Expand<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cLike everyone else, I was shocked when I heard that Jim had passed away,\u201d Liaw said last week from the Grand Prix offices in Long Beach. \u201cHe was a close friend and will be greatly missed.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was announced in January that Michaelian, the high-profile leader of the Grand Prix for the past quarter century, would run this year\u2019s 51st race and then retire on June 30, to be succeeded by Liaw, the former general manager of Performance Racing Industry, which hosts the largest annual motorsports trade show in the world.<\/p>\n
Since that announcement, Liaw said he was busy with Michaelian going over the operation of this year\u2019s race, which has become the single most popular event in Long Beach history, with thousands attending the race weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to learn as much as I could from Jim,\u201d Liaw said. \u201cWe went over everything from operations to reaching out into the community to promote the race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liaw said he has a big job to do in filling Michaelian\u2019s shoes, but also added that his predecessor had built a strong staff to operate the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very fortunate to have that staff to lean on and learn from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Liaw is just the third president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, succeeding Michaelian and Chris Pook, who founded the race in 1975.<\/p>\n
Liaw first met Michaelian in 2005 when Formula Drift, which Liaw had cofounded with Ryan Sage, introduced its invitational Super Drift Challenge at theGrand Prix of Long Beach and became a popular fixture at the race. Michaelian had previously said Liaw was his first choice to succeed him.<\/p>\n
Liaw, 50, is no stranger to the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Press-Telegram reporter Christina Merino in January, Liaw said the Grand Prix of Long Beach was the first major motorsports race he attended nearly 30 years ago. He still remembered how loud it was when the cars raced by at more than 100 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could hear the difference between the engines of the different cars, and the sound bouncing off the pedestrian walkway,\u201d Liaw said. \u201cIt was such a first-time, visceral experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liaw was born in Taiwan in 1975, the first year of the Grand Prix. His family immigrated to the United States when he was 6 years old and settled in Diamond Bar. His father was in the transporting\/exporting business, and his mother was a bookkeeper.<\/p>\n
His parents live in Santa Fe Springs and will attend the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this year \u2014 for the first time.<\/p>\n
When he\u2019s not working, Liaw enjoys spending time at home in Huntington Beach with his family, his wife, Angela, and their daughters, Katelyn and Olivia.<\/p>\n
Liaw said he had a love for cars, \u201clike any kid,\u201d before he could drive, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t think I would have a career in automotive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He graduated from UCLA with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Asian American studies, but he told me last week, \u201cI really didn\u2019t have a clue on what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
That started to change when he took an internship with an automotive publishing company, which printed magazines about different types of automotive culture. His love of cars came to the surface.<\/p>\n
He went on to work at different event companies and eventually started his own marketing agency with his business partner, Sage. That led them to cofound Formula Drift, which they turned into a premier drifting series and a fixture at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.<\/p>\n
Then, Liaw became general manager of Performance Racing Industry, an organization that supports and advocates for racers, builders, tracks, enthusiasts, sanctioning bodies and businesses.<\/p>\n
When Penske Entertainment, the new owner of the Grand Prix, was looking for someone to succeed Michaelian, the longtime association leader asked Liaw if he wanted to be on a short list of people interested in the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said yes and Jim recommended me,\u201d Liaw said. \u201cIt was a humbling experience to be selected and a great opportunity. The Long Beach Grand Prix is so successful with so much history and tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liaw said, in his new job, he will always be striking a balance honoring the Grand Prix\u2019s history and tradition while looking for new ways to grow the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to honor the legacy of Jim Michaelian and what he stood for,\u201d Liaw said. \u201cHe\u2019s not here now, but I learned so much from him, and I will use that knowledge in making the Long Beach Grand Prix even stronger and more accessible to more people. Jim is gone but he will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Liaw will run this year\u2019s Grand Prix of Long Beach with a heavy heart. Liaw will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,28942,133,132,100],"class_list":["post-265670","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265670","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=265670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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