That’s a wrap on the 50th anniversary of the Grand Prix of Long Beach — with Sunday belonging to Kyle Kirkwood.
The co-grand marshals for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, racing legends Mario Andretti and Al Unser Jr., uttered the famous words, “Drivers, start your engines” — and then the competitors were off.
The final day of the Grand Prix of Long Beach’s golden anniversary celebration officially kicked off on Sunday morning, April 13, with thousands of fans converging on the concourse early to watch IndyCar warm-ups — in anticipation of the titular race.
This year, Long Beach was the third race in the IndyCar Series season. The first two races this season were the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (in Florida) and the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix.
Alex Palou, 28, won both of those — leaving fans to wonder if the Spaniard will start the 2025 season off with a hat trick in Long Beach on Sunday.
But that didn’t happen.
Kirkwood, the 2023 Grand Prix winner who started on the pole Sunday after having the fastest qualifying time on Saturday, took his second Long Beach checkered flag in dominant fashion, beating second-place finisher Alex Palou by about 4 seconds – and leading for more than 40 of the 90 laps.
Kirkwood’s win also prevented Palou from beginning the 2025 IndyCar Series season with three straight wins.
“This is where we wanted to turn it around,” Kirkwood said on the Fox 11 broadcast after the race, alluding to an underwhelming start to this year and a 2024 season in which he didn’t win a race. “We had a drought last year, so to win this is huge.”
After an overcast morning on Sunday, the sun finally began to peak out from behind the clouds just in time for the start of the Grand Prix. In its 50 years, the Long Beach Grand Prix has never been cancelled or postponed because of weather — a tradition that continued on Sunday.
Before the race, 27 first responders rode in the back of pickup trucks alongside IndyCar drivers in a parade lap — with Los Angeles city fire Capt. Erick Scott taking the helm as honorary starter.
Pasadena Fire Department Chief Anthony James also got a special recognition before the race kicked off, and on-the-track interviews with Andretti and Unser Jr. took place as the race drew nearer.
Though the Grand Prix concourse was packed in the early afternoon — with near shoulder-to-shoulder traffic all throughout the concourse — the crowds had largely dispersed just before the race, as fans made their way to the grandstands and other viewing areas to watch the Grand Prix finally get underway.
As the start time got closer, eople walked around the track in color-coordinated clusters, with race teams in bright oranges and yellows, U. S. Army soldiers watching race cars being towed to the track, and a huddle of sheriff’s deputies in loose formation.
Race fans walked, phones in hand, ready to catch that perfect shot.
There was a gasp as Pato O’Ward’s orange No. 5 was towed down the track.
“Once in a lifetime!” a fan crowed, raising his phone for a photo. He froze when the man himself walked by with a crew member — and wasn’t able to get that shot.
O’Ward is among the most popular — if not the most — in Long Beach, with the crowd roaring during his introduction.
Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi also received loud cheers.
Emily Wirth, 19, of Gardena, watched the IndyCar race with her father Jim, 56. It’s their sixth father-daughter Grand Prix date.
“It’s something we talk about even before the races,” she said. “It’s nice to share this with him.”
The pair were rooting for Scott Dixon — but it turned out to be Kyle Kirkwood’s day.
But Palou fans could still come away smiling, though his second place finish was less than ideal for fans of anyone else, as far as the overall IndyCar Series standings are concerned.
“We’re super happy we won this,” Kirkwood said. “But we’re unhappy Palou finished second. We need to win more of these.”
The wide gap between Kirkwood and Palou, though, was a stark contrast from the 2024 Grand Prix, when Dixon nursed his push-to-pass booster to outlast local kids Colton Herta and Palou.
Dixon, this year, finished eighth, while Herta, from Valencia, finished seventh.
Local favorite Pato O’Ward, meanwhile, finished in 13th, and another popular driver, Rossi, came in 15th.
Another big driver, Josef Newgarden, finished in last after having a seatbelt issue around lap 60.
The Grand Prix itself, meanwhile, continued a trend of clean racing to start 2025. There has only been one caution flag total through the first three races of the season — none on Sunday — which is the fewest to start a season since 1970.
As for Kirkwood, he lifted the first place trophy shortly before 4 p.m. Sunday, with Palou and third place finisher Christian Lundgaard flanking him.
Then, each of them picked up the champagne bottles at their feet, shook them – and shot the stream of bubbly at each other.
Despite the relative blowout, fans were still thrilled by the experience.
Mark Hinkins — originally from Manchester, England — attended his first Long Beach Grand Prix this weekend. He now lives in San Francisco, but made the trip south just to see Sunday’s race.
“It’s been fantastic, and (has) exceeded my expectations,” Hinkins said Sunday, just moments after Kirkwood clinched his victory at the beach. “The energy, the fans and this pure adrenaline that you get from actually attending an Indy race — I loved it.”
Though he wasn’t rooting for any particular driver, Hinkins said he was happy with Sunday’s result.
“I love the result,” said Hinkins, who’d watched the Grand Prix’s last 10 laps or so with a crowd of other fans on a big screen near the Terrace Theater. “I don’t have any one that I was rooting for, but I recognize the main drivers and it’s great to see them on the track.”
Hinkins isn’t sure if he’ll make next year’s Grand Prix — noting that he might opt to attend France’s 24 hours of Le Mans in June instead — but he thinks Long Beach is worth a trek for all race fans.
“Everybody should come at least one time,” Hinkins said, “and experience an IndyCar race.”
For Huey Shepard Jr., who has been attending the Grand Prix since he was “knee high to a grasshopper,” as he said Sunday, the results of this year’s race weren’t quite what he was hoping for.
Shepard Jr. and his son were rooting for Australia’s Will Power this year — who took fifth place.
“It happens,” he said. “But it was a great race — and I’m happy for the winner.”
Besides the titular race, Sunday had plenty more to offer for race fans, including the second Historic Formula exhibition and GT America Race, alongside the Mothers Exotic Car Parade.
Off the track, fans explored the Lifestyle Expo — stocked with more than 100 vendors, from toy car sellers to an In-N-Out truck to a high-tech racing simulator — at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center.
Thousands also paid a visit to the Food Truck Village, Family Fun Zone and plenty more for fans to check out on the last day of the Grand Prix.
Overall, it was a busy day (and weekend) in downtown Long Beach — particularly for the workers.
Vanessa Gallegos, 27, of Long Beach, said she was exhausted but happy. This was her third year bartending at Outback Steakhouse and, as of Sunday morning, it’s been par for the course, she said, mixing cocktails for Grand Prix fans sitting in the grandstands in front of the restaurant.
“It’s so crazy and so fun, the environment and the people,” she said. “It’s a big party of people who love cars and having a good time.”
Inside the Lifestyle Expo, meanwhile, most of the vendors were veterans of the event, with the lineup relatively unchanged in recent years.
But one booth, offering racing memorabilia and ephemera from across generations of the sport, underwent a change this year. The RaceFan Company’s longtime operator, Roger Mumbower, died in January because of a respiratory illness at around age 83.
Large posters in Mumbower’s memory adorned the booth’s exterior, paying tribute to the businessman who’d become a very familiar — and beloved — member of the Long Beach Grand Prix community throughout his life.
“Roger was the biggest ‘RaceFan’ who translated his love of racing into a business as a trackside vendor,” the sign reads. “He will be missed by everyone who knew him.”
That includes Tim Williams, a longtime friend of Mumbower who took over RaceFan’s old booth at the expo this year.
“We’ve been friends since 1993,” Williams said Sunday. “I met him here at the Grand Prix.”
Mumbower, before his death, had attended the Grand Prix around 40 times, Williams said. That’s not to mention countless other race events, including Laguna Seca and the Saint Petersburg Grand Prix in Florida, to which Mumbower would take his booth to each year.
Before Mumbower started RaceFan, he worked for aerospace corporation McDonnell Douglas, Williams said.
“But he hated working for someone else, so he started his own business,” Williams said. “He always loved racing, so that’s why he decided to do this. He never considered it a real job. It was a fun job.”
Now, this first Grand Prix without Mumbower there, has been bittersweet, Williams said — with decades of memories at the Grand Prix.
“It’s just a great loss for everyone that knew him,” Williams said. “It’s been difficult for me this weekend, with him not being here.”
For racing fans, on the other hand, there wasn’t any bitterness — just fun.
There were first-time and longtime visitors there on Sunday.
Michelle Weber and Mike Frize, for example, have been coming to the Grand Prix for years — on and off.
“When we were younger, probably from like 16 to our mid-20s, we were here,” Frize said, noting the pair have missed a few years here and there since then. “(But we’ve been coming) most of our lives.”
That includes coming for the last four years, Weber said.
The Long Beach natives both said the Grand Prix gives them more than just a chance to watch thrilling high-speed races or to party — it’s also a place for them to be with their communities.
“I love the city of Long Beach, and I think there’s so much diversity here – and to have such a huge event be a part of our city and community is something special,” Weber said. “Long Beach is such a special, unique town, and everything comes together for this one weekend.”
For Frize, who is a general contractor in Long Beach, the Grand Prix offers a place for him to meet and catch up with many people he’s worked with, not to mention friends and family.
“It’s a good meeting place,” Frize said, “(and) it’s good to get out and people watch.”
Frize and Weber didn’t come Friday or Saturday — just for the big race on Sunday.
“We love to walk the Convention Center and see all the cars, and then we love to go watch the race,” Weber said. “But we like to move around.”
The pair doesn’t bother with reserved seating in the grandstands for that reason: there are plenty of other places to get a great view of the Grand Prix, while getting to take in the rest of what the event has to offer, they said.
“We don’t sit,” Frize added. “We just kind of walk around and enjoy it.”
“I used to (root for drivers) before,” Frize said. “But now — I couldn’t tell you who’s contending or not. It’s just fun to be here and support our city.”
Diamond Thomas, 29, of Utah, made a day of the Grand Prix while visiting family. Not a car enthusiast when she arrived, Thomas said, eyeing all the vehicles in the Exotic Cars Paddock has her getting into wheels, gears and the spectacle of a weekend of street racing.
“What I’ve loved most of all is meeting the car enthusiasts,” Thomas said. “There are so many of them who are passionate about cars and they’re giving me information on the different kinds of engines and shocks and stuff like that. I’m having fun. Everybody’s cool out here.”
