479 replies to this topic

[Risil]

 

Verizon Indycar Series Round 2 of 18: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

 

Straight southa Compton

Hello Indycar racing fans! After the Malaysian non-GP Formula One was a terrible travesty of a racing show and Indycar pretty much by default commanded the soaring heights of motoring Olympus. It was fun while it lasted! Anyway it doesn't matter because They're (the Formula One fans) are going (vicariously) to grey old Shanghai and We're (the Indycar fans) are going (vicariously) to SUNNY CALIFORNIA.

 

Yes! California! Birthplace of Richard Nixon and Apple Computers, and the setting for many Hollywood films. It's also home to Long Beach, a delightful mix of sun, sea, hairpins and formerly porno.

 

It's time for some statistics

Anagram: Can he blog

Track length: 1.968 miles

Turns: 11

Fountains: 1

Airports: 0

Who won last year: Takuma Sato

Who's going to win this year: Will Power

Who I'd like to win this year: Sebastien Bourdais

Who you should say will win so you look cool in front of your Indycar-watching hipster friends in the universe where people care about Indycars: Mike Conway

 

Who or what is a Michelob?

 

Tell me when I need to watch

On Sunday watch the MotoGP. Then frantically come on here and ask for a stream for the Indycar because it's starting in half an hour and oh my God it's NASCAR at Darlington no that was on last night you IDIOT.

 

If you're an experienced race watcher you'll probably be able to interpret this baffling chart:

 

Friday, 11 April

07:40: United Sportscar practice 1

10:00: Indycar practice 1

12:15: Indy Lights practice 1

14:00: Indycar practice 2

16:00: Pirelli World Challenge practice 1

17:00: United Sportscar qualifying

 

(Have you noticed something unusual yet? This actually looks like an event you might want to go to.)

 

Saturday, 12 April

07:45: Indy Lights practice 2

10:00: Indycar practice 3

11:00: Indy Lights practice 3 (I don't think they really need all those practice sessions)

12:00: 200th annual Long Beach Pro/Celebrity Race

13:15: Indycar qualifying

15:05: United Sportscar race (100 minutes/5 green flag laps)

17:15: Pirelli World Challenge qualifying

19:00: Drifting

 

Sunday, 13 April

07:20: Stadium Super Trucks qualifying

08:00: Pirelli World Challenge warm-up

09:00: Indycar warm-up

10:15: Indy Lights race

12:00: Stadium Super Trucks race

13:50: Indycar racing around Long Beach for 80 laps give or take one or two aborted standing starts

16:30: Pirelli World Challenge Race

 

What happened last time?

You mean aside from this?

 

Plenty of things, provided you were treating it like a normal race, which is to say not like an Indycar street race. Guiltless Will Power made a tough pass for the win on Takuma Sato, the quietness of whose dropping-back was as unexpected as the quietness of Simon Pagenaud's dropping-forward was expected. Helio Castroneves put a second Penske on the podium, proving once again that he's the anti-Coulthard: this year is widely predicted to be his last year, and he always surpasses expectations without seeming to win much. So not entirely the anti-Coulthard then.

 

On the support bill

Some sports cars, which are undergoing a revival of sorts. The new-for-14 United Sportscar Series has replaced the theoretical confusion of the ALMS/Grand-Am days with the real-life confusion of what it's like to be run by NASCAR's back office. If anyone's memory goes back as far as 2009 then I heartily recommend they consult the specific memoroids that deal with that year in AMA Superbike history. Cos there's the biggest parallel there since Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon hung up their plumb-bobs.

 

And then there's Pirelli World Challenge, which is like British Touring Cars as imagined by Scrooge McDuck. Instead of hard-fought and performance-massaged racing with identifiable and affordable cars, it's hard-fought and performance-massaged racing with cars that are identifiable in the sense that you probably live in the same city or country as one of their owners. You can also refer to it by its alternate name, "I did wonder what Tomas Enge was doing now".

 

In memoriam

 

http://youtu.be/Np3ZUoXkEbM

[Marc Sproule]

here's my contribution to this thread.......

 

my long beach set on flickr.....

 

https://www.flickr.c...57633205413569/

 

all my sets......

 

https://www.flickr.c...81980@N03/sets/

 

ps

you best hope that no one translates your thread title

 

 

pps

 

i drank my first michelob somewhere in the '60s. it was a proper german beer then. very tasty.

 

and then it changed to make it more palatable to 'mericans.

 

haven't had one since.

Edited by Marc Sproule, 10 April 2014 - 01:17.

[Afterburner]

Aaaand I'll be away this weekend flagging a time trials event in Alabama, so I won't be around to watch any of these live. Surely you guys will miss my much-vaunted contributions. Looking forward to a DVR-based marathon when I get back.

Great opening post, Risil.

[Cacarella]

Mike Conway's gonna kill this one.

[jonpollak]

¡¡¡Aye Carumba !!!
I was at that Led Zep show in '75.
Shortly after we arrived at the arena my girlfriend Diane was given a backstage pass.
I never saw her again.
It was a Great Show though and as it happened I 'found' another girlfriend about 20 minutes after the gig.
She was sporting a backstage pass too and we sat in the parking lot drinking MICHELOB beer in her brothers Chevy Van. Bro arrived and went mental on her ass because there was only 1 beer left.
Little did I know that 5 months later I'd be sitting in the very same parking lot drinking the very same MICHELOB beer during the inaugural Formula 5000 race!!!
 
I went to about 10 races there and took loads of pictures..And wouldn't ya know I can't find ANY of them.
I blame MICHELOB.

 
I DO however remember, as plain as day, the 1979 race where Gilles spun my head around like no one ever had before. Qualifying was a 2 day affair back then and by the end of those sessions we all had to scrape our jaws off the tops of our shoes. Never in my life had I seen such wild and crazy driving. Come race day we positioned ourselves along the climb up to Ocean Blvd. When he launched it over a lapped Shadow half way through the race the gathered race fans stood and looked at each other with amazement and incredulity.(Mark Sproule: You must have been standing RIGHT NEXT TO ME!!) In 1980 I mistook a portion of the rules for an edict forced upon race attendees and left my current girlfriend at home due to the ban on 'skirts'.(well..that's what I told her)
 
Fast Forward to the CART Era where I shuffled between official Team Green floppy hat roadie to rock star minder.
 
But enough tired ass reminiscence.
 
I'll be in Perth during the race and unless there's a bar open at 4 am Western OZ time it's gonna be Nigerian on bull$hit, overpriced hotel internet for me.
 
Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 10 April 2014 - 03:20.

[teejay]

Just talking my mate who is into motorsport, discussing motorsport, and indycar, he didn't know anything about the series or it racing this weekend, but when I told him Mike Conway was going to win, he told me I was a cool dude.

 

He then got on his fixie bike, brushed his beard, and rode home.

[paulb]

Zeppelin and LBGP in the same post, head explodes!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm going Friday.  My goal is to get Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato to sign my copy of "J" magazine that has both of them on the cover.  J magazine was a publication of the Jordan Grand Prix fan club, loaded with fast Eddie J yellow stuff.  I am giddy like a middle-aged kid at the prospect of meeting Fisi.  I also have the flyer Jordan made commemorating Fisi's historic win in Brazil.

 

It promises to be an epic weekend of racing. #nomichelobforme

[paulb]

here's my contribution to this thread.......

 

my long beach set on flickr.....

 

https://www.flickr.c...57633205413569/

 

.

Marc, those pictures gave me goosebumps.  How I wish I could turn back the clock and be there again for the F1 / Pine Avenue / Ocean / Linden days. 

[Marc Sproule]

Marc, those pictures gave me goosebumps.  How I wish I could turn back the clock and be there again for the F1 / Pine Avenue / Ocean / Linden days. 

 

talking to a friend this evening, discussing some of the things i had seen at lb.

 

one of the most amusing was the first or second year of f1 there. i was standing drivers' right on linden, just down the hill from where i shot  the one of gilles, when i noticed the cbs camera was pointing where i was standing. all the photographers were facing with their backs to the track.

 

turned around to see what the attraction was. a young couple dressed in virtually nothing were performing various acts that were perhaps their version of the lbgp kama sutra on the balcony of the apt. building just a few feet from us.

 

of course i didn't take any pictures. oh no. not me. yeah right

 

 

when i got into the press room after the session the place was buzzing. a number of people told me i shoulda been there during the session 'cuz the cbs guy had been shooting it and it was on the press room feed.

 

told'em that i had at least as good of a view as he did.

 

Edited by Marc Sproule, 10 April 2014 - 05:25.

[teejay]

Marc - amazing pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

I wasn't born when most of that happened, so its awesome to see high quality pics.

 

....

.......

 

p.s any pics of the couple

[jcbc3]

[whitewaterMkII]

Don't worry, you'll get pics.

WWmkII will be there with live shots, and Hope will get 'em up, since I'm a tech tard.

Man, do I feel as old a fvck as Marc and JP, probably because I am.

Was also at the zep show under the influence of the best chemistry CalTech could provide in those days,so my memory doesn't involve chix, just buzzin' to a great band, with lots of weird colors and sh*t.

I too lived at the bottom of Linden's Leap, still do actually, have the same seat we had then, although it's not a leap and it's no longer T1.

Marc, got shots of Piquet stuffing it down there? Dude got of the car and proceeded to tell us all standing there what lines everyone was trying and why. Prime stuff.

Great OP Risil, although there should of been more emphasis on the carnage the celebrity race provides.

I love seeing 15 or so dealer owned cars trashed, the bistards, and some racecraft straight from the crib by the celebs. Freakin' hilarious, every year.

Anyone here that is going, I'll stand ya a frosty, PM me and I'll provide the info. WWmkII has a beer stand less than 50' away...of coooourse.

[PayasYouRace]

 

Who or what is a Michelob?

 

 

I think it's an overhand version of the Michelin.

[PayasYouRace]

here's my contribution to this thread.......

 

my long beach set on flickr.....

 

https://www.flickr.c...57633205413569/

 

 

 

Can't access these at work I'll have to wait.

[LuckyStrike1]

here's my contribution to this thread.......

 

my long beach set on flickr.....

 

https://www.flickr.c...57633205413569/

 

 

 

 

Great photos!!! 

[Risil]

there should of been more emphasis on the carnage the celebrity race provides.

I love seeing 15 or so dealer owned cars trashed, the bistards, and some racecraft straight from the crib by the celebs. Freakin' hilarious, every year.

 

It's a highlight of the year, no doubt, although so far USC has been rivalling it for carnage and crib-level racecraft.

 

I remember in the '90s that Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air had this Unser-like streak going, but I realised a couple of years ago that I don't recognise any of the slebs anymore.

[whitewaterMkII]

It's a highlight of the year, no doubt, although so far USC has been rivalling it for carnage and crib-level racecraft.

 

I remember in the '90s that Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air had this Unser-like streak going, but I realised a couple of years ago that I don't recognise any of the slebs anymore.

My highlights also are from the days when they actually had 'celebrities' instead of obscure tv stars like when Ted Nugent was wreaking havoc, or Donnie Osmond on his lid. 

I believe Robby Gordon is running in that truck thing this weekend, it would be great to see him in the pro/celeb race seeing red and mowing down some raw rookies...heh

[Prost1997T]

ESPN UK won't be showing it live (6am Monday morning).

Edited by Prost1997T, 10 April 2014 - 09:00.

[Peat]

Where are you getting that info? My Sky guide still says '9:30pm Live: Verizon IndyCar Series'

[Haribo]

I had to LOL at the United Sportscar 100 minutes / 5 laps of green thing

 

Hopefully the United Sportscar race will not involve random cautions, ******** moves by LMPC drivers (there aren't any LMPC cars), or dumb-asses penalising the wrong car for causing collisions

 

I missed the first IndyCar race so will PAY NOW to see this once hopefully

[krapmeister]

...I'll be in Perth during the race and unless there's a bar open at 4 am Western OZ time it's gonna be Nigerian on bull$hit, overpriced hotel internet for me.
 
Jp

Jp

Might be worth trying the Carbon sports bar at the Perth Crown Casino?

[SinStorm]

Any gamers in here? If so Long Beach is FREE to download on Forza 5 today!!! (sorry for OT, Sophie).

[Vitesse2]

ESPN UK won't be showing it live (6am Monday morning).

According to both the BT and Sky website listings it's live on ESPN at 2130. So the Sky EPG listing for baseball must be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time the EPG listings bore no relation to reality!

[Prost1997T]

Where are you getting that info? My Sky guide still says '9:30pm Live: Verizon IndyCar Series'

 

bt.com must have been incorrect when I checked it then.

[jonpollak]

Sin: nothing's OT here...
Or have you not noticed?
Jp
PS:
Krap, do you mean Burswood?

Edited by jonpollak, 10 April 2014 - 10:56.

[Ross Stonefeld]

I'd like to take this moment to congratulate JP on his contributions to the developing world. After recalculating its GDP to include film and telecoms, Nigeria's economy has nearly doubled.

[krapmeister]

Krap, do you mean Burswood?

Ah yep - the Crown casino in Burswood

[DampMongoose]

 

Who or what is a Michelob?

 

 

 

I'm not sure if i'm right, but isn't it a type of beer brewed by the First Lady? 

[PayasYouRace]

Any gamers in here? If so Long Beach is FREE to download on Forza 5 today!!! (sorry for OT, Sophie).

 

You'll have to try a lot harder than that to be OT in an Indycar thread.

 

I haven't made the jump to XBone yet, but I have seen that news.

[Sheepmachine]

Woo!! Indycar fom long beach. After the enjoyable first round I am hoping to watch this one also. (Although I got a warning for watching it live last time from family.) Maybe I can make my family from barely any intrest, to, OMG I have to watch it! In 3 days. Stealth watching or catching the repeat is the more likely option.

Great Op by the way.

Edited by Sheepmachine, 10 April 2014 - 12:44.

[Andrew Hope]

♥ Long Beach ♥

 

Edited by Andrew Hope, 10 April 2014 - 13:46.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Today in my YouTube recommends

 

[stewie]

Today in my YouTube recommends

 

Wasn't this the race Zandari won even though he was last at some point?

 

Similar situation in 2012:

 

http://youtu.be/oIGyuf8OVOk?t=2h20m30s

[Prost1997T]

Barrichello seemed to brake a little harder than was necessary given the group of cars right behind him (although Castroneves was penalised which dropped him to 13th).

Edited by Prost1997T, 10 April 2014 - 14:23.

[B Squared]

♥ Long Beach ♥

 

1982. The only year I made it to Long Beach - Gilles was third at the end, then DQ'ed for this wing configuration. A month later, he was gone.

[Jimisgod]

 

 

1977

 

 

1979

[OvDrone]

*wondering where Tomas Enge is -

 

Awesome OP dude, as usual. The 100 minutes / 5 green laps USC race will be hillarious. I except shenanigans after the shenanigans at Daytona and Sebring.

 

Mike Conway for the win, yes. It's sad that I just recently shaved my beard and 'stache. It needed to be done. For the next one to be better. Like a field is set on fire, for the next to be more abundant. Such is life.

 

I'd be happy too, if Willpower or that loveable mayor guy win. I'll even tolerate a satoooooo win.

 

So many races this god damn weekend. - Long Beach x 2, Darlington, COTA, WTCC and I know there are some more. Wrote it down in my agenda. So I better figure out my internet in my new place or I'll DIE.

[paulb]

It's a highlight of the year, no doubt, although so far USC has been rivalling it for carnage and crib-level racecraft.

 

I remember in the '90s that Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air had this Unser-like streak going, but I realised a couple of years ago that I don't recognise any of the slebs anymore.

For me, there is one king of the Pro-Celeb bodywork demonstration, the Nuge, winner in 1983. The cars would look different after every lap.

 

[whitewaterMkII]

For me, there is one king of the Pro-Celeb bodywork demonstration, the Nuge, winner in 1983. The cars would look different after every lap.

 

 

 

The only winner that was never invited back...with reason. Hee had definitely learned the art of the chrome....errr, pass from Dale Earnhardt,Sr.

[Myrvold]

*wondering where Tomas Enge is -

Isn't he currently serving his second "illegal substance ban". I think so.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Is he?

 

He was racing a Lamborghini GT car at St Petersburg two weeks ago.

[anbeck]

I'll stick my head out: not only will Power win Long Beach, not only will he also win the title this year: he's even going to win the Indy 500!

[PayasYouRace]

Well done anbeck. He'll never win anything again now.

[otbevo]

Best thread title I've seen in quite awhile... looking forward to this race though!  Beautiful pictures as well!

[Fulcrum]

SST also racing this weekend

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=wJEKSMB3BJM

[jonpollak]

talking to a friend this evening, discussing some of the things i had seen at lb.
 
one of the most amusing was the first or second year of f1 there. i was standing drivers' right on linden, just down the hill from where i shot  the one of gilles, when i noticed the cbs camera was pointing where i was standing. all the photographers were facing with their backs to the track.
 
turned around to see what the attraction was. a young couple dressed in virtually nothing were performing various acts that were perhaps their version of the lbgp kama sutra on the balcony of the apt. building just a few feet from us.
 
of course i didn't take any pictures. oh no. not me. yeah right
 

 

 

OOOOHHH..Look what I found !!!

Jp

[4MEN]

Hijo de puta? I don't get it.

[jonpollak]

Dario,Chip,Dixie and Rick Mears a few minutes ago

Thanks to Bruce Martin for this snapshot.

 

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 11 April 2014 - 01:06.

[Andrew Hope]

Nothing all that good in the spotter guide but here it is anyway.

[prommer]

We have an added Servia, at least.