 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1 Lap
17 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. Electrical
18 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. Spun off
19 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. Mechanical
20 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. Spun off
21 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. Contact

[fieldodreams79]

Decent enough race.

Will Power should've known better not to force the issue so early in the race, but he'll never learn that. Granted, it was a racing incident where Charlie thought he was clear into 3, but Will had two chances to avoid it.

As for the long FCY, the commentators said they took extra time on one to clean the track, which I am fine with, to a certain extent. Track will be dirty without it, so I'm also fine with leaving it. I couldn't tell how long was because I didn't watch it live, but fixing? Gimme a break.

Seabass is killing it on the streets.

James was untouchable on restarts, so congrats to the Mayor and America's Hat! Nice to see Hinch back in victory lane and Canada winning LB.

Now, enough of that. 'merica at Barber and Indy, please!