January 5
This was the day the official Long Beach GP Instagram page announced there would be a Historic IMSA GTP challenge series race over the course of the weekend at the races. I was beyond overjoyed, as in recent years I've gained a huge appreciation for the old racing class known as Group C, as well as its American counterpart dubbed GTP. The only problem? Having to wait 93 days to see them.
April 8
A brisk 65 degree air conditioned chill kisses the back of your neck as you stare down 9 of the finest race cars to ever grace this planet. A field with contenders such as a pair of Porsche 962's, a Toyota EagleMKIII, and the unyielding force that is the Mazda 787, undeniably a highlight for most that weekend. Mazda brought out a trio of four rotor racers, the other two being the 767B and the lovely RX-792p. A Porsche 935 was present in a gorgeous Momo racing livery on the most beautiful set of BBS turbofans I've ever seen. CEO of Mclaren racing Zak Brown was present, piloting a Jaguar XJR-10 rocking some gorgeous rear wheel covers.
I was utterly flabbergasted, and by the time I could start thinking about what I was looking at, half the cars were outside in pre-grid waiting to go out to the track. I rush out the door to catch them for photographs, stepping into the convection oven known as "outside", a place I would bake for the next 10 hours (it was a solid 95 degrees for 5 hours). Pre-grid turned out to be fantastic for photos, but before I knew it, the cars were being ushered out to the track for their first spirited drive of the weekend.
The demonic scream of the 4 rotor Mazdas, the collective spooling of 5 turbos between 3 Porsche's, I had died and gone to heaven, and I was just experiencing it in the moment. It's one thing to see these cars at Laguna Seca, which is all I've really experienced so far, but to see them on the streets of Long Beach, with sounds echoing off buildings is something I will never forget about (video later in this post). And then like that, it was over. The cars ran for only 20 minutes on the first day, the rest of the day was dedicated to qualifying for Indycar and the IMSA race, which meant I got to see the lovely Corvette C8R tear up Long Beach once more. Videos genuinely do the sound this car makes no justice, the way the sound resonates in real life is euphoric, the downshift cracks send jolts of lighting up and down your entire body with every change down. At the end of the day, I was happy and for once, not horribly sunburnt, but not entirely stoked on the photos I got.
April 9
This was the day the Historic GTP cars were slotted to run twice. Two 20 minute sessions of my favorite race cars on the planet. The first session, again in the morning, made for some alright photos, however, the later session was at 5, presenting much better lighting. These are some of my favorite photos I've ever taken, of some of my favorite cars to exist.
...and I loved every second of it.
This was also the day that the IMSA race would occur, 2 hours of high energy racing a field of the finest modern GT racers such as the Porsche 911 GT3R, BMW M4 GT3, and Mclaren 720 GT3. However, the loudest cars from those 2 hours were the group of Cadillac DPi cars with their ear shattering V8's.
April 9 was a very good day.
Overall, the only takeaway I have from that weekend was that I wish the GTP cars could be slotted for more time. Its a very neat way to show what racing was like in the 1980-1990's to fans of all ages. I hope these historic races become more common in the US, seeing videos of historic Group C racing at Imola and Spa gives me major FOMO. That being said, having had only a sip out of the gargantuan chalice that is historic motorsport, I will be attending more events catering towards this in the future.
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