O\u2019Ward is a Mexican driver who has become a popular driver<\/a>, particularly in Long Beach, even though is best finish at IndyCar\u2019s second-most prestigious race is fifth \u2014 in six attempts.<\/p>\nRounding out the top six in Saturday\u2019s qualifying session were defending champ Kirkwood in fourth, American David Malukas in fifth and Scott Dixon of New Zealand in sixth.<\/p>\n
Two other popular drivers \u2014 Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi, both Americans \u2014 failed to advance to the second round of qualifying, let alone the final round, known as the Firestone Fast 6. Newgarden won the Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2022, while Rossi won the race in both 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n
Neither Rosenqvist nor Palou has ever won the Grand Prix of Long Beach \u2014 though the latter was the runner-up in 2025.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s Grand Prix, the event\u2019s 50th anniversary, broke attendance records for the third year running,\u00a0with around 197,000 flocking to Long Beach\u00a0from all over the region to enjoy the golden anniversary.<\/p>\n
And that trend seems to be sticking for the 2026 iteration of the event \u2014 with thousands descending on the Long Beach waterfront to enjoy Day 1 and Day 2 of the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
The fans at the Grand Prix on Friday warmed up for the main event by watching practice and qualifying for the Porsche Carrera Cup, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships, Super Stadium Trucks, and the historic sports car exhibition.<\/p>\n
And on Saturday, the real fun began, with the first Historic Sports Car Challenge and Stadium SUPER Trucks Race, and two drifting challenges getting underway. The marquee race on Saturday, however, was the IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Renger Van Der Zande (from the Netherlands) and Nick Yelloly (United Kingdom), in the No. 93 car, won the IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix in the GTP class, making them and their Acura Meyer Shank Racing the overall winners.<\/p>\n
In the lower GTD class, Americans Benjamin Pedersen and Aaron Telitz, with Vasser Sullivan Racing, came out on top in their No. 12 Lexus.<\/p>\n
Besides\u00a0 all the races, however, Grand Prix attendees also had plenty else to do off the track \u2014 whether that was exploring a special exhibit celebrating Acura\u2019s 40th anniversary in the Lifestyle Expo, heading over to Pit Lane hoping for a chance to get an up close look at some of the cars, or sampling the myriad food and drink options at the event.<\/p>\n
While some attendees stuck to the usual viewing spots, like the grandstands, others flocked to less-obvious locations, like the middle levels of the parking garage near the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center that directly abuts the Seaside Way portion of the street circuit \u2014 offering onlookers a perfect (and less-crowded) location to watch the various vehicles as they sped toward Turn 9.<\/p>\n
Sunday also boasts a new addition to the Grand Prix: A\u00a0\u201cCARnival\u201d produced and operated by Morning Car Club.<\/p>\n
That event will feature a full paddock with a curated lineup of vehicles specifically chosen for their quality, design and presence, the GPALB said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is exactly the kind of high-energy, enthusiast-driven experience that complements our event so well,\u201d Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President and CEO Liaw said on Saturday. \u201cMornings has built something truly special within the automotive community, and their CARnival will add even more excitement, personality and fan engagement to an action-packed weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
But all those activities are simply warm-ups for the main event, with the majority of fans in attendance on Sunday just waiting to hear that iconic call to action: \u201cDrivers, start your engines!\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, the Grand Prix grand marshals will include multiple Olympic and Paralympic athletes who recently competed at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy with Team Honda.<\/p>\n
The grand marshals will include para alpine skier Audrey Crowley, 2026 para snowboarding bronze medalist Brenna Huckaby, 2026 sled hockey gold medalists Brody Roybal and Declan Farmer, 2026 two-time speedskating gold medalist and silver medalist Jordan Stolz, and bobsledder Kaysha Love.<\/p>\n
All of those athletes will help kick off the IndyCar race in the afternoon, which will get underway at\u00a02:45 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final day of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is finally here. Gates to the venue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,131,28942,133,132,137,100],"class_list":["post-275675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-grand-prix","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275675","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=275675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}