Over 200K Attended the 50th Anniversary Acura GP of Long Beach
The 50th Anniversary Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is complete, and the event’s upward trend in attendance continued.
According to Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President & CEO Jim Michaelian, reports indicate that the weekend resulted in an attendance figure of just over 200,000, which is a record for the modern era (since the 2008 INDYCAR – Champ Car series merger). Preliminary concession and merchandise numbers reflect a similar increase in sales as well.
For the third consecutive year, reserved seats at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach were sold out by Saturday morning.
Editor’s Note: As of 2023, the total number of grandstands seats for this event was 28,000, broken down as 16,000 3-day seats and 12,000 Sunday only seats.
28,000 x 3 days = 84,000 seated attendance (max – but Friday was not sold out). To exceed 200,000, the general admission crowd plus the suites and support personnel in attendance would have to be 39,000 per day – far more than the grandstand capacity.
“We are delighted with how the entire Acura Grand Prix weekend turned out. This was our most complicated schedule of events including are normal weekend activities, overlayed with all the specific 50th anniversary commemorations, and further enhanced by the special recognition of the First Responders to the January Southern California wildfires,” said Michaelian.
“And all of these events came off just as planned thanks to the efforts of our Grand Prix team, volunteers, partners and the City of Long Beach staff. Now we can focus on creating another exciting weekend along with our new owners, Penske Entertainment, next April 17-19, 2026.
The race weekend hosted six world-class racing events, highlighted by Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES which was won for the second time in the past three years by Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Autosport Honda) and Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, won by co-drivers Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy (#7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963) in the GTP class and Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar (#177 AO Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R) in the GTD class.
It also featured a look back at the race’s 50-year history, with a Grand Prix Legends Parade featuring six-time Long Beach winner Al Unser Jr., four-time winners Mario Andretti and Paul Tracy, inaugural race (1975) winner Brian Redman, race founder Chris Pook and Danny Gurney, son of the legendary Dan Gurney who had a big role in the founding of the race.
The Friday and Saturday night concerts, DVBBS Presented by Acura and Foreigner Presented by Cuervo Tequila, respectively, played to packed crowds on the Terrace Theater Plaza, as did the Super Drift Challenge in turns 9, 10 and 11 on the same nights.