Grand Prix Is Ready to Shift Gears

Since its inception in 1962, the Chevron Manhattan Beach Grand Prix bicycle races have grown into one of the longest continuously held cycling events and largest one-day competitions in the country.

And organizers want the event to grow even larger.

When the 31st annual races begin at 7 a.m. Sunday at Live Oak Park in Manhattan Beach, ESPN will be on hand to tape the featured pro race, which starts at 1 p.m., for broadcast on Aug. 18.

“We are having a natural progression in growth,” race founder Ted Ernst said. “Eventually we would like to make a stage race out of the Grand Prix, entering some of the other beach cities in the future.”

Ernst said a stage race, which involves several races on consecutive days, could be organized as soon as next year and would possibly cover more of the Southland than South Bay cities.

“We possibly could have done it this year, but the Olympics kind of threw that off,” Ernst said. “Next year is a very distinct possibility. We’ve got the mechanism for it, it’s just a matter of knowing that we would have enough manpower to do it properly.

“A stage race would attract even more big-name people because the prize money would be greater and the stakes would be higher because it would become an international race.”

Currently the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, with more than 30 community races for riders ranging in age from 2 to 65-plus, features more races for different types of cyclists than any event in the country.

In the 1 p.m. featured race, riders will compete for $8,500 in prize money while cycling 35 laps around the 1.4-mile course on Valley Drive and Ardmore Avenue in Manhattan Beach.

The race will feature many of the nation’s top cyclists and an elite team competition between the Chevrolet Los Angeles Sheriffs’ team and the Spago team that lost to the Sheriffs in 1991.

The Sheriffs’ squad is led by Capt. Jeff Pierce, who has competed in the Tour de France four times. Also on the Sheriffs’ team is Steve Hegg, who won gold and silver medals in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

The Spago team, from Santa Monica, will be led by the current Junior World champion Jeff Evanshine and Scott McKinley, a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team.

Other prominent riders in Sunday’s competitions include Ken Fuller, the Masters’ National Champion, and Thurlow Rodgers, a former Olympian and current national champion.

The competition counts toward selection for future U.S. National and Olympic teams.

The races are co-sponsored by the South Bay Wheelmen and the Manhattan Beach Lions Club. Profits generated by the event will be used for local school drug abuse programs, as well as scholarships and Blind Aid. Parking for the races, which are free to the public, will be located at the American Martyrs School playground at 17th and Laurel streets.