{"id":232641,"date":"2026-03-23T14:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T14:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T14:54:18","slug":"long-beach-grand-prix-ceo-jim-michaelian-dies-at-83-weeks-before-race-long-beach-post-news-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232641\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Grand Prix CEO Jim Michaelian dies at 83, weeks before race \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Grand Prix Association of Long Beach president and CEO Jim Michaelian died today, just four weeks before the street race was scheduled to roar again along the city\u2019s shoreline, association officials said. It was to be the last race he would oversee before <a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/longtime-ceo-of-long-beach-grand-prix-will-step-down-in-july\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">passing the reins<\/a> to incoming CEO Jim Liaw.<\/p>\n<p>Michaelian was 83. His cause of death was not released.<\/p>\n<p>Michaelian wore increasingly larger hats during the past 51 years of the annual race, serving first as the Grand Prix Association\u2019s controller, chief operating officer and then being named president and CEO in December 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJim didn\u2019t just lead the Grand Prix\u2014he lived it,\u201d Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement. \u201dHis passion, warmth, and dedication turned an event into a tradition, and a tradition into a source of pride for generations of Long Beach residents. Under his leadership, the Grand Prix became a global event and a defining part of Long Beach\u2019s identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/17110512\/0217-Prix-0.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1110\" height=\"701\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0217-Prix-0-1110x701.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-141631\"  \/><\/a>Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President and CEO Jim Michaelian and IndyCar driver Oriol Servia stand on the racetrack ahead of the 2022 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in Long Beach, Thursday, Feb.17, 2022. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n<p>The race has had multiple sponsors, the most recent is Acura.<\/p>\n<p>Michaelian graduated from UCLA with a BS in Physics and an MBA. He was a competitive sports car racer for more than 25 years and competed in endurance events at tracks including Le Mans, Daytona, N\u00fcrburgring, Dubai and Sebring.<\/p>\n<p>Penske Entertainment acquired the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach in November 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Penske Corporation chairman Roger Penske reflected on Michaelian\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJim was a leader of a small, passionate group who believed in the concept of bringing elite open-wheel competition to Long Beach in the 1970s, worked tirelessly to make it happen despite steep odds and then helped nurture the Grand Prix of Long Beach into becoming America\u2019s premier street race,\u201d Penske said. \u201cHis vision and energy surrounding this great event remained boundless for 50 years, as no task was too small for Jim even while he served in numerous leadership roles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michaelian is survived by his wife, Mary, and 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 said in a statement. \u201cHe especially treasured the time he spent with his two boys, creating memories that will be carried forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grand Prix Association of Long Beach president and CEO Jim Michaelian died today, just four weeks before the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-232641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232641","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=232641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}