Expand<\/a><\/p>\nInstead of driving a car to a key meeting in 1975 to hear about a proposal to start a Formula 1 grand prix race on Long Beach streets, in fact, Michaelian, then 32, rode a bicycle. It\u2019s not that he didn\u2019t want to drive a car to the meeting at the Port of Long Beach. He couldn\u2019t \u2014 his license had been suspended because of the speeding tickets.<\/p>\n
But nothing was going to keep him from hearing about this race, which some people were calling \u201ca crazy idea\u201d of Chris Pook, an Englishman who had come to the United States and was running a travel agency in downtown Long Beach.<\/p>\n
In a book by Gordon Kirby, \u201cChris Pook & the History of the Long Beach GP,\u201d Pook rode up with two colleagues in an elevator to the sixth floor of the port building for a meeting of the Coastal Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were joined at the last minute by a short man with long dark hair,\u201d Kirby wrote. \u201cHe arrived on his bicycle and stood it up on its rear wheel as he joined them in the elevator.\u201d<\/p>\n
That man with a bike was Michaelian, who didn\u2019t know Pook then, but he interviewed with him two days later. He asked Pook if there was anything he could do to help the race project move forward.<\/p>\n
Michaelian had a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics and a master\u2019s degree in business administration. It was a time when many young men were going into engineering because of the U.S. space race with Russia, which had launched Sputnik. Michaelian decided he wasn\u2019t cut out to save the world as a space engineer. So he tried different jobs, including working for a motor supplier and operating some bookstores.<\/p>\n
Nothing really interested him until he heard about Pook\u2019s Grand Prix proposal. Pook was looking for a chief financial officer to manage the financial operations of the hoped-for first Grand Prix race.<\/p>\n
Pook told me in an interview on Thursday, Jan. 15, that he explained the risk to Michaelian and that he couldn\u2019t be paid for 120 days because of lack of money.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he was enthusiastic and said that was OK,\u201d Pook said.\u00a0 \u201cIt turned out to be a perfect fit. He was 32 and did a helluva job when we had financial problems. He was a hard worker and did an excellent job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaelian eventually became CEO and president of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach in 2001, when Pook left to take a racing job in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
And Michaelian has been the face \u2014 and heart \u2014 of the Grand Prix of Long Beach ever since.<\/p>\n
Last year, Michaelian celebrated the 50th anniversary of the race, now the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. It was announced Thursday that Michaelian will step down from his role after this year\u2019s race. He will transition into a new role with Penske Entertainment, which acquired the Long Beach street race in November 2024. He will be succeeded by Jim Liaw, the former general manager of Performance Racing Industry.<\/p>\n
Michaelian said he will be available to Penske for any projects they would like him to handle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have a lot more to give to this sport,\u201d he said in a Thursday interview. \u201cI\u2019m not walking away from Long Beach. I\u2019m just transitioning to a new role and feel very comfortable with it. If I have a legacy, it is the fact that the Long Beach Grand Prix has become an integral part of the fabric of the community due to the efforts of Chris Pook and others, up to the great staff members we have today.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back, the race changed the image of Long Beach,\u201d Michaelian added. \u201cBack then, as a Navy town, it was in the shadow of Los Angeles. The Grand Prix created a new vitality in the city, which has grown where we had over 200,000 attendants last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaelian is proud of this great race and the fact that the three-day event has also become an entertaining weekend for families, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to provide an exciting racing event,\u201d he said, \u201cand one that was also entertaining and safe for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don Rodriguez, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach, thanked Michaelian for his role with King Taco, which has provided 1,000 tickets for kids to attend the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kids never would have been able to see this race without those tickets,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cJim and King Taco deserve great credit for helping thousands of kids and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaelian said some of his favorite moments in the past 50 years included:<\/p>\n
Mario Andretti winning the race in 1977.\u00a0 \u201cThat changed the perception that this was no longer a struggling race,\u201d he said, \u201cand put us on the map worldwide.\u201d
\nMoving from Formula 1 cars to IndyCars in 1984, which solved a lot of financial issues.
\nComing back with races in September 2021 and April 2022 after having to cancel in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. \u201cThat was remarkable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The early years, meanwhile, were tough financially \u2014 but were also enjoyable because of people like Pook and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were very big obstacles before us back then, but we found ways to remove them and make this whole thing work,\u201d Michaelian said. \u201cThere was always a spirit that we were not going to be defeated.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the future, Michaelian said he feels good physically at 82 and will be celebrate his 83rd birthday in early February.<\/p>\n
And while Michaelian will soon leave his leadership role at the Grand Prix behind, he won\u2019t vanish from the motorsports world \u2014 and may, in fact, do a bit of racing himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a genuine thrill to have this opportunity I\u2019ve had,\u201d Michaelian said. \u201cIt was the opportunity of a lifetime. I have no regrets. You don\u2019t do something for 50 plus years and not love doing it, but there is an inevitability in life as you grow older. I\u2019ve dealt with the Big C (cancer) in losing my right eye and continue to do my regular checks.<\/p>\n
But, yes, I would like to continue to do some competitive racing myself, too,\u201d he added. \u201cI love racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And largely because of Michaelian, so does Long Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Michaelian has had a passion for auto racing long before he became the president and CEO of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,28942,133,132,100,741],"class_list":["post-135451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-grand-prix","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-news","tag-rich-archbold-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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