HeilSvenska
04-08-2006, 12:48 AM
Ahhhhh, yes. The only major international race in Southern California...
Sunshine, glamour, pretty cars, right? Not really. In fact it was raining couple of days ago and I was afraid that races would be cancelled, although there were early forecasts of rain on Sunday. And Long Beach is pretty nasty city excepting the downtown area.
Actually, the Long Beach GP is composed of different races. There's the SPEED World Challenge GT, the Champ Car Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Imperial Capital Bank Atlantic Championship Race, and the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series...and a couple more that I don't care about.
I went there right after my Calc class today and spent the entire day there. I plan to do that again on Saturday and Sunday. During that time, I'll slowly upload pictures I take at the races. It's a work in progress as I've never taken pictures of cars that fast. Phew. Enjoy.
Schedule
Friday April 7th, 2006
Rolex Series Practice
Atlantic Practice
Champ Car Practice
Celebrity Practice
Champ Car Qualifying
Atlantic Qualifying
Celebrity Practice
Rolex Series Qualifying
Drifting Challenge...which I refuse to watch...
SCCA SPEED GT Practice
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9875/venue9fo.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=venue9fo.jpg)
The venue.
http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/1659/grandam40ig.th.jpg (http://img450.imageshack.us/my.php?image=grandam40ig.jpg)
The Howard-Boss Pontiac Crawford Prototype No. 4, Tony Stewart and Andy Wallace drive this car.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/3893/wheel1fg.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wheel1fg.jpg)
Some wheel. I love snooping around the paddock.
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4431/gt35am.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gt35am.jpg)
The 997 GT3 at display. No, this one didn't race, but there was another one that did.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/819/tf14sj.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tf14sj.jpg)
Toyota F1 race car. I've never seen a modern F1 car before. As you can see, Ralf is here doing some part-time work. :lol: kidding.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6160/celeb9uz.th.jpg (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=celeb9uz.jpg)
Yes. It's the dreaded Celebrity Race. What it is is just some A to B to D-list celebrities driving erratically in a Scion/Toyota tC (yes, tC. It's It's spelled exactly like that). Some semi-celebrities include William Shatner/Captain Kirk, American Idol runner-up Bo Bice, Xzibit, NFL's John Elway, and that Frankie Muniz of that stupid show Malcolm In the Middle, whose life-long dream was apparently winning the celebrity race, which he did last year. Man, I so wanted to see him crash... Anyways, more than half of the "celebrities" lost at least one of their side mirrors during the practice session.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8070/porsche0on.th.jpg (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=porsche0on.jpg)
The Brumos Porsche Fabcar spun out on turn 8. It lost a chunk of its bodywork in the process. The car sounded really pissed off as it pulled away.
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8294/garage0px.th.jpg (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=garage0px.jpg)
Cars wait to go into the garages.
http://img429.imageshack.us/img429/9260/picchio5wn.th.jpg (http://img429.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picchio5wn.jpg)
The No. 33 ADI Motorsport BMW Picchio Prototype has to be my favorite Rolex car here. It's the only Picchio car in the series and it looks mighty fine. Picchio is obviously, Italian.
http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/616/porsche23iz.th.jpg (http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?image=porsche23iz.jpg)
It's the other Brumos Porsche Fabcar. It's supposed to look like the new Cayman.
http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/5442/gt7pm.th.jpg (http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gt7pm.jpg)
The SPEED GT Viper forces the Subaru to take the wide turn. Haha! Deservedly so.
Day 2...no time to upload pictures, need sleep...
I'd put more stuff up, but I'm tired and I need to rest for tomorrow's events. More will come in time. Weeeeee. Waking up at 6:00am!
Sunshine, glamour, pretty cars, right? Not really. In fact it was raining couple of days ago and I was afraid that races would be cancelled, although there were early forecasts of rain on Sunday. And Long Beach is pretty nasty city excepting the downtown area.
Actually, the Long Beach GP is composed of different races. There's the SPEED World Challenge GT, the Champ Car Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Imperial Capital Bank Atlantic Championship Race, and the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series...and a couple more that I don't care about.
I went there right after my Calc class today and spent the entire day there. I plan to do that again on Saturday and Sunday. During that time, I'll slowly upload pictures I take at the races. It's a work in progress as I've never taken pictures of cars that fast. Phew. Enjoy.
Schedule
Friday April 7th, 2006
Rolex Series Practice
Atlantic Practice
Champ Car Practice
Celebrity Practice
Champ Car Qualifying
Atlantic Qualifying
Celebrity Practice
Rolex Series Qualifying
Drifting Challenge...which I refuse to watch...
SCCA SPEED GT Practice
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9875/venue9fo.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=venue9fo.jpg)
The venue.
http://img450.imageshack.us/img450/1659/grandam40ig.th.jpg (http://img450.imageshack.us/my.php?image=grandam40ig.jpg)
The Howard-Boss Pontiac Crawford Prototype No. 4, Tony Stewart and Andy Wallace drive this car.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/3893/wheel1fg.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wheel1fg.jpg)
Some wheel. I love snooping around the paddock.
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4431/gt35am.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gt35am.jpg)
The 997 GT3 at display. No, this one didn't race, but there was another one that did.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/819/tf14sj.th.jpg (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tf14sj.jpg)
Toyota F1 race car. I've never seen a modern F1 car before. As you can see, Ralf is here doing some part-time work. :lol: kidding.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6160/celeb9uz.th.jpg (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=celeb9uz.jpg)
Yes. It's the dreaded Celebrity Race. What it is is just some A to B to D-list celebrities driving erratically in a Scion/Toyota tC (yes, tC. It's It's spelled exactly like that). Some semi-celebrities include William Shatner/Captain Kirk, American Idol runner-up Bo Bice, Xzibit, NFL's John Elway, and that Frankie Muniz of that stupid show Malcolm In the Middle, whose life-long dream was apparently winning the celebrity race, which he did last year. Man, I so wanted to see him crash... Anyways, more than half of the "celebrities" lost at least one of their side mirrors during the practice session.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8070/porsche0on.th.jpg (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=porsche0on.jpg)
The Brumos Porsche Fabcar spun out on turn 8. It lost a chunk of its bodywork in the process. The car sounded really pissed off as it pulled away.
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/8294/garage0px.th.jpg (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=garage0px.jpg)
Cars wait to go into the garages.
http://img429.imageshack.us/img429/9260/picchio5wn.th.jpg (http://img429.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picchio5wn.jpg)
The No. 33 ADI Motorsport BMW Picchio Prototype has to be my favorite Rolex car here. It's the only Picchio car in the series and it looks mighty fine. Picchio is obviously, Italian.
http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/616/porsche23iz.th.jpg (http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?image=porsche23iz.jpg)
It's the other Brumos Porsche Fabcar. It's supposed to look like the new Cayman.
http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/5442/gt7pm.th.jpg (http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gt7pm.jpg)
The SPEED GT Viper forces the Subaru to take the wide turn. Haha! Deservedly so.
Day 2...no time to upload pictures, need sleep...
I'd put more stuff up, but I'm tired and I need to rest for tomorrow's events. More will come in time. Weeeeee. Waking up at 6:00am!