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| Honda Swept the Long Beach Podium in 2013. Can They Do It Again in 2014? |
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with Indy Lights. IndyCar coverage at 4:00 p.m. ET with green flag at 4:50 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Paul Tracy, Townsend Bell, Kevin Lee, Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Jon Beekhuis and Robin Miller.
Race Notes
Race is schedule for 80 laps.
This is the first race of the 2014 season to feature standing starts.
Twenty-three cars are entered as Oriol Serviá returns driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Past Winners
Seven former Long Beach winners will be on the starting grid for the 40th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Joining Sato and Power are Mike Conway who won his first career race on Shoreline Drive in 2011. Ryan Hunter-Reay's first victory with Andretti Autosport came at Long Beach in 2010. Sébastien Bourdais won three consecutive races on the streets of Long Beach from 2005-07 but his best finish in his last three Long Beach starts is 15th. Helio Castroneves won Long Beach thirteen years ago in 2001 and his Penske teammate Juan Pablo Montoya's first career victory came at Long Beach in 1999.
Castroneves is one of three drivers to win in an Indy Lights/Formula Atlantics race and Grand Prix of Long Beach. The other two are Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy. James Hinchcliffe and Scott Dixon have Indy Lights victories on the streets of Long Beach but have yet to win the Grand Prix.
The record length between Long Beach victories is 16 years and 1 day, set by Michael Andretti who won in 1986 and 2002.
Since 2009, five different drivers from four different teams have won on the streets of Long Beach.
Don't forget to look back on ten memorable races from forty years of the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Five Looking to Rebound From St. Pete
James Hinchcliffe started the 2014 on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to 2013. The Canadian started at the back after causing a red flag in qualifying and finished nineteenth. Another driver who started 2013 on the podium but suffered misfortune this year was Marco Andretti who was caught in the lap 83 restart accident along with Jack Hawksworth. Charlie Kimball finished a lap down in 20th at St. Pete while a late penalty for passing the pace car dropped Mike Conway from possibly competing for a victory in the season opener to 16th.
Hinchcliffe finished fourth and third in his first two Long Beach starts but finished 26th last year after contact. Kimball has started ninth the last two years at Long Beach but his best finish in three Long Beach starts is 18th. Mike Conway started fifth last year in a one-off for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing but finished 25th after an electrical problem. Andretti finished seventh last year after starting 25th. It was his second top ten in six Long Beach starts. Hawksworth was leading the Indy Lights points entering Long Beach last year but an accident right after the green flag ended the Brits first appearance on Shoreline Drive before it had reach turn one.
Indy Lights
Zach Veach leads the Indy Lights championship into Long Beach after winning his first Indy Lights race at St. Petersburg. The Andretti Autosport driver leads the championship by ten points over Gabby Chaves. Jack Harvey finished third on debut leading Vittorio Ghirelli, Luiz Razia and Juan Piedrahita, all who were also making their Indy Lights debuts. Juan Pablo García finished seventh ahead of Zach Meyer. Matthew Brabham finished ninth after brushing the wall and going a lap down. Alexandre Baron, Lloyd Read and Scott Anderson rounded out the results at St. Petersburg.
Last year, Carlos Muñoz led a Colombia 1-2 with Gabby Chaves. Sage Karam finished third. García and Veach are the only other two drivers returning who ran last year. García finished sixth and Veach was involved in the opening accident with Hawksworth and Peter Dempsey.
The last two winners in the Long Beach Indy Lights race have been from South America (Esteban Guerrieri and Muñoz) while the three previous winners came from North America (JR Hildebrand, Hinchcliffe and Conor Daly). Since Indy Lights returned to Long Beach, no European driver has won since 2008 when Simona de Silvestro won the Atlantics race over Alan Sciuto and Kevin Lacroix.
IMSA
The third round of the 2014 Tudor United SportsCar Championship takes place on Saturday with the 11 Prototypes and 10 GT Le Mans cars. Prototype points leaders and 24 Hours of Daytona winners, Action Express drivers Christian Fittipaldi and João Barbosa are entered but second in the championship Marino Franchitti is not.
Ricky and Jordan Taylor are third the championship. Sebring winners Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas are a point behind the Taylor brothers in fourth. Pruett won at Long Beach when Grand-Am competed in 2006 with Luiz Díaz as his co-driver. Alex Brundle is a point behind the Ganassi duo and will team with Gustavo Yacaman for OAK Racing. Scott Sharp won the LMP2 class at Long Beach last year and will pair with 2004 Long Beach Toyota Atlantics winner Ryan Dalziel.
Michael Valiante, 2002 Long Beach Atlantics winner, is paired with Richard Westbrook in the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP.
In GTLM, the #55 Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW of Bill Auberlen and Andy Priaulx lead with 64 points, five ahead of the 24 Hours of Daytona winners, #911 Porsche of Nick Tandy and Richard Lietz, Sebring winner, #912 Porsche of Patrick Long and Michael Christensen and the #93 Viper of Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer. The #91 Viper of Dominick Farnbacher and Marc Goosens rounds out the top five. Corvette have won four of the seven races at Long Beach with Oliver Gavin being apart of three of those wins. Gavin teams with Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette.
Other GT entries include Jan Magnussen and Antonio García (#3 Corvette), Giancarlo Fisichella and Dane Cameron, who is substituting for a suspended Matteo Malucelli (#62 Risi Ferrari), Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers (#17 Falken Tire Porsche) and John Edwards and Dirk Müller (#56 RLLR BMW).
The IMSA race can be seen Saturday at 6:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.
Pirelli World Challenge
Forty cars are entered for the Pirelli World Challenge race, split equally between GT and GTS. Tomáš Enge won at St. Petersburg but is not entered for Long Beach. Cadillac's Andy Pilgrim finished second in the season opener. Audi's Andrew Palmer finished third with Ferrari driver Anthony Lazzaro in fourth with his teammate Nick Mancuso rounding out the top five. Defending Long Beach winner, Audi driver James Sofronas finished seventh at St. Petersburg. Johnny O'Connell's title defense started poorly in the season opener as a pit stop for repairs dropped the Georgian to 19th in the final results.
Lawson Aschenbach on the other hand started his GTS title defense in style by taking the victory over fellow Camaro driver Andy Lee. St. Pete pole-sitter, Porsche driver Jack Baldwin finished third ahead of the Mustangs of Tony Buffomante and Jack Roush, Jr. Kia's Nic Jönsson finished fifth.
The PWC races takes place Sunday, after the IndyCar race at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Fast Facts
Eight time has the winner at Long Beach come from pole position. The most recent was Sébastien Bourdais in 2007.
The farthest a winner has come from on the starting grid was 17th, when Paul Tracy picked up his second Long Beach victory.
Newman/Haas Racing has the most Long Beach victories with six. Galles Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing and Penske Racing are all tied with five Long Beach victories.
Helio Castroneves is 26 laps away from joining the 5,000 laps led club, joining Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Michael Andretti and Al Unser. Castroneves led two laps at St. Petersburg.
Scott Dixon has led three laps at Long Beach in seven career starts. He led two in 2010 and one in 2011. His lone Long Beach top ten is a fourth place in 2011 and his average finish at Long Beach is 15.4.
The last time a race happened on April 13th was in 2003 when both the IRL and CART held races. Scott Sharp won in the wee hours of the morning at Motegi while Paul Tracy won his third consecutive race to open the season on his way to his only title. On two other occasions has the Grand Prix of Long Beach fallen on April 13th, 1986 when Michael Andretti won his first career race and 1997 when Alex Zanardi won his first of back-to-back Long Beach races.
This year's Grand Prix of Long Beach falls on Dan Gurney's 83rd birthday.
For more IndyCar statistics and facts, head to the Telemetry Center.
Prediction
Surprise! Mike Conway gets Ed Carpenter Racing their first road/street course victory. Will Power on the podium. Ryan Hunter-Reay is the top Honda. Juan Pablo Montoya struggles. Jack Hawksworth recovers from St. Petersburg and is top finishing rookie. Simon Pagenaud breaks through for his first career pole. Graham Rahal breaks through for a top ten. Sleeper: Josef Newgarden.
