LB finale to lure back some old friends
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| Sebastien Bourdais dominated Champ Car for the past 4 years is now gone to F1 |
| Bob Heathcote |
All the Long Beach Grand Prix needs this weekend to make its history-meets-the-future flavor complete is for one of the race teams to enter one of the old Formula 5000 cars from the race's first season in 1975, maybe Brian Redman's Boraxo Lola or Benny Scott's Viceroy/Hilton Lola.
That would be Boraxo, the old 20-mule team cleanser that once employed Ronald Reagan as a pitchman, and Viceroy the tobacco company.
The 34th annual event may be the last in the Champ Car series, but it already feels like a merger of the past and future with so many great names coming back to the race with the merger of Champ Car, once known as CART, and the Indy Racing League.
Mario Andretti, the winner here in 1977, 1984, 1985 and 1987, is being inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame. So is Parnelli Jones, as instrumental in Southern California and Indy racing as any vehicle.
Bobby Rahal is the grand marshal, and his son Graham, fresh off his first open-wheel win in the IRL's street race in St. Petersburg April 6, will be in the field.
Forsythe, Walker Racing and Conquest will field teams even though they're not making the transition to the IRL.
Greg and Leo Mansell, will be running in the Atlantic series.
Adrian Fernandez, a regular on the CART/Champ Car tour from 1993 to 2003 and the runner-up in 2003, will be in the Le Mans Field Saturday and then hop on a plane so he can make it to his NASCAR date Sunday. Longtime LBGP board member Steve Pruitt has an active role as a team owner in LeMans, too. More at Long Beach Press Telegram