Sure all major racing circuits have cars that are extremely fast. But do you know the difference between INDYCAR, F1 and NASCAR?
What to Know
- The 50th Grand Prix of Long Beach is April 11-13.
- IndyCar, IMSA racers, Stadium Super Trucks, GT America cars, drifters and more will be featured on the street course.
- Historic Formula 1, Formula 5000 and Indy cars will be on track in a nod to decades of racing in Long Beach.
- The featured IndyCar Series race is Sunday with the IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix set for Saturday afternoon.
Some of the most exciting and advanced modern day race cars and a celebration of motorsports history will be part of 50th grand prix weekend in Long Beach.
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WATCH HERESix different race events featuring a wide range of cars and trucks, including the NTT Indycar Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, are part of the April 11-13 showcase of speed at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Fans will have several opportunities to see each race series with on-track action starting Friday and the headlining races set for Saturday and Sunday.
Below, a look at the race series at the 2025 Grand Prix of Long Beach.
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NTT IndyCar Series
These open-wheel cars -- the same competing at the Indianapolis 500 in May -- make up the grid for Sunday's feature race as they have for decades. Raced on banked oval tracks, road and street courses, the versatile cars are synonymous with Long Beach, where they'll reach top speeds around 185 mph in front of the grandstands on Shoreline Drive.
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Marcus Ericsson set fast lap in the 2024 IndyCar race with a time of 67.7690 seconds.
Schedule: Practice sessions are set for Friday with the thrilling qualifying round scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The feature race is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
One of the world's most exciting and competitive sports car racing series features Saturday in a 100-minute shootout. The event is actually multiple races in one -- a competition among GT Prototype race cars (GTP) and another in the production car GT Daytona class (GTD), which features the world’s top automotive manufacturers with high-performance pedigrees.
The cars, drivers and teams have been battle tested at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring this year, so the 100-minute shootout on the 1.9-mile Long Beach street course will be a hard-fought elbows-out sprint race with the winner largely determined by who can stay out of trouble.
In the 2024 IMSA race, Sebastien Bourdais clocked a 1:12.626 in the top-tier GTP class to claim fast lap.
Schedule: IMSA will set its grid Saturday with a 50-minute qualifying session for the two race groups. The feature sports car race is at 2 p.m. Saturday.
SPEED/UTV Stadium SUPER Trucks
Stadium SUPER Trucks literally fly down Shoreline Drive. The powerful trucks provide some of the weekend's best entertainment, soaring off ramps as they compete side-by-side.
Schedule: The Stadium SUPER Trucks race Saturday and Sunday. Both events are at 4:30 p.m.
GT America Powered by AWS
GT2, GT3 and GT4 spec race cars will compete in two 40-minute races on Saturday and Sunday. Manufacturers in the field include Acura, Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren, Porsche and Toyota.
Schedule: GT America qualifies at 4:35 p.m. Friday with races scheduled for 5:20 p.m. Saturday and 11:20 a.m. Sunday.
Super Drift Challenge
The Super Drift Challenge is a tire-smoking fan favorite in which drivers slide through turns. Judges watch for a driver's line on the course, angle in the turns and and style. A trailing car's proximity to the lead car also is a factor in the tandem competition.
Schedule: Super Drift Challenge will be on track at 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Historic Formula Exhibition
A tribute to the heritage of open-wheel racing in Long Beach, legendary cars from three iconic series that raced here – Formula 5000, Formula 1, and INDYCAR – will compete together for the first time on Saturday and Sunday of race weekend. Among the cars scheduled to participate in the event:
Formula 5000 era: The 1974 Formula 5000 Dan Gurney All-American Racers Eagle 755, winner of the 1975 Long Beach pole position with driver Vern Schuppan at the wheel. The car, owned by local businessman Tom Malloy, was also the first car ever to compete on the streets of Long Beach. Formula 5000 racers, high-powered open wheel cars with distinctive aerodynamic designs, competed at the inaugural Long Beach race in 1975.
Formula 1 era: Formula 1 competed in Long Beach from 1976 to 1983. One of the most recognizable cars in F1 history, the black-and-gold 1977 race-winning No. 5 John Player Lotus 77 driven by Mario Andretti, will be on track in Long Beach.
IndyCar era: Long Beach's current feature series will be represented by the 2005 winner, the No. 1 Ford Lola 05/00 driven by race legend Sebastien Bourdais. His 2005 victory was the first of three straight in Long Beach.
Schedule: Practice sessions are scheduled for Friday and Saturday mornings before exhibition laps at 10:45 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Click here for the full race weekend schedule.
About the Long Beach street course
A lap doesn't take long in Long Beach. The course is only 1.968 miles with 11 turns. The fastest section is along Shoreline Drive and the start-finish line, where fans in the grandstands can watch cars reach their top speeds and see what happens when pit lane gets busy.
From there, drivers brake hard into Turn 1, an overtaking opportunity before the dolphin fountain section and turns 2 and 3. After navigating turns 4 and 5, the track parallels a portion of Shoreline Drive -- an exciting viewing area on the dive down into Turn 6.
Drivers set up through here for the blast down Seaside Way and entry into another technical section of track that includes a sweeping left into the hairpin Turn 11. This last section of the track is another great place to watch.
Take a lap with Colton Herta during his blistering qualifying run in 2022.
