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It’s funny — in an odd sort of way — but it took the demise of Champ Car to produce the largest field in years for next weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Chris Esslinger, the press officer for the Grand Prix, reports the entry list is up to 20 car and driver teams for the 34th edition of the race on the streets of Long Beach April 18-20, the largest Champ Car field for the event since 2002. That was just before the mass exodus of Champ Car teams to the rival IndyCar Series.
Now that Champ Car has gone belly up and merged with the IndyCar Series, this will be the 25th and final race of the Champ Car World Series at Long Beach. Previously, Formula One and Formula 5000 had competed in the Long Beach Grand Prix. It will also be the final Champ Car World Series event.
The unification of the IndyCar Series and Champ Car came too late to move either the Long Beach Grand Prix or the scheduled IndyCar event the same weekend at Motegi, Japan.
Indy Racing League founder and President Tony George said the series will award points to the Champ Car teams who have made the shift to the IRL on the same basis as if it were an IndyCar race. He had long coveted Long Beach, which has become the premier street race in the country, for his series and needed to ensure the continuity of the event for the future IndyCar Series’ schedules.
The final Champ Car race is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, April 20.
Open-wheel racing legend Bobby Rahal (Graham’s father) will serve as Grand Marshal for the 34th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Rahal will be with his IndyCar Series in Japan, then jet back to the states in time to signal the start of the Long Beach race and watch his son compete.
“This is really a great honor for me to be part of one of the crown jewels of American motorsport,” Rahal said in a statement from the Grand Prix. “I first came to Long Beach as a spectator in 1977, little realizing that I would be racing there the next year. I look forward to serving as Grand Marshal and to seeing a great race.”
The ceremony begins at 11:00 am at the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame, located on South Pine Avenue in front of the Convention Center, just south of Ocean Boulevard.
Champ Car will hold the final race of its existence next weekend at Long Beach while the IndyCar Series regulars are at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan. Then, the two entities will be
together again on an oval at Kansas Speedway April 27.
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