When you think about Long Beach, California, three things might come to mind—palm trees, Snoop Dogg, and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. In fact, the iconic street race celebrates a major milestone in 2025, and PRI was invited to celebrate alongside Jim Michaelian, president of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California. Who better to help ring in the 50th-year celebration of North America's longest-running street race than the man who was there at the start? [Editor's note: For more on Michaelian, read PRI Magazine's Industry Insights one-on-one interview in the March/April 2025 issue].
Arriving to the exhibit's grand opening, I immediately felt the charm of automotive history settle in. Museums like Petersen tend to influence their attendees like that—I believe it's a museum's natural ability to tether a time from the past to the modern world.
When the exhibits at a museum are surrounded by machines that were built to master the art of discounting time for sport, you realize that race cars carry a special presence. The sense of "living history," almost like the aura of racing is baked deep into the metal of these machines.
It's closely akin to the experience of grandma making her famous cookies—the most potent ingredient is love. You can taste the difference.
In the same vein, standing next to Dan Gurney Racing's, Formula 5000 "Jorgensen Eagle" 755, you can feel the racing pedigree tied to every aspect of the race car. My eyes immediately caught the impressive list of driver names displayed by the monocoque's opening.
The likes of James Hunt (1974), Bobby Unser (1975), and Vern Schuppan (1975-1976), masterfully pin-striped on Eagle's cockpit. Though, the Jorgensen Eagle was actually special. Michaelian pointed out during his speech that it was the first car to "turn a wheel" on the street circuit at Long Beach.
Fascinating as it may be, the significance of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach really started to settle into my mind as I took in the evening celebration.
"Back in 1974, when Chris [Pook] was trying to convince the city of Long Beach that it would do a lot of good for their image if they ran a Formula One race," said Michaelian. "He [Chris Pook] was looking for the circuit design and the safety system that could accommodate not only the needs of running the race, but also satisfying the sanctioning body's stakeholders, city officials and insurance companies, too. Because without insurance, we weren't going to get it done," he chuckled.
He also subtly hinted to the radical measures necessary when you set out to run a street race in Long Beach.
Taking in Michaelian's story, I considered the magnitude of grandeur that it must have taken to convince a city, specifically in Southern California, that racing should take place on public streets.
It's impossible when you really think about it.
Palm trees, residential homes, restaurants, businesses and other obstacles that racers would be tasked to drive through are the essence of a daring idea that could only stem from brilliance.
Or debatably, insanity. I still can't decide.
In consideration, the only other business models to reference a race of this caliber only existed from examples outside the U.S. The idea that anyone could pitch this vision to a board of local city councilmembers, (with full confidence) is ludicrous. Imagining this scenario almost feels illegal to pitch.
Against all odds, Pook, Michaelian and a small team of individuals managed to convince sanctioning bodies, the insurance companies, and many other stakeholders involved, to viably run a safe race for all those who attended.
"1975's successful event was a precursor to the fact that we needed to do an event before Formula One would come in March of '76. We succeeded in doing that. And, as they say, the rest is history," said Michaelian, as he brought his opening speech to a close.
As history would indicate, ludicrous ideas can only stem from the insanely brilliant.
In 1997, Alex Zanardi took the victory of the Grand Prix of Long Beach in his Target sponsored Team Ganassi Reynard 97i-Honda powered race car. In the crowd that day was a young boy from Pomona, California, named Vince Nguyen.
Nguyen left that race inspired, and credits two "taproot moments" that changed the course of his life.
"One of them was Alex Zanardi. He won the Grand Prix, and he won it in a Honda-powered race car. Everybody was cheering. I still remember the screams. I remember the goosebumps," said Nguyen.
He further reminisced on his first Long Beach grand prix.
"The second part of that, was an exhibition race—and I saw for the first time in my life, an Acura NSX. I didn't know what car it was. I just knew one day, I wanted it, and it would be really cool to own that car."
Currently, Nguyen helms Acura's regional marketing operations and manages the relationship of the title sponsorship for the aptly named, Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Acura has been the title sponsor since 2019, and Nguyen humbly credits his involvement to, "the star's aligning."
The speech was inspired, and the room felt united through nostalgia and pride.
Nguyen later expressed that he's owned three NSX cars thus far and steered his career path toward Acura to specifically be involved with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
"If this event and this brand [Acura] could have that much influence on one person, and one little kid, to where it literally shifted the direction of his life, what else can it do to the hundreds of thousands of people in attendance and the millions watching, and everybody online that gets to see all the social media videos afterward," he said.
I spoke with my neighbor sitting next to me at the end of Nguyen's speech, unanimously, we agreed that the genuine sense of authenticity in his motorsports enthusiasm is exactly who—we, as fellow enthusiasts, want to see sponsoring, supporting, and protecting the legacy of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Beyond the nostalgia of charismatic executives who spoke that night, one feeling was clear: the love for motorsports on the streets of Long Beach.
Standing alone, only sharing the presence of Alain Prost's 1980 Marlboro sponsored M30 McLaren, I found it difficult to maintain my composure—especially after a room full of motorsports enthusiasts watched a short documentary that displayed the three distinct eras of the Grand Prix of Long Beach and its proud heritage.
Left with only the theatre of mind, and Prost's M30 McLaren, I could only imagine the guttural sounds that sang from the Formula One, Ford-Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve), 90-degree V8.
Determination and grit aren't qualities mutually exclusive to race car drivers, their teams, and its competitors. It's reserved for a particular sect of individuals who challenge the boundaries of possibility.
Michaelian expressed what it meant for the Long Beach race to hit the 50-year milestone, listing three primary factors that they considered as the mark to whether or not the event would be a success when they first came to the city.
"First was the economic impact....We just released our economic impact report a couple of months ago, it showed that there was an expenditure of close to $100 million in the general area," he said.
The second factor was to increase the coverage and exposure of Long Beach and to represent it as the great city that it is.
"Let's show the growth, the development, the dynamic elements in it, and let's broadcast that—not only nationally, but internationally. Last year we had over 2.2 million viewers."
He further stated, "This is not a stadium. This is not an arena. You must have cameras to follow the cars, but they can't focus on just the cars—they have to incorporate the backdrop to that, and that's the advantage we have running street races".
The final factor is what Michaelian expressed as "esprit de corps."
"The city, individual residents, whether they're race fans or not, it doesn't matter. The city residents feel a sense of pride that their city can host a major event—do it safely, in a fan-friendly way, and be able to accomplish it year after year," stated Michaelian.
He said that those three factors act as deliverables for the fans, residents, and the city—as the basis of their benchmark, measuring its success when discussing the legacy of its 50th year of events.
His responses felt like valuable lessons. Whether Michaelian took the stage or was in a small circle of colleagues or fans—I noticed, when he spoke, people listened. The risks and direction that pioneers like Pook and Michaelian took in the '70s changed the course of possibilities in modern American street racing.
Recognition of Michaelian's accomplishments would prompt enough pause for anyone to understand a valuable lesson is underway when he starts speaking. Thankfully, title sponsors like Acura, motorsports enthusiast leaders like Nguyen, and the vast team of people who make the event happen each year, allow us the rightful assurances that the spirit of racing will continue with genuine care and Acura's pursuit for "Precision Crafted Performance."
Celebrating Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for its five decades of racing on the streets of Long Beach signifies more than the half-century milestone. It's about the unwavering commitment to take chances and do something great through the pride of a city, its residents, and the most potent ingredient of all—the love of motorsports.
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