MORE LONG BEACH:
°Long Beach City Guide
°LA City Guide
° Long Beach Photos
° LBGP – The Party
° Grand Prix Site
° Molson Indy

PUB CLUB PARTIES:
° The Greek Isles
° Horsing Around
° Running With The Bulls
° Single in the City
° New Orleans JazzFest
° Bay to Breakers

NO LAST CALL!
° Home Page
° Sign up to be a "PubClubber"

Pictures with a party fan's guide to the best places in and around the track, Miss Grand Prix photos and more.

.

TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH
Party Guide

The free concert rocks the crowd on Saturdays..

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 three days of great fun. The 2009 event iwas April 17-19.

The on-track action involved sports cars ith the American Le Mans Series, development open-wheel cars with the Indy Lights, the super-entertaining World Challenge featuring Mustangs and Corvettes, and the always-entertaining Toyota Pro/Celebrity race (Satuday, 11:30 a.m.). The featured Indy Cars, which in 2009 includeed Danica Patrick was won by Dario Franchitti.

The event also contains 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.

The PubClub Party Bus in action.. Film by Pacific Coast Studio. Long Beach.

• Long Beach City & Bar Guide

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 Puddle of Mudd concert (6:30 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 Indy 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) is the Auld Dubliner Irish bar 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.

The PubClub Party Bus Group parties in the trackside bars.

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 Miss Grand Prix Pageant

The lovely Venus Ramos competes in her swimwear..

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.

This year, however, Dickenson and his Procon Leisure company are back in Australia, and the pageant will be held Thursday night That means the 2009 Queen and her Court will be walking around the Grand Prix grounds all weekend, along with 2008 winner Jessica Hamel. The 2009 finals will be held Thursday, April 16, at Cafe Sevilla on Pine Ave., 9 p.m.

When the contest was held on Saturday after the concert, it was a sight to be seen, as these pictures surely support..

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.

Sign of the time: With Danica, there will be another girl on the grid.

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 down pit lane.

Race History

For the past 34 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.

In 2009, the reunification of he open-wheel series of CART/Champ Car and the IRL has created IndyCar and once again all the stars of the support are running in the event.

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 Home Page