Long Beach Grand Prix Tickets - Bidding For a Field Position By Jenna Jay At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

This spring will mark the 35th anniversary of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach open-wheel race, and for the 33rd time during the Long Beach Grand Prix weekend, speed-hungry fans can bid on entering the field as a driver. The annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race takes part as one of the exciting events put on during the Grand Prix weekend’s festivities, and with a starting bid of $25,000 anyone could get the chance to race alongside celebrities such as Dara Torres, Frankie Muniz and Dave Mirra, who have all won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race on the celebrity side over the past few years (professionals are included in the race but have a 30-second delay time and compete in a separate category).

The winner of the Long Beach Grand Prix celebrity race auction (which ends Feb. 11) will get the chance to receive a custom-made driver’s suit, airfare, tickets and hospitality for race weekend, a post-race reception and dinner and will also partake in a professional driver’s training course at the Fast Lane Racing School at California’s Willow Springs Raceway in March before jumping into the driver’s seat at the Long Beach Road Course. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Grand Prix Foundation of Long Beach, which provides funds for several charities in the Long Beach area of Southern California.

The Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race is a crowd-pleaser year after year for the festivities during Grand Prix weekend, but the main race of the weekend almost always includes names like Andretti, as the Long Beach Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious open-wheel races of the year. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach began in 1975 as a Formula 5000 race, becoming a Formula One race the next year. Since 1984, the Long Beach Grand Prix has been a CART/Champ Car event, but after the 2008 race Champ Car merged with the Indy Racing League (IRL), making the Grand Prix an event specific to the IRL calendar.

Last April in the last running of the Champ Car’s Long Beach Grand Prix, everyone with Long Beach Grand Prix tickets watched Aussie Will Power (of KV Racing) as he crossed the checkered flag first, winning the road course for the last time with Champ Car. The 2008 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race first place award went to professional racer Mike Skinner, the No. 46 driver for Randy moss Motorsports, and celebrity Jamie Little, pit reporter for NASCAR coverage on ESPN/ABC.

This spring’s Long Beach race will mark the beginning of the future of open-wheel auto racing, as the merged CART/Champ Car and IndyCar series cars will race under the banner of IndyCar after a 12-year split of the two. The 2009 Long Beach Grand Prix will be the second race of the IRL season and will take place April 16-19 in Long Beach, California. To watch the action of this monumental race from the stands, get tickets from http://www.stubhub.com/long-beach-grand-prix-tickets and come down to the Long Beach Road Course in Southern California to watch the league’s speediest racers zoom into the finish line!

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