| Nobody knew it at the time, but that travel agent with the wild idea - Chris Pook - after lengthy battles with the Coastal Commission and various other agencies, was about to put the City of Long Beach on the international sports map. Barely 18 months earlier, Pook had beaten all the odds and naysayers by staging the first Long Beach Grand Prix, a Formula 5000 race won by BrianRedman that attracted more than 46,000 race fans and curiosity seekers. He followed that only six months laters by staging a Formula One race, won by Switzerland's Clay Regazzoni, that was a moderate success. Now, at 4:30 am, it was financial crunch time. With a pack of creditors snapping at his heels, Pookdesperately needed a high-profile F/One race that would be watched by countless millions world wide and - he hope - packed grandstands in Long Beach. He got it. With some help from a tough, diminutive Italian-American from Nazareth, Pa. Mario Adnretti avoided a first-lap, multi-car collision, then went on to outduel F/one stars Jody scheckter and Niki Lauda to become the first American to win a F/One race in a U.S. Grand Prix. "Mario's victory really changed the whole image of the race," says Jim Michaelian, now the President and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach and the race's financial officer in 1978. "We made the New Youk Times, Sports Illustrated and the race was all over the local and national news." For the next six years, a decidedly international ambience settled over the city each spring. Romantic car marques like Ferrari, Renault and Brabham shared headlines with equally romantic, internationally famous drivers like Jacques Laffite, Emerson Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet. Argentina's Carlos Reutemann won flag-to-flag in his Ferrari in 1978, just evading a now-class first-lap shunt involving James Hunt that remains perhaps the Grand Prix's most enduring image. Canada's Gilles Villeneuve - a crowd favorite for his hard-charging style - led a Ferrari one-two finish in 1979 and, in 1980, Brazil's Nelson Piquet's Parmalat Brabham scored another flag-to-flag victory. Official Grand Prix of Long Beach website |
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| Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach |
| On Ocean Blvd., next to the shells of boarded-up buildings and under the dim glow of a porno movie marquee, a Long Beach travel agent is perched high up on a ladder, wielding pliers and hammer, helping put up fences. |
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