Qualla: Grand Prix of Long Beach https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/5/b/grand-prix-of-long-beach-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Grand Prix of Long Beach https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach Grand Prix of Long Beach: Introduction https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach/ Photo credit jennifer chong from long beach, usa, CC BY 2.0. Chris Pook had been to Monaco. The British travel agent, living in Southern California in the early 1970s, had watched the Grand Prix de Monaco thread its impossibly fast cars through the narrow streets of the principality and thought: why not Long Beach? The California port city had wide boulevards, a waterfront, a grid of streets that could be closed and temporarily converted into something extraordinary. It had an established hotel district, easy highway access, and 200,000 people within reasonable distance. What it did not have was a history of international motorsport. Pook decided to give it one.

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Image: jennifer chong from long beach, usa | CC BY 2.0

]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/5/b/grand-prix-of-long-beach-wp/9q5b-grand-prix-of-long-beach-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Grand Prix of Long Beach: The Race That Wasn't Supposed to Work https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach/ Photo credit sachoben, CC BY-SA 2.0. The first Grand Prix of Long Beach in 1975 was a Formula 5000 race — not Formula One, not the top tier, but a start. Pook had gambled that the crowds would come and the sponsors would follow. They did. The circuit wound through downtown streets and along the waterfront, with Shor...

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Image: sachoben | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/5/b/grand-prix-of-long-beach-wp/9q5b-grand-prix-of-long-beach-the-race-that-wasnt-supposed-to-work.mp3 0:06 2 full Grand Prix of Long Beach: The Formula One Years https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. From 1976 to 1983, the United States Grand Prix West brought Formula One's full circus to Long Beach: Ferrari, Brabham, Lotus, Williams, McLaren, the whole rotating gallery of the sport's engineering aristocracy. Clay Regazzoni won the inaugural 1976 race in a Ferrari. Carlos Reu...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/5/b/grand-prix-of-long-beach-wp/9q5b-grand-prix-of-long-beach-the-formula-one-years.mp3 0:06 3 full Grand Prix of Long Beach: The Year Regazzoni Crashed https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach/ Photo credit Chris Sansenbach from Huntington Beach, upload by Herrick, CC BY 2.0. The 1980 race produced something worse than a loss. Clay Regazzoni, the veteran Swiss driver who had won the inaugural Long Beach race four years earlier, suffered a catastrophic brake failure entering the chicane at the end of the Shoreline Drive straight. His car hit the barrie...

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Image: Chris Sansenbach from Huntington Beach, upload by Herrick | CC BY 2.0

]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/5/b/grand-prix-of-long-beach-wp/9q5b-grand-prix-of-long-beach-the-year-regazzoni-crashed.mp3 0:06 4 full Grand Prix of Long Beach: IndyCar Takes Over https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach/ Photo credit Carey Akin, CC BY-SA 2.0. Formula One left after 1983, drawn away by complications with the Concorde Agreement and the economics of sanctioning fees. IndyCar stepped in, and the race has run continuously in its new form since 1984. It is now the second-oldest continuously running IndyCar event on the cale...

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Image: Carey Akin | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/5/b/grand-prix-of-long-beach-wp/9q5b-grand-prix-of-long-beach-indycar-takes-over.mp3 0:06 5 full Grand Prix of Long Beach: Long Beach in April https://qualla.com/grand-prix-of-long-beach/ Photo credit Eric Fredericks, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Grand Prix weekend transforms downtown Long Beach every April. The barriers go up in late March. Hotels book out months in advance. The noise of Indy cars — a higher, sharper sound than the V8s of the Formula One era — bounces off the glass towers of the Shoreline Village wat...

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Image: Eric Fredericks | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/5/b/grand-prix-of-long-beach-wp/9q5b-grand-prix-of-long-beach-long-beach-in-april.mp3 0:06 6 full