{"id":292789,"date":"2026-04-30T07:35:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292789\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T07:35:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:35:18","slug":"2026-acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach-thrilling-racing-in-multiple-series-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292789\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach \u2014 thrilling racing in multiple series \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was held the weekend of April 17-19\u00a0 on its 1.968-mile, 11-turn street circuit, continuing its tradition of great racing, in multiple series, at an iconic and historic venue. The weather was beautiful, and by all indications \u2014 including the packed grandstands, walkways and the bustling Lifestyle Expo exhibit hall \u2014the attendance likely surpassed last year\u2019s 50th Anniversary event.<\/p>\n

As aways, the race weekend kicked off with \u201cThunder Thursday at The Pike Outlets.\u201d This is a free evening event, open to the public. It includes an NTT IndyCar Series pit stop competition on Shoreline Drive, in which four IndyCar teams compete for a $10,000 prize. The evening\u2019s entertainment also includes a high-flying Freestyle MX motocross exhibition, a car show and live music.<\/p>\n

\"HistoricHistoric Trans Am Challenge racer overcooked it into Turn 1
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

With multiple race series competing, the Grand Prix has a wide variety of motorsports action and is a terrific value. Racing series were the Porsche Carrera Cup North America, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Formula DRIFT Super Drift Challenge, Historic Trans Am Challenge, Robby Gordon\u2019s SPEED ENERGY Super Trucks and the headline NTT IndyCar Series.<\/p>\n

The Porsche Carrera Cup North America is a one-make racing series, which produces very close racing \u2014 with an international field of drivers driving Porsche 911 racecars. These were serious competitors, mixing it up with each other for two races over the weekend. It was truly an exciting, memorable experience!<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship included two classes of cars racing on the track at the same time: the high-speed, high-tech Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class, consisting of state-of-the-art prototype cars from Acura, Aston Martim, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche; and the GT Daytona (GTD) class, which included BMW, Chevrolet (Corvette), Mercedes-AMG, Lexus, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Ford (Mustang).<\/p>\n

The potential speed differential of these two distinctly different classes of cars made for particularly exciting racing. Robert Wickens, who was paralyzed following a serious IndyCar crash in 2018, drove with hand controls as he led the GTD class for much of the race, before the driver change.<\/p>\n

The Formula DRIFT Super Drift Challenge featured tire-smoking action as the drivers drifted their cars around the track in competition, under the lights on Friday and Saturday evenings.<\/p>\n

\"GrandGrand Touring Prototypes mixing it up with the GT Daytona
\nclass
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

In the Historic Trans Am Challenge, American muscle cars from the 1970s through 1991 raced twice through the streets of Long Beach. This was supposed to be an on-track exhibition of historic, expensive cars, but some drivers got pretty racy!<\/p>\n

A fan favorite each year are the Robby Gordon SPEED Energy Stadium Super Trucks. Ramps are added at various places on the track, from which the trucks launch high into the air as they race. The trucks have a massive amount of suspension travel which, when they turn, accelerate, brake and land after taking jumps, imparts an almost animal-like stance and behavior to the trucks. Sheldon Creed, now a NASCAR driver, used to race in this series.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Michaelian staring down a SPEED Energy Stadium Super
\nTruck in 2017
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

Finally, in Sunday afternoon\u2019s NTT IndyCar race, Alex Palou emerged to lead the field at the finish, and by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

In addition to the racing was the expansive Lifestyle Expo and Family Fun Zone, vendors, free concerts and, of course, plenty of competition vehicles to see up-close-and-personal, in between their races.<\/p>\n

Sadly, earlier this year, Jim Michaelian \u2014 President & CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, and one of the founding staff members of the Grand Prix \u2014 passed away. Jim was 83 years old. The official press release tells us that \u201cUnder his leadership, the Acura Grand Prix event has grown into one of the premier street races in the world, blending top-level competition with major entertainment, civic, and business impact for the City of Long Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim gave the event a special personality, ever smiling and very approachable. In 2017 I captured some photos of him as he stood, fearless, nearly in the path of a Robby Gordon SPEED Energy Stadium Super Truck, which was driving slowly as it balanced with only the passenger\u2019s-side tires contacting the ground, and the driver\u2019s-side high in the air. Jim Michaelian is, and will continue to be, be missed.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, visit https:\/\/gplb.com.<\/p>\n

To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit \u201cAutoMatters & More\u201d at https:\/\/automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page or click on the blue \u2018years\u2019 boxes and browse.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 by Jan Wagner \u2013 AutoMatters & More #925r1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was held the weekend of April 17-19\u00a0 on its 1.968-mile,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[310,1002,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-292789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-del-mar-times","tag-del-mar-times-opinion","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\/292789","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=292789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}