Long Beach Readies Circuit for 50th Anniversary with 3 Historic Cars

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, and the first k-rail was laid down yesterday on the famous street circuit that has been compared to “Monaco in the US.”

To mark the occasion, race officials and Historic Motor Sports Association President Cris Vandagriff brought out one car from each of the GP’s three main epochs: F5000, Formula 1, and IndyCar.

Can you name all three cars in the photo above? You’d have to be pretty good to get the first one.

1973 March 73A driven in-period by racer John Cannon.

• Representing Formula 5000, which was the inaugural shakedown race held the first year of the Long Beach Grand Prix, was the 1973 March 73A driven in-period by racer John Cannon.
• From Formula 1 is the 1983 Williams FW 008C driven by Keke Rosberg.
• And representing Indy cars, the 1999 Reynard driven that year by Bryan Herta. All three cars are expected to race in the Historic Formula Exhibition doubleheader on race weekend April 11-13.

“The March 73A was March's first production F5000 car, following the relative success of the 1972 F2-based car, but it was not competitive with the Lola T330,” according to oldracingcars.com.

Given March's success in other categories, much was expected of the March 73A, the site added.

But in the highly competitive L&M-backed series, the Marches were off the pace of the leading Lola T330, Trojan T101, and Chevron B24s, and drivers Bob Lazier (father of Indy 500 winner Buddy) and soon-to-be racing school owner Skip Barber gave up on their 73As, with Lazier buying a Lola.

The orange car you see here went from Skip Barber to John Cannon, whose name is on the car shown at Long Beach. After being completely reworked as a 75AM engineered by former March F1 and F2 team manager Ray Wardell, the car turned out to be more of a success, notably in the Australian Internationals at the start of 1976.

F1 cockpits were considerably more spartan in 1983.

You certainly recognize the F1 car in the group, the 1983 Williams FW 008C driven by F1 champ Keke Rosberg back in the day. The FW08C was crazy powerful and very light.

It tipped the scales at just under 1,200 pounds, according to one source, though another source says the SCCA regs required 1250 pounds, and its Cosworth Ford DFY V8 made 530 hp. Imagine what it took to drive something like that.

If it’s the FW08C-07, it ran all 13 events in the 1983 F1 season, including a first at the Monaco GP and second at the Detroit GP with Rosberg at the wheel.

“In FW07B guise and with Alan Jones at the wheel, it was used to clinch the first World Championships for the British team. The success continued in 1981 with the FW07C, which enabled Williams to successfully defend the constructor's World Championship. Although still a race-winning machine, the FW07 was finally superseded by the all-new FW08 in 1982.”

Bryan Herta

The Indy car era is represented in the group photo by a Reynard 99I-Ford Bryan Herta drove for Team Rahal in the 1999 CART Long Beach Grand Prix. Herta finished the race in third place.

“Today marks the official start of our milestone 50th anniversary celebration and the excitement is truly at an all-time high,” said Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President and CEO Jim Michaelian.

Construction of the temporary street circuit also got under way and will involve more than 33,000 working hours to install some 24 million pounds of concrete blocks, string four miles of fencing, and stack 17,000 bolted-together tires.

Under construction are 14 grandstands, seven pedestrian bridges, and nine giant vision boards for full-circuit TV coverage around the 1.97-mile, 11-turn racing circuit.

There will soon be 60 hospitality suites, three hospitality clubs, numerous tents, and electrical lines, equipment, phones, porta-johns, trash containers, and a myriad of other items around the track, organizers said. You know, just your typical race track.

The eastern portion of the track (Turns 9, 10, and 11) will be used for Round 1 of the eight-event 2025 Formula Drift season the week before the GP, April 4-5.

The 2025 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will be headlined by the NTT IndyCar Series, as well as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The weekend will include the Super Drift Challenge under the lights on Friday and Saturday nights, plus doubleheader action from Robby Gordon’s Speed Energy Stadium Super Trucks, GT America Powered by AWS, and the unique Historic Formula Exhibition, featuring cars from the three racing eras at Long Beach—Formula 5000, Formula 1 and IndyCar—racing together for the first time.

The historic cars will be on track all three days.