The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will headline the 50^th Anniversary Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend, April 11-13, 2025 along with fantastic support series like the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Historic F1, F5000, Indy cars and more.

Like an annual rite of passage, this spring fling is known as the “World’s Fastest Beach Party.” Adding to the prestige of this iconic event will be the rock band, Foreigner, headlining the Saturday night concert in front of the Long Beach convention center.

Coming into this race, Alex Palou of the Chip Ganassi racing team has shown that he’s currently in a class of his own, winning the opening two races of the season at St. Pete and Thermal. His teammate, six-time champion Scott Dixon, is looking to repeat his win from last year and work his way towards a record seventh championship. Dixon finished second at Thermal (three weeks ago) without having radio communication for much of the race. 

The Arrow McLaren team led by Pato O’Ward has been featuring up front with new teammate Christian Lundgaard looking to make his mark by finishing in front of O’Ward. Team Penske looked strong at St. Pete but seemed to lose their way at Thermal, but they’re always good at Long Beach. Same too for the Andretti Global trio of former winners Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood and (podium finisher) Marcus Ericsson. Could there be others to feature strongly at Long Beach? You bet. With decades of data here, every team (except new team Prema) is raring to win the biggest race on the calendar outside of Indianapolis. 

In IMSA, the teams are just coming off of 36 hours of endurance racing at Daytona and Sebring. Now it’s a 100-minute sprint featuring two classes – GTP and GTD. One of the most anticipated entries in the GTP ranks will be the normally aspirated, V12-powered, Aston Martin Valkyrie. The Penske Porsche team of Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy have won the first two races of the year and their teammates won Long Beach two years ago. This is Acura’s local turf, so the Meyer Shank team will be looking to bring home the win in front of their hometown fans with Colin Braun/Tom Blomqvist and Renger van der Zande (who won here last year in a Cadillac)/Nick Yelloly. On the GTD side, the biggest anticipated debut will be Robert Wickens, who will be racing with hand controls in the #36 Corvette ZO6 GT3.R! Fan favorite, “Rexy,” the green dinosaur liveried Porsche with the toothy grin in the front will drop down from GTD PRO to GTD for this event. The same will strategy for the Lexus of Jack Hawksworth and Parker Thompson (last year’s pole-sitter and winner).

There will be two races for the Historic Motor Sports Association featuring the sights and sounds of Formula 5000, Formula One and Indy cars in all their original livery and perhaps best yet, original engines. This variety of mechanical music will certainly prove to be a fan favorite for those that saw them in their original glory, as well as for the newer fans that have only heard the stories of these fantastic machines.

Robby Gordon’s SPEED/UTV Stadium SUPER Trucks will bring high-flying excitement with the roar of V8 engines in these fiberglass-bodied spec race machines that have “reverse aerodynamics.” That means that the trucks in the back of the field have a better aerodynamic advantage than the ones leading the field. This provides for close and exciting racing, especially with the numerous ramps set up around the track to provide huge air-time for these trucks.

The GT Americas Powered by AWS will showcase GT2, GT3 and GT4 factory-based sports cars like the ones from Acura, Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren, Porsche and Toyota. These cars will race on both Saturday and Sunday.

Finally, the Super Drift Challenge from the Formula Drift Series will have competitions on both Friday and Saturday night. The Turn 10 complex will be where most fans will gather to watch super sideways action and plenty of tire smoke.

Inside the circuit will feature plenty of places to eat or grab a cold beverage of choice. The Motorsports Lifestyle Expo will feature FastLane Racing School! In fact, we will be offering special pricing for those who visit our booth there! 

Half a century of racing through the streets of Long Beach is a massive milestone. Don’t miss it!

By Larry Mason

Copyright © 2025 Larry Mason

From left to right: 2021 AGPLB winner and track record holder, Colton Herta, Two-time AGPLB winner (including 2024 shown here) and six-time champion, Scott Dixon, and three-time champion and winner of the first two races of the year, Alex Palou share the podium at last year’s race. Don’t bet against any of these guys to step on the podium again this year!

It wasn’t exactly a Sunday drive in the park last year for Scott Dixon. In fact, he claims that this is one of his most cherished memories of all the times he’s raced here. He went on an early fuel-save strategy that hopefully would’ve seen a caution later on. That caution never came. “I think it was the hardest to pull off … the last ten laps were pretty intense” Dixon summarized.

How happy was Dixon to finish second at Thermal? Not at all due to a radio malfunction. He missed the pit-in undercut that his teammate Alex Palou used to help him win the race. 

The Aston Martin Valkyrie (shown here as the road-going version) will make it’s AGPLB debut in Saturday’s IMSA race as a GTP entry. If it goes as fast as it looks, a podium is a possibility!

Sexy looking prototypes like this Acura GTP car will headline the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race on Saturday afternoon.

Interview and photos Copyright © by Larry Mason (unless otherwise noted)