Move aside, Amazon — Cyber Monday is now for Long Beach racing fans.
Tickets for next year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 28, race officials announced this week. Cyber Monday, on the week after Thanksgiving, is e-retailers’ answer to Black Friday.
The Long Beach Grand Prix is one of the city’s biggest events, with upward of 180,000 people traditionally descending on the seaside metropolis’ downtown over three days. The 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place from April 14 to 16.
“We have put together another exciting event on the track for 2023,” said Jim Michaelian, president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach. “After returning to our traditional April date this year, we had an extremely successful event and we are looking forward to building on that momentum to bring even more excitement and family fun back to the streets of Long Beach. It’s going to be a beach party full of activity for the entire family.”
The coronavirus nixed the Grand Prix in 2020 and forced organizers to move last year’s iteration from April to September before returning to its usual month this year — meaning there were two Grand Prix events within about six months of each other.
But any fears about waning excitement because of the short turnaround appeared to be for naught, with Michaelian reporting shortly after the Grand Prix ended that attendance slightly surpassed 2019 levels.
Long Beach’s biggest annual party is an economic boon for downtown businesses and the city as a whole, with thousands of people swarming the area.
“The crowds were strong, they were enthusiastic,” Steve Goodling, president and CEO of the Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, said in April. “Not only was there a strong economic impact this weekend — but it will have residual effects on future conventions.”
Next year’s race weekend, meanwhile, will feature many of the usual attractions, the Grand Prix association said in a Tuesday, Nov. 22, press release:
Once again, there will be the Lifestyle Expo with more than 100 product and service displays; the Family Fun Zone, with racing simulators, computer games and more; autograph sessions and special events; the Food Truck Experience; and Sunday’s Mothers Exotic Car Paddock.
And then, of course, there’s the racing.
The Grand Prix will bring back the historic Formula 1 Challenge. Formula 1 — the style of racing most popular in Europe — hasn’t run in Long Beach in decades.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Super Drift Challenge, Robby Gordon’s SPEED/UTV Stadium Super Trucks and the Porsche Carrera Cup North America will also all return next year.
But all those races are appetizers for the main course — the 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Related links
Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach to bring back historic Formula 1 challenge in 2023
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Photos: It’s a wrap on the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach Grand Prix
The headlining race — the third in the NTT IndyCar Series — will take place on Sunday afternoon, April 16, and will feature defending champion Josef Newgarden and 2021 winner and Southern California local Colton Herta among the competitors. The Grand Prix will see the open-wheeled IndyCars zip around the 1.97-mile, 11-turn circuit on downtown Long Beach’s streets.
Tickets cost anywhere from $38 for Friday general admission to $175 for a three-day pass that includes Saturday and Sunday reserved seating in the grandstand’s upper levels, the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach said.
Parking, paddock-access and photo-session packages will also be available once tickets go on sale Monday.
For more information — such as a complete race schedule and ticket prices — and to buy tickets, go to gplb.com.