{"id":230844,"date":"2026-03-22T04:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230844\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T04:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:13:12","slug":"long-beach-grand-prix-co-founder-jim-michaelian-dead-at-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230844\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Grand Prix co-founder Jim Michaelian dead at 83"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17280fe6ecb22179a4c5a97db600cbfb.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Long Beach Grand Prix CEO, Jim Michaelian, who <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/long-beach-grand-prix-co-184019394.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:continued racing cars into his 80s;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;continued racing cars into his 80s&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">continued racing cars into his 80s<\/a>, died Saturday at the age of 83, the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach announced.<\/p>\n<p>Michaelian was one of the founding staff members of the annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and served as CEO since 2001. During his tenure, Long Beach\u2019s Acura Grand Prix grew into one of the most popular street races in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Michaelian graduated UCLA with a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics and a master\u2019s degree in business administration. He was also a competitive sports car driver with 25 years of experience competing in endurance races around the world, including races at Le Mans, Daytona, N\u00fcrburgring, Spa, Watkins Glen, Dubai and Sebring.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ktla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/04\/snapshot-3-14.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"Jim Michaelian\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17280fe6ecb22179a4c5a97db600cbfb.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach President &amp; CEO Jim Michaelian passed away on March 21, 2026. (Jim Michaelian)<\/p>\n<p>Michaelian is survived by his wife Mary, and his sons Bob and Mike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA loving and devoted husband, nothing meant more to Jim than his family,\u201d the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach said in a statement Saturday. \u201cHe especially treasured the time he spent with his two boys, creating memories that will be carried forever. One of the ways he brought everyone together was through Sunday family dinners, which became a cherished tradition. Around that table were lively and passionate discussions about motorsports, finance, and politics \u2013 topics Jim loved and brought to life with insight and enthusiasm. He was an avid reader, a thoughtful man, and someone people naturally turned to for advice and guidance. But more than anything, Jim was someone who led by example. Through his actions, his values, and the way he cared for others, he left a lasting impression on everyone fortunate enough to know him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ktla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach Grand Prix CEO, Jim Michaelian, who continued racing cars into his 80s, died Saturday at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[104717,68912,131,28942,133,132,104718],"class_list":["post-230844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-grand-prix-association","tag-jim-michaelian","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-grand-prix","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-watkins-glen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230844","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=230844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}