Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach arrives at good time for IndyCar

Long Beach's beautiful weather can't come soon enough for the IndyCar contingent

IndyCar drivers arriving Thursday for Sunday's 41st edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach were genuinely giddy to see a familiar track, warm sun and clear skies.

Part of it was quite natural, the race being the sport's premiere street race. The other part was simply welcome conditions coming off the latest misstep in the IndyCar series.

To fill a spot on an ebbing schedule of races, IndyCar officials staged the series' first race in New Orleans last weekend and just about everything went awry.

The race was booked for the same weekend as two other area events, the French Quarter Festival and the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival, not to mention competition from the Masters golf tournament on television.

The race was held at a country club facility in the suburbs, promoters did not secure a title sponsor and estimates on attendance for Sunday’s race ranged from 5,000 to 8,000.

Part of that was due to horrible weather. Rain wiped out qualifying Saturday and saturated the course Sunday, leading organizers to start the race early to beat a forecast for more rain.

Because of the weather and a multitude of crashes and wipeouts, only 47 laps were completed, 26 of them under a yellow caution flag, including 11 of the last 14. James Hinchcliffe won the race under a yellow.

IndyCar is still trying to find its footing since the end of the civil war between rival open-wheel groups CART and IRL in 2008. A season-opening event in Brazil was canceled late last year, and the 2015 season has just 16 races, down from a post-war high of 20. The racing season is the shortest on record, five months from March 29 to Aug. 30.

“It was unfortunate," Sebastien Bourdais, a three-time winner in Long Beach, said at Thursday’s media conference. “The locals thought the timing was off since April is usually their wettest month.

“I thought the track was fun. There’s always room for improvements and I hope they find a better slot next year. Actually, the race course was fine when it was raining. When it began to dry there were a few puddles on the course and that’s when there were a lot of unforced (driving) errors."

“There were a lot of people eager to see some racing, and unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of it because of the yellows," Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud said. “I wish we could have given them a better show. It was bad luck."

Bad luck seems to find IndyCar. It chose to compress the season after complaints about too many long breaks between races and the desire to move the date of the AutoClub Speedway event in Fontana out of September, away from the often stifling heat and competition from football. It will be held June 27.

In the offseason, race teams sought changes in management. They were able to get a new race director in Brian Barnhart, but Randy Bernard was retained as CEO.

The biggest technical change for 2015 is the addition of aero kits for the cars that will tweak performance and return to the days when cars had distinctive looks. The post-war era has featured homogenous cars and very little leeway for engineers to change configurations.

“It’s a very good move," Bourdais said. “It doesn’t change the basic product but this is what the manufacturers wanted, a chance to make changes in the cars for more downforce and a different look.

“I think fans will like the distinctive look cars will have rather than looking at the same package for every car. It’s not a revolution, just evolution."

A field of 23 cars will race Sunday. Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing have four cars apiece in the race, and Andretti Motorsports has three. There are only two one-car teams in the field, Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan and Bryan Herta’s team.

Team Penske is off to a fast start, with seven top-10 finishes in the first two races. Pagenaud was among the leaders in New Orleans before Ryan Hunter-Reay clipped him on a turn and ended his day.

Some well-known names are absent – Justin Wilson, Ryan Briscoe and defending Long Beach champ Mike Conway.

Wilson, who was on the Long Beach podium twice in his career, is still with Andretti but he has lost his full-season ride. Veteran Briscoe was cut loose by Ganassi after only one top-five finish in 2014. Conway, a street specialist, left IndyCar for a full-time gig on the FIA World Endurance circuit. Bob Keiser/OC Register