You will discover Roscoe’s Home of Hen and Waffles situated two blocks off the Lengthy Seaside Grand Prix’s landmark Flip 11 hairpin nook. Not solely is Southern California’s candy and savory cultural tentpole a longstanding fixture in motion pictures, songs and tv, nevertheless it additionally serves as a well-liked vacation spot for post-race victory celebrations — as 2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou confirmed.
Due to @OfficialRoscoes for the scrumptious meal! 😋@AlexPalou | @IndyCar pic.twitter.com/5HxRRJpBsv
— Chip Ganassi Racing (@CGRTeams) September 27, 2021
Not like System One’s marquee road race, Lengthy Seaside — which can host a grand prix for the forty eighth time on Sunday — is not nestled into the coastal hills of the French Riviera and it is undoubtedly missing in opulent casinos and black-tie affairs. Ours is geared extra towards the surfers and tailgate crowd.
On the annual gathering on the streets of Lengthy Seaside, we have fried hen, Patron, taco vans, sand, palm timber, flip-flops, bands, drifting, IndyCar, IMSA’s sports activities automobile championship and historic F1 vehicles in probably the most American of occasions. Get to mid-April, and it is a whole week full of love and revelry for motor racing as our world turns its consideration towards Shoreline Drive and the Pacific Ocean, a convention that started with the inaugural Lengthy Seaside GP in 1975.
“For me, it’s my Monaco,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown tells ESPN. “I am from L.A. The primary-ever race I went to was the 1981 [Long Beach] Grand Prix and I nonetheless have the race program. I keep in mind it prefer it was yesterday. I used to be like, ‘There’s Mario Andretti!’ At one Lengthy Seaside Grand Prix, I completely fell in love with racing.”
In the identical means the Tremendous Bowl and World Cup dwell on bucket lists, Lengthy Seaside is a worthy addition to the roster of occasions that should be skilled no less than as soon as in a sports activities fan’s life.
Run on a winding choice of metropolis streets, vehicles weave round a manicured mattress of roses that encompass a water fountain that includes a statue of a dolphin. Drivers streak previous a movie show and a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Nearing 180 mph, they blast by the shadows behind the Lengthy Seaside Conference Middle earlier than rising into daylight and sky-high residence buildings.
After which they navigate a difficult complicated that terminates on the aforementioned Flip 11 hairpin the place collisions are commonplace. If drivers can escape being rear-ended or speared within the aspect, although, it is an opportunity to rocket down Shoreline and a beachfront flirtation with 200 mph with the titanic Queen Mary in sight because it sits docked on the adjoining harbor.
Freed from pretense and self-importance, ticket consumers can stand up near the vehicles and drivers within the IndyCar and IMSA paddocks, pose for images, get autographs, and achieve this for the value of fine seats at a Main League Baseball sport. Doing the identical at one of many three American F1 races would require mortgaging the home, and you continue to will not get inside 200 toes of Max Verstappen or his Purple Bull RB19. Beer and different spirits stream freely in