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TOYOTA GRAND
PRIX OF LONG BEACH
Party Guide
•
Meet the Miss Grand Prix Race Team!!!
The PubClub.com
Party Bus is
THE way to see the Grand Prix for 50+ people from the South Bay Beach
Cities.
The PubClub Party
Bus in action.. Film
by Pacific Coast Studio. Long Beach.
Holly Weber strikes a striking pose on her way to being crowned the
2006 Tecate Miss Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach during Saturday night's
pageant.
•
2009 Long Beach GP, April 16-18
– Party Bus Information –
• Saturday, April 17. In 2008, 100 people went on two buses!!!
• Hermosa Beach to the Grand Prix
• $65 includes R/T bus ride and Grand Prix ticket
• Check back for 2009 Sign-up details! |
Pennywise is back to rock the crowd on Saturday, April 19.
•
Long Beach GP, More Photos!
The 2005 Miss Grand
Prix Pageant contestants walk the runway.
PubClub
Columnist and Miss Indy Lynne Kush, along with Miss Long Beach Grand
Prix Natalie James, greet the PubClub.com Party Bus to the 2005 event.
Each year, PubClub.com provides a
Party Bus for LA's craziest partiers from the South Bay Beach Cities
on Saturday, the prime party day. The bus leaves a South Bay bar in
the morning, is hosted by the beautiful PubClubettes, and returns in
the evening. In between, there is some racing and a lot of people-watching
and bar-hopping.
The 2007 Party Bus was one of the most successful, with
two sold out buses bringing 75 people to the Grand Prix. Past bus trips have been covered by the Long Beach Press Telegram an the Miss Grand Prix film crew. They are officially welcomed to
race by Miss Long Beach.
In 2006, the Face
of Champ Car, Brandi Latimer, welcomes the party bus crowd.
This year's bus will depart from The
Underground Pub in Hermosa Beach.
The PubClub
Party Bus group photo in 2003 (top) and 2004.
The PubClubettes
are the happy party bus hostesses.
•
Long
Beach City & Bar Guide
•
The
2002 Grand Prix
•
Grand
Prix – Party Overvew
Where to Party:
Getting Around the Track & The Bars
The main entry point is at the large
fountain at the Performing Arts Center at the intersection of Ocean
and Long Beach Blvd. This is the dropoff point for the PubClub Party
Bus and is where the Fiesta Friday and the Saturday Pennywise concert (6:30 p.m.), and the Miss Grand Prix contest are held (7:30 p.m.).
From there, going to the left but keeping the the Arena on the right,
it's into the facility itself. There's a buzz about the place, and that's
before anyone reaches the margarita stand located at the entrance
to the Champ Car paddock. (This along with the adjacent taco stand,
is the unofficial main gathering spot at the Grand Prix.)
In the past, the place to be has always been the Yardhouse, which has a big outdoor deck overlooking the water (but not the track). However, the the Pike at Rainbow Harbor area has added new
bars and restaurant leaving the Yardhouse in P3at best, to use racing terminology.
Leading the pack these days is is the Mai Tai Bar, located right above a fountain where the race cars scream by throughout the day. The Mai Tai bar has a friendly staff, mai tais (of course) and a small patio. It's above Bubba Gump, an open-air shrimp house that has an inside bar and plus a patio next
to the track. It's at Turns 2 & 3 at the fountain by the Aquarium
of the Pacific. The closest grandstands are 36 and 40, with 5, 6 and
7 just over the rollercoaster bridge, which itself provides an excellent
viewing point for even those with GA tickets ($35).
P2 (second place) would be either the Auld Dubliner Irish bar right on Pine Ave., where the small patio provides excellent exposure to the racing elements.
Yet one of the best places may prove to be Gladstone's, which on Saturday afternoon has the rock/acustic sounds of Jay Constable on a patio overlooking scenic Rainbow Harbor. The cars are right beside Gladstone's, roaring down Shoreline Drive at their peak power before hitting Turn 1 and driving around the Mai Tai bar. Access is via the promonade bridge and "the birdcage" spiral staircase. The closest grandstands
are 29, 30 and 31.
There are thousands of people walking around – mostly in shorts
and other sun-friendly attire – walking up to the radio booths
seeking freebies, attempting to peek into the Pro/Celebrity compound
(though it's as highly guarded as military instillation), checking out
the merchandise trailers and roaming in and out of the Expo in the Long
Beach Arena, which this year features BMX biking and other extreme sports
(cocktails available inside). The merchandise booths line a walkway
and eventually ends across the Bridgestone bridge at Grandstands 19
and 21. Click
Here for a map of the circuit.
There's a festive
atmosphere all around the Grand Prix grounds.
Past the Toyota Bridge, which pretty much everyone crosses a few times
during the day (or days), is Shoreline Village. With boats and yachts
tied up in the harbor, this is a Monte Carlo-type of environment. Restaurants
hug the water like a driver holding his line in a tight turn. The pole
sitter is The Yard House with its large patio. Hour-long waits
are common. Shoreline Village is behind grandstands 27 and 28.
Across the Toyota bridge is the Hyatt. The rooftop will be filled
with private parties – it's up to one's imagination what goes on
behind the mirrored walls of the hotel's rooms – and inside lobby
bar is a stopover resting spot.
The back side of the Convention Center along Pine Ave., features more
merchandise areas and access to the other new spots of the Pike via
the Tecate bridge. All tickets offer in-out privileges; just be sure
and get a hand stamp.
The Grand Prix is as much about socializing as sports. Much of the
joy of the Grand Prix comes in walking through the grounds, seeing the
scenery, working on the suntan and mingling with others.
PubClub.com contributes to this revelry with our party bus of revelers,
who really rev up to the scene. Witness this list of lost items from
one year's journey:
• 3 Umbrellas
• 1 Snakeskin jacket
• 1 Blue backpack
• 1 Camera
• 2 Beers
• 1 Set of makeup
• 1 Pair of sunglasses
The PubClub Party Bus Group parties in the trackside bars.
• The Miss Grand Prix Pageant
The girls line up
in their swimwear (top, '05) and grid suits (bottom, '06).
In 2004, Grand Prix officials reached
over the border to bring their race fans a taste of excitement that
has been so popular at venues in Australia and Canada. Click
HERE for photos of the Toronto and Vancouver Indy events!
They brought in the "Bert Parks of Australia," Rosko Dickinson,
to put together a pageant featuring 20 beautiful local girls to compete
for the title of Miss Long Beach Grand Prix.
Dickinson's Procon
Leisure company responded and brought the well-choreographed
and classy contest to Long Beach, and it has been met with roaring crowds
and flash-popping media photographers.
The girls are finalists chosen from bar events held in Long Beach in
the weeks leading up to the race. The action-packed and fast-paced event
– set to hip music – features the finalists individually and
in groups in evening wear, bathing suits and the specially-designed
race suits. The winner is entered into the Face of Champ Car contest,
a series of similar pageants in other Champ Car race markets, with the
finals in Mexico City.
The pageant is held Saturday after the rock concert, and has brought
even more entertainment value to the Grand Prix.
The 2005 winners:with actor Paul Newman in Victory Circle.
• The Race
Team on the Track
• The Grand Prix
At the bar: There's
a race around here somewhere.
It's the World's Fastest Beach Party,
a three-day event of fast cars, hot girls and hip guys.
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is a Southern California happening,
a sun-splashed must-attend event for those into speed, sound and, of
course, suds. There are race cars, race girls and race guys, free concerts
and the first-ever Miss Grid Girl pageant.
The on-track action involves sports cars with the Grand American Series,
development open-wheel cars with the Toyota Atlantics,, the always-entertaining
Toyota Pro/Celebrity race and the featured Champ Cars (green flag Sunday
at 1 p.m.). There is also an exhibition of drifting, a judged competition
which is best described as ice skating on pavement. Cars run from 8
in the morning until 5 in the evening. The start-finish line is along
Shoreline Drive, the long, curved main straightaway.
This is a true California outdoor social event. In fact, several thousand
people never see a wheel turn. They simply go straight for the bars
or grab a cold one and walk through the many merchandise areas, through
paddock and pits (special passes required) the Expo inside the Sports
Arena (the building with the whale paintings), along the convention
center and all over the track itself.
A roar by the shore
– down packed Shoreline Drive. Photo: Grand
Prix.
Driver Bruno Junqueria
races to a quick pit shop in 2005.
Race History
The festive event is the US version of the Monaco Grand Prix, where
open-wheel Champ Cars scream down seaside city streets at 190mph. For
the past 31 years, North America's #1 street race has served up drama
and excitement on a silver platter to fans, participants, the city of
Long Beach, all of Southern California and even to the world.
Who would have thought that Chris Pook's dream, Dan Gurney's persistence,
the city of Long Beach's cooperation and Mario Andretti's victories
would combine to create an annual rite of spring in Southern California?
Yet this April 8-10, cars will roar down Shoreline Drive for the 32st
th time, highlighted by the 750-plus horsepower machines of the Champ
Car World Series in Sunday's featured event. Joining them will be the
Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race on Saturday, a new form of motorsports called
drifting,, the wild and crazy Trans Am drivers and the up-and-coming
stars in the Toyota Atlantic Championship development series. Ahead
of them lies the glory or disappointment of the day, Behind them is
a more than a quarter-century of historical moments, magical memories
and event-threatening occurrences.
"I'm quite proud of what we have created in Long Beach,"
said Pook, who launched the inaugural event back in 1975. "What
we have here is more than a race. It's a cultural event."
The goal, Pook preached from the outset, was to not to develop a race,
but a happening. It is here that he has succeeded most spectacularly.
On the podium, champagne
at the ready, Paul Tracy prepares to pop.
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach has become such a fixture on the
local social calendar, it's hard to imagine the days prior to its existence.
The event is to Long Beach what the Hollywood sign is to that city,
the Rose Bowl is to Pasadena, Pauley Pavilion is to Westwood.
Part of the success story belongs to the fans. The turnstiles click
more than 200,000 times on race weekend, making the race the largest
paid spectator special sports event on the West Coast. People have taken
to the event with such passion, the plan vacations around the race,
often sitting in the exact seats they have kept for years. They have
developed fierce loyalty to favorite drivers over the years – Andretti,
Fittipaldi, Unser, Zanardi, Tracy and Vasser.
The moments these and other drivers have provided are legendary: Andretti
becoming the first American to win a U.S. Grand Prix in 1977, an occurrence
that may well have saved the entire event; Danny Sullivan twice running
out of gas the final 11 laps in 1985; Michael Andretti out-dueling Al
Unser, Jr., over the final 24 laps to earn his first CART win in 1986;
Unser, Jr.,'s six victories and earning himself the title "King
of the Beach;" Michael Andretti colliding with Fittipaldi in a
spectacular pit lane incident in 1992 and Zanardi's dramatic late-lap
pass of Bryan Herta for the win in 1997.
For the fans, it's these thrills and many others. Four years ago, the
event added a free concert to the lineup and began billing it as "Rock
'n Roar." Bands have included Everclear, Third Eye Blind and Pennywise,
which was wildly popular among punk fans in '05. This is followed by
the Miss Grid Girl contest, a Miss
Indy-style pagent. Both take place at the main stage in front
of the Performing Arts Center.
During the day, people walk around, admire the tans and bodies of other
fans and join them for beers behind the bleachers or in the bars. Some,
it must be said, never see a wheel turn.
It's all part of the show.
Rock 'N Roar concerts
have brought Everclear, Third Eye Blind and Pennywise.
.
 PubClub
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