Long Beach Grand Prix Draws Massive Crowds, Awesome Porsches
Six events, three days, and two nights of hot racing action took over the streets of Long Beach for a predictably epic event!
Of all the excellent motorsports events around the world, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach remains a favorite of ours. Each year, we’re treated to three days and two nights of pure excitement in one of the absolute best settings possible. And obviously, we aren’t alone in that sentiment. This year’s race drew well over 185,000 spectators, which organizers call the largest crowd in at least 18 years. That’s more than last year’s 183,000 guests and could potentially be an all-time record. The Toyota Grand Prix doesn’t even have comparable records before 2000.
That huge crowd was treated to some pretty amazing racing action. A total of six different events took place over the long weekend. Those races encompassed everything from vintage Trans Am racing to Stadium Super Trucks. But, of course, we were most interested in the Pirelli World Challenge and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship racers. You know, the ones that included numerous Porsche machinery.
Making things even more awesome was one of our favorite photographers, Jim Donnelly, who was there capturing all of the action via the stellar photos featured here!
Pirelli’s GT/GTA/GT4 invitational race saw some success for Porsche racers. Scott Hargrove, David Calvert-Jones, and Tim Pappas all managed top-ten finishes in their 991 GT3 Rs. Porsche didn’t fare quite as well in IMSA, unfortunately. The team of Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy could muster only a 16th place overall finish.
Regardless, we doubt anyone in attendance went home disappointed. Well, except maybe local residents who don’t enjoy screaming engines and tires as much as we do. Otherwise, the streets of Long Beach provided epic action for everyone lucky enough to attend.
Photos for Rennlist by Jim Donnelly Photo
