Oilpressure

Thursday morning, we learned that the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, which operates the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, has been acquired by Penske Entertainment. As usual, there have been a few negative comments on social media – but I see this as a good thing. In fact, I’m curious why anyone would think this is a bad thing – unless you just like to publicly complain about anything.

It was just before this past season’s Long Beach race that NASCAR caused a stir by snooping around with eyes on buying one half of the event from the estate of Kevin Kalkhoven. Gerald Forsythe owned the other half of the event, from when the two bought it in 2008. In late March 2024, Forsythe bought the remaining 50% from Kalkhoven’s estate – with the idea that as long as he owned it, Long Beach would always be an IndyCar event and NASCAR would never get their paws on it. Who knows? They may do to the Grand Prix what they’ve done to Auto Club Speedway, tear it up and turn it into something no one recognizes – without a real plan what to do with what’s left.

While IndyCar fans certainly appreciated Forsythe’s efforts at the time, you couldn’t help but think this was only a temporary roadblock for NASCAR. Forsythe is 82 years-old. While I have no idea about his health, once a person reaches 80 – all bets are off. While I don’t mean to upset a whole set of octogenarians, it’s not out of the question for someone in that age group to die in their sleep for no apparent reason. My father’s twin-brother did just that at the age of 74. It can happen at any age, but the older you get, the more likely it is to happen. Have I covered myself enough for anyone this paragraph may offend?

That is why when I first heard that Penske Entertainment was trying to make an offer to Forsythe, I was hoping he would take it. Thursday, we found out that he did. To me, this has no downside. Other than being a steward of the event and making sure it stays an IndyCar event for the near future – I’m not sure how motivated Forsythe was to pour money into the event to make massive improvements. Granted he had little to nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of the event. That was Jim Michaelian and his team’s job.

I know that Penske Entertainment has been accused of doing some things on the cheap, but they also have the resources to take that event to another level (notice I didn’t use the dreaded trendy phrase “next level”).

Gerald Forsythe is a wealthy man, but I think he felt he had done his duty by buying the other stake in the event and keeping NASCAR away. Penske Entertainment has the money to pour into the event, and also has some pretty sharp people with good ideas on how to make it even better. This isn’t just Roger Penske’s estate buying the event – it is a major corporation with an entire portfolio of race tracks, events and of course – IndyCar. Penske Entertainment is set up to thrive long after Roger Penske is gone, as I callously approach the pending death subject again.

By purchasing the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, Penske Entertainment has essentially locked NASCAR out of any possibility of staging a NASCAR race on the Streets of Long Beach – for the short-term and the long-term.

I applaud Penske Entertainment for making the preemptive strike and acquiring Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, before NASCAR struck a secret deal with the Forsythe family in case Forsythe becomes incapacitated or passes away suddenly.

Unlike last March, I now feel like the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will exist as an IndyCar race – long after I’m gone, and I’d like to think I’ve got at least another twenty years or so left in me. Back in March, I was happy that Gerald Forsythe did what he did to stave off NASCAR, but I felt like it was just a matter of time before they would be able to come in and scarf it up. It made me ill to think of an event that had hosted open-wheel (Formula 5000, F1, CART and IndyCar) since its inception almost fifty years; to suddenly have lumbering stock cars trying to make it around the hairpin.

Now I know that is no longer a possibility. And I’m still perplexed at why a few people think this is a bad thing.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on November 15, 2024 at 4:05 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.