LONG BEACH : $200-Million Auto Racing, Research Center Proposed

The founder and promoter of the Long Beach Grand Prix, the city’s largest revenue-producing yearly event, has unveiled a plan to build a $200-million auto racetrack and research complex at the Long Beach-Signal Hill border.

Christopher R. Pook received an enthusiastic response from council members of both cities, who voted to study the proposal, called Transwest Park. The plan would bring a 1 1/4-mile oval racetrack, 110 acres of automotive research and development facilities and a hotel to an area now dotted by oil rigs and weeds.

The track would host four major auto races a year, some smaller events such as vintage car shows, and provide a test site for the research center. Pook said he hopes to lure former aerospace engineers to develop safer cars, stronger body compounds and cleaner fuels, and conduct other automotive research projects.

Pook said the complex would create 13,000 permanent jobs and bring more than $1 billion a year to the regional economy.

In 1975, Pook founded the Long Beach Grand Prix, which attracts more than 200,000 racing fans each year and generates $40 million to $60 million for the local economy.