Heavy on the Nissan commentary, light on the event coverage
I was having a conversation with a co-worker prior to the Gran Prix of Long Beach, someone who I consider to at least have an appreciation for motorsports, and he said to me “the only motorsport race I’d be interested in going to is F1.”
I brushed the comment off, as it didn’t seem like there was much point into giving this guy a short history of motorsport, but the comment really sat with me for the rest of the day.
Now don’t get me wrong, I hold no delusions about the future of motorsport, or that most people you talk to will only barely recognize the names of either F1 or NASCAR in a decade, but as a crotchety old purist it peeved me that someone would look down on a class of motorsport that I’d grown up with and still holds more of my respect. Prototype-endurance racing is still my favorite motorsport, and one of the only ones left using pretty much pure combustion engines.
The Gran Prix of Long Beach weekend consists of a lot of different racing events, but my main goals were to see the IMSA race and the classic IMSA GT cars. Now, it serves me right that I hadn’t done much research about what was going to be at the event this year, but the day before the race when I went online to get my ticket I saw that the 90s IMSA champion 300zx TT GT car would be present and RACING.
Tangent: why is this so important? Besides the fact that Steve Millen’s 300zx TT GT car hung on my wall as a kid instead of the typical BMW or Countach, and still resides on my living room wall now, this was REDEMPTION.
Redemption from a missed opportunity at Monterey Car Week last year. I was there for work for not even two days, and at the Quail realized that Nissan would be the feature marque at the Monterey Historic races. I had driven a work-Lexus up from LA and would have had to find somewhere to stay to extend my trip and the whole thing just felt daunting at the time. Of course I regretted not trying to extend my stay in Monterey immediately, when I saw all the big guns that Nissan and the Nissan legends like Steve Millen himself had pulled out for this.
The fomo was so real (yes, yes.) for me that I didn’t even want to see any of it on social media and just tuned out the rest of Car Week.
But now, this, unexpectedly was my opportunity to meet a hero (the car of course) in real life.
Leading up to the race I did take a look at the IMSA stats, and was disappointed to see the dissolve of the Tequila Patron Extreme Motorsports Team headed by Scott Sharp. At this point I barely ever have any skin in the game, since Nissan is really only interested in heavily participating in Formula E. Tequila Patron, a long time sponsor of not just ESM but IMSA, ALMS, WEC, pulled all of its investment out of racing (similar to Williams losing the Martini sponsorship.. is this the end of heavy alcohol sponsorships? First cigarettes now this?), though they maintained a presence as a hospitality tent at the race.
Ultimately ESM dissolved after not procuring a new title sponsor and sold their Nissan DPis to CORE Autosport, who only had one car competing. However this one car displayed a beautiful heritage Nissan livery, utilizing the red, white and blue scheme, not the classic Nissan blue, but rather the electric metallic blue seen on the R89c.
Saturday morning I ripped down to Torrance via the 405 in the Z to pick up my friend Ian and off to the races we went. It was full circle from last year and I felt a little bad, because last year he drove me in his now defunct Cayman. For me it was the first time ever I’d been able to drive MY sports car to a race. It’s always been a rental, or riding shotgun, or riding in our family car. Being able to experience car cultural with a sports car was truly a surreal moment.
That race day feeling: wow there’s just nothing like it. I don’t think Long Beach is one of the most amazing races I’ve ever been to but there are some pretty cool perks. There’s free access to the IMSA paddock and they let you just stand there when the cars start rolling out onto the track. It’s just a frenzy full of spectators, teams and these giant prototype cars in a tiny space. All of a sudden the engines start and the staff leisurely scuffles people out of the way. But even then were still talking your foot could get run over - I love it.
We got separated from our larger group, who ended up at the grandstands by the starting line. At this point, we were all the way on the other side of the track and the race was about to start. We decided to stay where we were, and boy, am I glad we did. Spoiler alert: somehow my friend and I had front row seats to all of the major accidents.
Starting on pole were the two Acura DPis one first and third, (I mean, how much money did Acura spend as the title sponsor?? They better be) with one of the six-Cadillac-powered DPis (Whelen Engineering) in between. We were standing on the inside of turn six and in only the second lap the Nissan hit the tire wall. At the time we weren’t sure what happened, but it was self-induced by driver Jonathan Bennet.
Having never really seen an accident this close up it was kind of horrifying. It felt like it took an eternity for them to call out caution on the track. As spectators we just stood there watching the Nissan attempt to back up and rectify itself, hoping it could move out of the way before the other cars came racing back around. He started to finally move backwards just as we started to hear the other cars come racing back around in the distance, only they weren’t slowing down - and he was still backing up! They passed him at speed with clearance of about a foot. It was scary to watch. And as much as I was devastated that the Nissan was out so early, it was exciting, having skin in the game for once, even if that skin left me feeling let down.
The next accident we saw was one of the Cadillac-powered DPis hit another tire wall in turn 8, struggle like the Nissan did, but ultimately recover and continue the lap.
I know this is the #4 Corvette
In the last lap of the race, again, coming out of turn 8, my friend and I witnessed one of the Corvette’s fighting for second with one of the Ford GTs and slamming into the back of it. We barely saw the GT spinout under the bridge and into the wall.
People will tell you that the #3 Magnussen Corvette was not at fault, and in fact try to skew it like it was actually the GT who was at fault, not accelerating fast enough out of the turn, but we know what we saw. We saw them both start accelerating out of the corner, the Corvette starting to inch on the back of the Ford and even if it wasn’t accelerating at the same rate, Magnussen didn’t even try to avoid him.
Okay, that’s enough for real event coverage.
I’ll spare you the maneuvering into the vehicle.
We met the owners and drivers of the two heritage Nissans inside of the conference hall where all of the classic cars had their paddocks. Admittedly, neither knew much about the cars’ restoration process, besides the fact that they had both had they original paint until about two weeks prior. The #002 chassis 300zx had all of its electronics switched out for MoTech, as the original electronics company was defunct, and was driven by the owner’s son-in-law. More interestingly, the driver of the GTU 240sx let me and my friend sit in the car. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever actually sat in a race car and usually I’m pretty uncomfortable about it. But it was pretty cool. I consider myself pretty nimble, but it was difficult to get in and out of and I don’t know how a guy in his 70s is doing it. They modified it so that it was a 4-speed transmission, and it still just had a traditional shifter; I tried to depress the clutch but barely could get it to the floor, it felt like 80 pounds. All of those things combined with the poor visibility, I just don’t know how drivers did it back in the day.
I’ve been to my fair share of races, and I’ll admit that I haven’t always been able to witness a lot of accidents, which everyone who follows racing pretends they hate but really love. Yes, we want everyone to be safe, but it’s exciting! Generally at these larger endurance races there’s not a lot of screens or PA’s to let you know what’s going on, so you’re just standing there thinking “Hmm, I haven’t seen the such-and-such car in awhile,” and then find out 10 laps later it’s out.
I have to say I do prefer a longer endurance race, an hour-and-a-half just is not enough time to walk the track, get photos, and not feel rushed or like you’re missing something. Also, longer endurance races are just more riveting, pushing those cars to the absolute limit.
Besides great crash views, the thing that really made this year’s LPGP so memorable for me is actually being able to see the #76 Nissan 300zx race. It started on pole, sounded amazing, and led the pack by a good margin for the entire 20 minute race.
It was a culmination of a life’s dream.
P.S. Some complaints on the new IMSA logo:
I’ve had an IMSA decal on my car for as long as I can remember. I looked for merch after the race, and truly wanted to purchase some 50th anniversary of IMSA merchandise, but it was abundantly clear that they have the same design department working on the IMSA logos, and the NASCAR influence is in there. So that was a pass for ole’ EC.