Yeah, it's been a while. Unfortunately, not every car gathering you may attend can be worthy of a whole blog post, but the weekend of April 20th was a shining example of what I would deem worthy. Similar to last year, I attended the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach to see and hear the numerous amazing cars that are taking part in the IMSA championship in 2024. Interestingly, this year's field was cut down to a smaller size, a mere 27 cars compared to the normal 35+ you would typically see, due to the GTD Pro class not being present. So, to those who were expecting to see the beloved green dinosaur-liveried Rexy GT3R Porsche, or the Pratt-Miller C8R's for me personally, maybe next time.
But the smaller field size didn't necessarily chew up the good vibes, as we got to see many new additions made to the field of competing cars. Some of the new additions in the GTD class include the Ferrari 296 GT3, the brand new Mustang GT3 and the refreshed Corvette C8R with the wider body from the Z06 roadcar, as well as some new teams running in the GTP category, like the Proton Competition Porsche 963 in it's beautiful black and gold livery, as well as the JDC Miller Porsche 963, dotingly referred to as the "Banana car", among me and my colleagues. Other than that, my favorite event in Socal has not changed much, from the $18 beers to the exuberant people watching. Here's what went down:
Day 1: Practice and Qualifying
The Friday of the Grand Prix is typically the least crowded day, with the crowds increasing as both the day and the weekend goes on. For the opening act of my weekend spent at the track, I would take part in an entirely new experience to me, that being walking around in the IMSA paddock just before the cars would go out for the first practice session I would see over the weekend. I previously had no clue that this area was accessible to general admission ticket holders like myself, but I was very pleasantly surprised as me and a few friends waltzed over the bridge to get to the paddock, and right before our very eyes was the yellow Cadillac GTP car, and we stood by, completely enamored by the atmosphere we were in as we watched the crew tinker the car before it went out. Of course, not just the Cadillac, the whole field of IMSA cars was crammed into this tiny area, and it was very captivating watching each of the teams work on their respective cars over the course of the weekend.
Immediately following this, the first practice session was to start. Pair together the act of seeing the cars being worked on and standing completely still, to seeing them tear up the track for the first time of the weekend, side by side, GTD with GTP is such an epic experience. It went as typical practice sessions went, with senses being overloaded by just over 20 minutes of hair-raising thunderous exhaust roar and the scramble to try and get decent photos of the cars as they fly by.
This session led me to finding one of the finest photo spots I've ever used, which overlooks a fence not more than 5 feet from the track, watching the cars veering left into the final right hand hairpin (first two photos in the set above). What was great about this, if not only for being a fantastic photo spot, was that it kept me in the paddock long enough to watch the cars roll back in from practice, which was also a new experience to me.
Following this, me and my little gang of photographers would seek refuge in the air-conditioned convention center, where we could get a close up look at what miscellaneous vehicles that the various manufacturers brought to display. NHRA funny cars, historic Indycars, even a test drive area for the new Honda Motocompacto foldable scooter, and you already know we spent way too much time looking at the car models and the numerous hotwheels booths. This segwayed directly into the IMSA qualifying, which took place later in the afternoon, which is when I got my favorite shots from the whole event, shot by the fountain corner.
And that was the cap for day 1. As far as photographing goes, this was the better day without a doubt, and if you want to try and photograph this event strictly for the cars, there is no better day to do so in my opinion. Bring on race day.
Day 2: Race day
The day started by spending a brief amount of time in the paddock, specifically gawking at a chewed up front bumper off the red Cadillac GTP car, debating with friends whether we should ask if we can have the destroyed front clip. However, we did not, and we then decided that our time would be better spent looking around the paddock as the cars got lined up for the race later that day.
Race day was especially fun as I got to introduce some friends who have never seen an IMSA race before, to what is arguably the best racing series on the entire planet in 2024. It was a delight to see their reactions as the cars first went by with a safety car in front, to the first lap in which the cars went all out, I had to practically pick their jaws up off the floor so we could move around and watch the racing in multiple different spots. The lighting was awful, as it typically is mid-day anywhere else, but that wouldn't stop me from at least trying to get some decent shots.
We would start our viewing of the race over by the small straight that runs from turn 7, down to turn 8, and then we walked over the bridge over to turn 1 to get even closer to the cars driving by.
The 100 minute race flew by nearly as fast as the GTP cars did on the front straightaway, which we worked our way towards as the race went on. The yellow Cadillac GTP would end up winning in the top class, and the Lexus RC-F GT3 won in the GTD class. As the race was wrapping up, my friends and I sauntered over towards IMSA paddock after the race, where we watched the cars and teams get packed up to ship out to wherever they go, as well as catching glimpses of the roughed and bruised up cars that survived the race. This was a very impressive act to photograph, as the teams work swiftly to evacuate the paddock, and you have to keep your head on a swivel as the teams are frivolously moving around trying to bail out of long beach, even I almost got flattened by a BMW. The photos below are the final shots I got of the weekend, and they feel bittersweet in a way.
This concludes another fantastic edition of the Long Beach Grand Prix, for IMSA. 2023 was a run to try and learn new photo spots around the track, and 2024 massively expanded upon what knowledge I gained from the previous year. There is an upward trend in the variety as well as the quantity of cars that run year by year, and I'm sure we all hope that this trend continues. If you read all the way down to this point, know that your viewership is massively appreciated, and I will try my absolute best to try and get more than 5 blog posts out as the year continues. Until next year, Long Beach.
And of course, here are some crap Iphone video clips hashed together in Imovie for your viewing/listening pleasure :^)
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