Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Preview

Juan Pablo Montoya in action at Long Beach in 2014. [Joe Jennings Photo]

After the ‘pool party’ that was disguised as an Indy car race in New Orleans last Sunday, the Verizon IndyCar Series heads west to California for, hopefully, a sunnier and drier day as the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach unfolds at the fabled 1.96-mile, 12-turn street course along the downtown waterfront.

After the series’ opening race in St. Petersburg many thought Chevrolet would dominate the competition, capturing seven of the first ten spots as Juan Pablo Montoya led the Bow Tie charge for Penske Racing.

But Honda teams showed that they were better on the soggy NOLA road course in race two, as James Hinchcliffe and James Jakes used opportune pit strategy to finish first and third for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Simona de Silvestro started 18th for Andretti Autosport but was running fifth when she passed Tony Kanaan for fourth and held off Montoya to just miss the podium as the event finished under a caution flag.

So with a confident Chevrolet contingent leading the point’s race and a renewed Honda looking for two-in-a-row, the competition level should be high on the often tight confines of Long Beach.

“We made the (one pit-stop) call because of the weather but it turned out that it was all the cautions (6) that made it work for us,” explained the ‘Mayor of Hinch Town’. “We pulled away from a couple of Penskes on those restarts. If we had stayed green I think we would have held them off to the end as long as we had fuel.”

Indy cars have raced here 31 times prior to Sunday with Honda grabbing six of the top ten spots in 2014 as Mike Conway avoided an early-race, six-car melee to win in Ed Carpenter’s Chevrolet.

The Long Beach racing history began with a F5000 event in 1975, switched to Formula One from 1976-1983 and has presented CART, Champ Car and Indy Car events annually ever since.

Al Unser Jr. has won here six times and Mario (3)/Michael (2) have topped the Andretti-family podium five times.

What to Watch For:
• Will Honda do well on a dry track, or can Chevrolet recapture their St. Petersburg domination?

• Will Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal win a race (any race), and live up to their long-talked-about potential?

• 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay is 13th in series points, one place better than 2014 Verizon champion Scott Dixon. Watch for them to qualify up front to avoid traffic and race-ending crashes back in the pack.

• Will the modifications to the Aero Kits that were mandated by IndyCar to strengthen these devices be enough to avoid a gaggle of cautions to sweep up debris?

LONG BEACH NOTES:
• 23 cars are entered for the GP, with Simona sitting out until the Indy 500.

• Sunday will mark the 275th race for AJ Foyt Racing.

• Six drivers who will run Sunday have won at Long Beach: Sebastien Bourdais (3), Will Power (2), Hunter-Reay, Montoya, Helio Castroneves and Takuma Sato.

• Six penalties were handed out after the NOLA event, the major one being three championship points and a three-race probation to RHR for avoidable contact.

• Tony Kanaan is scheduled to start a series’ record 236th consecutive race on Sunday.

• Race weekend attendance will likely be in the 275-300,000 range.

• Bryan Herta and Robby Gordon will be inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Hall of Fame during weekend ceremonies.

• Chip Ganassi Racing announced that his #8 Chevrolet driver Sage Karam will run 13 series’ races including the Indianapolis 500 while Sebastian Saavedra will take over the wheel at Long Beach, the Indy GP and Sonoma. Bobby Rahal also announced that his RLL team will have a second car for Oriol Servia at the 500.

• Montoya leads the points chase with 84 followed by Castroneves (-10), Power (-14), Hinchcliffe (-19) and Kanaan (-21).

• TV: NBC Sports Network-4:00p.m. (ET), green flag (approx.) 4:37 (ET). Radio: Sirius 213/XM 209.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

Related Posts

• 
  Sebring 2024
• 
  Giuseppe Victorious
• 
  Car or Driver