Many at Grand Prix Barely Notice the Racing : Fast Track Is on the Sidelines

The 11th annual Grand Prix of Long Beach was under way and the metallic whine of turbocharged race cars filled the afternoon air. Yet Bob Johnson, beer in hand, was looking anywhere but at the racers.

“Is there a race today?” the 34-year-old Riverside man asked, smiling as he watched a woman clad in a white tube-top and shorts stroll by. “I’m not here for the races. I’m here to see the crowd and the girls.”

Johnson, a security guard at a grocery store, wasn’t the only one with that motive.

While many among the 67,000 who attended Sunday’s Grand Prix final came to watch high-powered race cars scream around the 1.67-mile course, a sizable percentage shelled out the $15 admission price to experience the other Grand Prix--the sun-baked social milieu that forms a backdrop for the race itself.

Gathered around vans or recreational vehicles in the dusty infield, they seemed more intent on eating barbecue, negotiating S-turns to the beer stands, socializing and “catching some rays” than admiring the speedy Indianapolis-type cars and racing prowess of the drivers who pilot them.

“I’d say only about a third of the spectators really come to watch the race,” said Roy Jimenez, an Orange resident who attended with two dozen friends from work. “They could care less who wins. This just gives everybody a chance to relax, get a good tan and get ready to go back to society on Monday.”

While Jimenez and the others jammed into the dirt infield feasted on hotdogs or hamburgers, the elite of the racing world enjoyed catered buffets under colorful tents set up by corporate sponsors along the backstretch of the course.

“I haven’t seen any racing yet. All I’ve done is eat,” admitted Karen Kaye, a Palos Verdes resident attending her first Long Beach Grand Prix.

Kaye and her husband, Dave, dined on crepes in one of the corporate tents in the VIP Paddock, an area that is off-limits to most spectators. Their son, Greg, invited them to attend the fete, which was sponsored by his firm.

Object of Search

“There’s quite an assortment of people,” said Kaye, 49. “It’s better than people-watching at the Los Angeles airport. And I brought my binoculars. I’ve been looking for Paul Newman all day.”

Tina Peila, a 25-year-old Huntington Beach secretary, and her friend, Kristin McCracken, were on a search of their own.

“We came to see the scene, to meet people,” said Peila, who was outfitted in a striped sun dress.

“OK. I’ll be honest,” she added. “We’re S and A--Single and Available.”

McCracken, 22, said it was the first Grand Prix for both Peila and her. “It’s been great,” she said. “There’s some real talent.”

The racers?

“No,” she replied. “The men.”

Good Vantage Point

Hundreds of racegoers jammed into bars at Shoreline Village, a cluster of shops adjacent to the race course, which cuts a serpentine path around the Long Beach Convention Center on city streets.

Downey resident Greg Quinn, 23, explained that the bars offered closed-circuit television broadcasts of the race.

“Here we’ve got the TV. We’ve got the waitresses. We’ve got the girls,” he said, looking at a group of young women at an adjacent table. “I like the view.”