Man. What a day. This is turning out to be one great Grand Prix.
Thursdays aren't usually included in Grand Prix schedules because the turnout is usually bad. People have work to do, school to go to... I, for one, ditched school. Forget Circuits and Dynamics. They're nothing compared to what I did today.
First things first. I met Parnelli Jones and Mario Andretti. It was the 3rd annual Motorsport Walk of Fame induction. Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, and Gary Gabelich were honored this year, joining legends such as Phil Hills, Dan Gurney, and Paul Newman. Parnelli Jones, whose real name is Rufus, is a legend in the fabled Trans-Am series, forever remembered alongside his equally-legendary Boss 203 Mustang. Not only that, he raced in IndyCar, NASCAR, midget car, sprint car, and even in Baja and Pikes Peak, which he won in 1963.
Mario Andretti is probably the most famous American racecar driver of all times. He's had success in IndyCar, F1, and in NASCAR, and also competed in sports cars and drag cars.
Gary Gabelich is the most obscure legend honored today. But he is no less deserving. Gabelich was a record setter who broke the land speed record in 1970, doing over 622mph. He was also the first man to do 200mph on water. He passed away 1984, and his wife, Rae Gabelich was there to accept the honor.
After the ceremony, I got Parnelli Jones and Mario Andretti to sign the program, so that was awesome. It was pretty mad, though. All those fans...
Then I went down to the Lifestyle Expo, which is just an exhibition for vendors. I was hoping to find a Sony trailer full of PS3's, but there wasn't one this year. Instead, the Lexus booth had 7 PS3 Virtua GT machines hooked up to HDTVs, all running at 1080p. Awesome, right? No. They were adamant that we were only going to drive the Lexus IS-F on Fuji. Not only that, they couldn't work the machine right, so no one got to play. Boo. Failed again, Lexus. Oh, and that fat Lexus thing was there.
There was also a GM booth, sporting SS models, a C6.R (in '08 livery, although both C6.Rs were scheduled to race. So I assume that's a backup car or an old one), a modified Solstice, and the Solstice SD-290 concept.
OOH, and I finally saw the Mazda Furai concept. It is easily the BEST looking car I've seen in years. Based on a Le Mans prototype, this show car demonstrates the extreme end of Mazda's new design language. Surely this cannot be replicated for production cars.
In the hall next to the main floor was a display of open wheel racecars of yore, all American, of course.
In the Arena, the Formula Drift garage was replaced with the Atlantic garage.
Anyways. Then I had King Taco for lunch, and came back to see the ALMS practice. It's LOUD. If you've never been to a Le Mans-type race, you haven't been to a race. It's just so interesting to see all those different race cars in one track, all singing a different tune. The Audi R10 is eerily silent, the RS Spyder barks. The F430 GTs shriek, and the American GTs, Corvettes, Viper, and the Esperantes make that thundering noise that just jack hammers your brain. There were significant new entrants. The Doran Racing Ford GTR was surprisingly quiet, and the brand-spanking-new Drayson-Barwell AMV8 Vantage was properly loud, rivalling the American V8s at least in sound. Porsche GT3RSRs were surprisingly quieter than I remember.
Right after the ALMS practice, they had the Formula Drift practice. It was spectacular as always, but, no Rhys Millen and his troublesome Solstice. And they did a Fast Lap thing? I don't know what that is, but all I know was that it was boring and they didn't do anything. Oh well.
Then they had another ALMS practice. Hooray. Awesome.
Long Beach GP Report (Pics & Vids)
Since the merger (absorption) of Champ Car and IRL, all other races in Champ Car calendar has been cancelled (including Grand Prix of Houston and Grand Prix of Toronto). So. It's the end. Hopefully, everything returns to Long Beach next year. (with Danica Patrick, I hope. 
Long Beach GP is technically safe till 2015, but if no one's racing...)
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