38th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
by Martin Gonzales
Nothing like a little change to keep things exciting and interesting, right? If that is indeed the case, then this year's Grand Prix of Long Beach was sure to be one for the books. Every race group in this year's Grand Prix had some twist to their usual stories. Bad weather, new cars, field wide penalties, you name it – it happened!
When the ALMS teams showed up to the track on Thursday they were greeted by the usual beautiful Southern California sunshine, but anyone who had checked the weather channel knew that the wet stuff was just around the corner.
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| The ALMS teams were met by a downpour on Friday morning which caused the qualifying session to be cancelled and the teams would have to be placed on the starting grid by their season standings. The weather called for clear skies for race day, which meant everyone would have to go into the race with ZERO on-track data. |
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| Saturday was a completely different story. The sun was back out and the field was back up to full race speed! |
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| Rubins' racing! The street-fight that ensues in the GT class at the Streets of Long Beach left plenty of body parts on the track. |
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| Lotus is back in ALMS with Alex Job Racing with a new 2012 Lotus Evora GTE. The team seems to be going through the growing pains of fielding a new car, but we're all anxious to see what the combo of the 470 HP turbo 4.0-liter V6 Toyota engine and the 2,740 lbs. chassis is capable of. |
For our detailed ALMS race coverage from Long Beach, be sure to check out Efrain's ALMS recap HERE:
