Long Beach GP – Good time...But...

A bit late and a bit long but here it is.

I've been going to races for years approximately 30...my whole life. Prior to this years Long Beach Grand Prix, I had never been to a temporary street course. Why? Well I live approximately 5 miles from the location of the San Jose Grand Prix, to which I could have taken a short ride on the light rail to the track. Problem is I didn't care to see ChampCar or any other series that was there at the time. In the past I had followed CART a little, but at the time they had a race at Laguna, so why would I travel to Long Beach?

I'm getting married in May, so I needed to figure out something for my bachelor party. In the past my friends and I have rented houseboats on Lake Shasta, been to Vegas and Vancouver, BC. I wanted to try something new and maybe introduce some folks to 'World Class' sports car racing. I thought about making a trip out to Sebring, which would make an excellent bachelor party, but we're already asking our guests to join us in Hawaii for the wedding and thought another multi day trip back east would be a bit much. I've been to the Utah GP the last two years, we could have rented an RV and made a little road trip out of it, which would have been fun. The problem with that is, there is a slight conflict with the wedding and I'm sure my fiance would not approve missing the wedding for the bachelor party. So the only race left a drivable distance away was the Long Beach GP.



My Dad and I made it to Long Beach just after noon on Thursday and prior to the 'close' of the track, so we were able to park down in the Shoreline Village. I decided to bring my Camera and two lenses (70-200 w/ 1.4x and my 17-40 for paddock stuff, the 400 stayed home) in a small pack. The ALMS paddock sure was cozy, some teams had no more than a transporter width to prep their cars in. If the doors of Lou's Vette were open team members were trapped on one side of the car or the other. Other teams seem to have made out like bandits, Dyson had room for two transporters with one with full awning down, 10 to 12 feet of space, and their other transporter. We were able to see the ALMS cars pre-grid and drive by us on their way onto the track, which is always fun. For the first session we started off just before the hairpin shooting towards T10, met another fan photographer who was already positioned to shoot through a hole in the fence. Nice guy chatted a bit about the ALMS and he said I could take his spot after a few laps. I ended up finding a space a bit further down that gave me a bit better access to the apex for the head-on shots I was looking for. I was able to shoot through the fence, through a photographer hole and at the apex of T10. From there, we moved to the outside of the track by the hairpin, where again I was able to shoot through the fences. My dad tried to get up to the photography tower, but militant security guards were already on station. There were a couple other holes in the fence to shoot there, but some not so friendly fan photographers would not give up there spot, pretty rude if you ask me. They would stand in a hole take some shots, do some chimping, and take more shots...whatever. They were there in one hole for nearly the entire session. Then we moved down the front straight, where I thought if I kept the shutter speed slow enough(I tried at 1/45 and 1/15, go big or go home right?) the catch fencing would be blurred away enough to make a descent shot. Next up was some drifting...I've never witnessed such a lame 'motorsports' spectacle in my life. I'm sorry...real drivers try to reduce oversteer and what's with the silly wings and dive planes? They aren't going fast enough for them to work. Then were some other imports that didn't seem to be drifting, but they were taking the racing line either. So I have no idea what they were doing. For the second session we started on the platform above T1 on the inside of the track, Got some shots of the cars turning left on Aquarium. Then I looked down below me to see an empty photographer hole looking at the apex of T1. So I headed down there where I eventually was joined by other fan photographers where we promptly SHARED the hole until a couple pros came by. They were polite and apologized for taking our hole, I told them not to worry about it...it was their job. The pros moved on after a few laps and the four or so fan photographers and I continued to share the hole until the end of the session. From there Dad and I headed to the Yardhouse to grab some beers while waiting for my brother to arrive from San Diego. The Yardhouse has beers on draft from around the world probably over 100, so we proceeded to partake in a couple German pilsners and moved on to Stella. We had some food when my brother got there, then we took off to pick up a buddy from Seattle and head to the hotel to check in. Once we were settled in the hotel we had a few C minuses (Coors Lights) and hit the sack.


We headed to the track early Friday morning to catch the first and only official practice. Started off the practice in the stands on the outside of T10, moved to the hairpin, and finished off down the front straight. I pulled my camera out for about 5 seconds but between all the the Pros and the fans you couldn't get anywhere near the holes I shot through the day prior, so the camera went back in the bag. The four of us made our way down to the T1 area while the open wheel cars paraded around the track. We ended up lounging in the Mai Tai Bar, where the waitresses are easy on the eyes, for a little lunch and some adult beverages. Just after lunch another three more of my buddies made it down to So Cal, being hungry after their drive we all headed to Bubba Gump's so they could get a little lunch and the rest of us had a Bubba Boiler (a beer and a shot). Next up was the ALMS qualifying, so we headed to the stands on the outside of the track near T1, where we could see the cars braking for T1, see a video monitor and hear Hindy over the PA system (very important). I also had my Blackjack smart phone going with LT&S up so I can keep track of the progress. After a pretty good qualifying (any qualifying where the Lizards are on top is good in my book), we headed back for the trolley to retrieve the cars. Once back at the hotel we had a couple coffee pots (exactly 2 C minuses (Coors lights) fit in most hotel coffee pots) and headed out for dinner at Fred's in Huntington Beach. I'm a big fan of Fred's fish tacos if you get a chance try'em out. Two fish tacos, a few Coronas, and a couple shots of tequila, we made our way back to our hotel rooms to crash.


Well after a night having an adult beverage or two we decided not to get up for the short morning warm-up. We made it in time for the Champ Car qualifying, which we watched from the grand stand on the front straight. A couple of my friend, not big race fans, commented how boring it was compared to the ALMS qualifying. I agreed, between the announcer on oxygen (literally...he was hooked up to a machine) and a poor qualifying format, it just wasn't very interesting. The plan was to head for the ALMS paddock to watch the cars pre-gird. Unfortunately we watched the Champ Car Qualifying a bit to long and didn't make it to the ALMS paddock it time, as they went out to their pit stalls one session early. That was a big bummer, it's always fun to take new fans right up to a C6.R as it starts it's engine. So after missing the pre-grid we decided to head to where we were going to watch the race from. I decided I was going to do something I had never done at a race before, stay in one place for the entirety of the race. Why you ask? Well we had a rather large crew, there were people everywhere, and the good spots to watch from were a couple people deep. It would have been hard to keep us all together and have a good view of the race. So we sat in the stands on the inside of T6 were we also had a view of the braking for T1 and that all important view of a big screen. The race was a good one with plenty of action, all of my buddies seemed to enjoy it. After the race we headed back for the hotel to clean up for dinner. Like the night prior we had some drinks, went to dinner in Newport, hit a couple bars, and headed back to the room for a nightcap.

Saturday we reluctantly headed back to the track to watch a little bit of the Champ Car race. The race started around noon or so and went until 3pm. Our GA tickets did not gain us access to any of the stands on Sunday, so that was a bummer. We ended up watching about 45 mins of the race an decided to start our journey back North. Champ Car just doesn't do it for me or any of my friends, big yawner in my opinion.


Overall Thoughts:
Well I'm glad I got the opportunity to go, we had a really good time. I think the biggest question would be...will I go back? The last two year my dad and I road tripped to Utah, where we had a much better 'sports car' experience. The ALMS is a little to second class citizen at Long Beach for me. I'd rather drive the 12 hours to SLC and see a proper track than 6 to see Long Beach. Part of the fun for me is taking pictures, which is nearly impossible at a place like Long Beach with all of the catch fencing. Long Beach is a decent racing experience, plenty of fun was had, but more because I was with a bunch of good friends than the actual racing. The ALMS race was good, very good, it was cool being there...but the race is only part of the reason I like attending ALMS events.