RaceDay Rewind – 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

While 2016 saw one of the closest finishes at Long Beach ever, it was nine years ago that the face of the Grand Prix of Long Beach changed under unification.

One of the staples of open wheel racing in America over the years has been running on the streets of Long Beach, California. Great racing divisions like Formula One and IndyCar have taken to the coastal town in order to see who can win the historic event. But perhaps the 2008 edition of the event is the most memorable, as it marked the end of an era in racing there.

For years leading up to this culminating event, some argued that the Champ Car World Series was merely on life support. The series no longer attracted the big names, as owners like Ganassi, Penske, and Andretti had abandoned the championship many years ago. Former F1 drivers used to flock to what was called CART as a way to keep their careers going, like Mansell and Villeneuve. In the 2000s, however, Champ Car saw a high population of pay drivers, and many changes from race to race as to who was in each car.

The problems for the “other open-wheel series” came to a head in the 2007-08 offseason, when IndyCar purchased the remnants of Champ Car. The series would bring together a number of the remaining teams from the championship and integrate them, as well as former races like Long Beach, Edmonton, Toronto, and Surfers Paradise.

There was one caveat, however. The 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach would have to run on the same weekend as the IndyCar race at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. That meant one final split would happen, as IndyCar teams raced across the Pacific from the former Champ Car teams.

The event would become a sort of celebration of the “glory days” of Champ Car and CART. Former teams returned with their Panoz DP-01 machines to contest one final race. Former drivers like Paul Tracy and Jimmy Vasser made comebacks too. But at the end of the day, it was a young Australian who would later become an IndyCar champion that stole the show.

Check out the full version of the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, as aired on ESPN as the finale of the Champ Car World Series. Marty Reid and Scott Goodyear call the event, with a special guest appearance by Danica Patrick following his first (and to this date, only) IndyCar Series win.

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Be sure to tune in for this year’s edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach live on NBCSN this Sunday afternoon. Rick Allen, Paul Tracy, and Townsend Bell will be on the call of the race, with Marty Snider, Kevin Lee, Robin Miller, and Katie Hargitt on pit road.