{"id":272654,"date":"2026-04-17T14:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272654\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:29:13","slug":"thunder-thursday-kicks-off-grand-prix-weekend-with-a-roar-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272654\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Thursday kicks off Grand Prix weekend with a roar \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crowds packed into the Pike Outlets in downtown Long Beach yesterday evening for the free motocross and car show that marks the beginning of Grand Prix weekend every year: Thunder Thursday.<\/p>\n

Already, the area has transformed into 1.97 miles of track that, on Sunday, will belong to the world\u2019s best IndyCar racers as about 200,000 fans watch them during the 51st annual Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Last night, families, fans and revelers got a taste of the high-energy fun with motocross stunt shows, exhibition races, classic car displays and pit crew competitions.<\/p>\n

See the full weekend event schedule here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A motocross rider flies through the air as part of the stunt show at Thunder Thursday, the free event that kicks off Long Beach Grand Prix weekend, at The Pike Outlets in Long Beach on April 16, 2026. Photo by Justin Enriquez.
\n\"\"<\/a>Christian Rasmussen sits in his IndyCar as his crew prepares the vehicle to race in the Thunder Thursday event in Long Beach on April 16, 2026. Photo by Justin Enriquez
\n\"\"<\/a>Audiences watch the race from the bleachers for the Thunder Thursday event by The Pike Outlets, Long Beach on April 16, 2026. Photo by Justin Enriquez
\n\"\"<\/a>Audiences used their phones to record the final race for the Thunder Thursday event on Shoreline Drive by The Pike Outlets, in Long Beach, April 16, 2026. Photo by Justin Enriquez
\n\"\"<\/a>Marcus Ericsson driving the purple and black IndyCar races against Rinus Veekay driving the blue and white car race on Shoreline Drive inLong Beach on Thursday, April 16, 2026. Photo by Justin Enriquez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowds packed into the Pike Outlets in downtown Long Beach yesterday evening for the free motocross and car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-272654","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\/272654","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=272654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}