A look back at the 2008 Long Beach GP
Written by Scott Keller · April 22, 2008
From nostalgia of years gone by to the revelation of first-time race winners, from a start with a flash of pure excitement to a finish that faded into anti-climatic non-drama, this year’s Long Beach Grand Prix has come and gone. And after 25 years of Champ Car racing on the streets of Southern California, an amazing era has ended. The weekend featured the final Champ Car race of all time, an American Le Man’s sprint race, and the first race of the season for an orphaned Atlantic championship that is hoping to find new relevance in American motor sports.
Will Power wins Champ Car finale snoozer
The biggest news story of the Champ Car closing race was Danica Patrick’s win at Motegi. Much to my chagrin, and that of a lot of die-hard Champ Car fans, IRL princess, Danica Patrick, stole what thunder Champ Car had left to give for the weekend. The track announcer was announcing her every move during the race. Danica is on an airplane, Danica is at the track, Danica is in the booth, oh wait, there’s a race going on.
The race itself was mediocre at best. Most of the excitement happened in the first 10 laps, with Will Power jumping into the lead on the start, Paul Tracy looking racy until he bumped the inside of the hairpin, and Enrique Bernoldi and Graham Rahal looking fast. But as the race went on Tracy’s mechanical woes neutralized his efforts, and Justin Wilson’s Cosworth bit the dust going into turn one.
From then on, it was Will Power showing the way, with nobody to challenge. Sure, Tagliani drove well for most of the race, but faded in the late laps. Surprisingly, Mario Dominguez drove brilliantly and ended up putting PCM on the podium. And the PCM/Dominguez combination is said to be heading to the IRL as a full time deal in coming weeks. Wow, so let me get this right: Conquest and PCM in for the IRL season while Forsythe is out? Whatever dude.
ALMS steals the show again
While Champ Car spent the weekend fading away, the American Le Mans Series was feeling its oats. And arguably, the ALMS put on the best race at Long Beach for the second year in a row.
After a tough qualifying day where six LMP2 cars were faster, the Audi LMP1 team finished first and second in a spectacular come-from-behind victory. The ALMS race was full of passing, wheel-to-wheel action, and late race drama. This series is primed and ready to take a bigger piece of the American motor sports pie with Champ Car folding its tent. The series has a wicked combination of exotic cars and “green” racing technology that resonates with the manufacturers and fans. It is too bad that they only have eight more races left on their 11-race schedule.
Girls, girls, girls
Everyone knows that Danica Patrick won her first Indy Car race on Saturday nite in Japan, but many people aren’t aware that another lady got her first win on Saturday morning at the Long Beach GP. Simona De Silvestro got her first Atlantics win, following in the footsteps of Katherine Legge. Simona drove consistently, and capitalized on Jonathan Bomarito’s first turn gaffe to bring home the victory. Bomarito had the field covered before running too deep in turn 1, and losing a lot of time in the run-off area. The Atlantic series is soldiering on after Champ Car’s demise with a cobbled schedule, and a ladder leading to nowhere. They will have to find a new way to be relevant in the landscape of American motor sports, or they are destined to go the way of their previous parent series.
By the way, another lady showed up the guys again in the Pro-Celebrity race. Jamie Little, the ESPN pit-reporter, took her Toyota Scion to victory.
ESPN slaps Champ Car fans in the face
In the final moments of Sunday’s race, the dolts at ESPN were interviewing the bane of Champ Car’s existence, Danica Patrick. With mere moments before the end of Champ Car, the hard core fans had to endure the “terrible trifecta” of Marty Reid, Scott Goodyear, and Danica all at the same time. The moguls over at ESPN again showed just how out of touch they are with racing fans. With the final laps winding down, Reid and Goodyear were too busy tripping over their own “you-know-whats” talking to Danica to bother covering the end of the race properly. Is it too much to ask two professional commentators to actually acknowledged the on-track action?
Sunburn is a good thing
I went to the office this morning with my usual “Long Beach sunburn”. I’m never very good about remembering sun screen, and I’ve got a little more color than I did on Thursday evening. It’s a reminder that I got to enjoy the California sunshine, to enjoy the gorgeous DP01 Champ Car and ALMS exotics, to hear the final revs of the Cozzie turbos, and have an all around amazing time. Looking forward to 2009 the fans can only hope (perhaps in vain) that the Indy Car Series can maintain the standard set by CART and Champ Car over the last 25 years.
Weekend photo blog
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4 Responses to “A look back at the 2008 Long Beach GP”
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So there were more people in the stands Sat than Sun?
Actually, no. Sunday was jam packed. Security had a lot of angry folks in General Admission where the stands were so full that they were turning hundreds of people away. The IRL crowd seemed to have shown up this year, because there were a lot of people oohing and ahhing when they showed Danica on the big screen.
Thanks for the update Scott. Until this year, I hadn’t missed a LBGP in over 15 years. While it would have been nice to hear the turbos and see the DP01s one more time, I’d rather remember Champ Car during its better years - Al Jr’s wins, Zanardi’s charges through the field, PT’s aggressive driving, C-Bass’ picture perfect drives, etc. I watched the TV coverage on ESPN2 - what a joke. I ended up speeding through the Danice coronation. All I wanted to see was the last few laps of an exciting series and it turned into gabfest with the “face of the IRL”. I don’t care about IRL. I won’t watch any more races. The “announcers” (IRL shills) kept talking about the upcoming races and the points battle. I don’t care. My AOWR season is over.
I do want to thank Tony George for freeing up my Sunday afternoons. Without Champ Car, I have another couple of hours to go to the beach, go to the movies, take a nap. Thanks again, FTG.
I’ll start watching some AMLS racing to see if it sparks my interest. Until then, it’s F1.
To all those involved through the years of Champ Car/CART, thanks for the memories.
I had a feeling that ESPN / ABC Sports would do something stupid during the last Champ Car Series race, and sure enough, they did. After all the news coverage all day Saturday and Sunday about Danica making history, I wish someone from ESPN would tell us why they had to fly Danica half way around the world to sit in that ESPN broadcast booth at the last Champ Car Series race when there is such a thing now days as satellite communication. Do you guys at ESPN remember this modern marvel called satellite communication? This is how you broadcast that historic Danica event to us one day earlier while we were sleeping. And why during the race? Did they think that maybe we hadn’t heard yet? It was sad to see the end of Champ Car. I am so glad that I was able to be at several CART / Champ Car races over the years to hear that great sound of the turbocharged engines echoing through the skyscrapers of Houston Texas. All we can do now is hope that Tony George has learned a few lessons and will now listen to what the fans, drivers, and teams have to say about what we like. Are you listening Tony?