An Event With a High Street Value

Staring ahead at a full grandstand, hearing 750-horsepower engines roaring, you have to wonder what’s going through the mind of Chris Pook when he looks at the staying power of the Long Beach Grand Prix he founded 28 years ago.

Well, here’s what Pook said goes through his mind when he sees that green flag drop: “Two hours till I get a beer.”

He might have been the only empty-handed person in Long Beach, where the beer was flowin’, the cigar smoke blowin’, and the blended scent of cotton candy and caramel popcorn was so strong it masked the methanol fumes only a few yards from pit row.

It remains a unique event, one of the few places that can offer a view of water, palm trees and cars doing 90-mph laps through the streets.

And when someone shouts out, “Hey, Mario!” yes, they’re talking about that Mario -- Andretti.

“Look at this,” Andretti said, sitting on a scooter and holding his hands up to the sun fighting through the clouds. “It’s a place where you want to be.”

They say the only thing that compares is the Monaco Grand Prix. No, Long Beach doesn’t offer a dramatic mountain backdrop or harbor filled with luxury lots, but can you buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts in Monaco?

It’s so much more than racing, of course. Kids could bounce and slide in the Long Beach Arena, which was turned into a giant playpen. Or you could shop for putters, marble kitchen counters and, of course, all things automotive in the convention center. Thousands milled around their party suites paying little attention to the sporting event going on. (It was a lot like Staples Center in that regard.)

The important thing was that people came down to the shore. The event continues, despite CART’s decline and the nation’s economic slide.

“It was pretty good, given everything that’s going on,” said Jim Michaelian, who took over the Long Beach Grand Prix Assn. after Pook left to run the CART series in 2001.

By that he meant the war in Iraq, competition for sports fans’ attention with the Masters and the Lakers on television and the weather forecasts -- including the front pages of the local newspapers -- that called for rain.

That didn’t prevent a throng of people from showing up, including these notables:

* A man dressed in a gorilla suit.

* A man with rocks in his ear. Not diamonds, real rocks. Stones the size of a quarter, which made his earlobes hang halfway to his shoulders.

* A woman who sat in the stands wearing headphones and reading a book, completely oblivious to the noisy cars racing by.

* Two guys who would rather be in Iraq than Long Beach. Naval aviators Tony Miller and Byron Jenkins, who were on hand to coordinate the pre-race flyover by four F-18 jets, seemed to be enjoying themselves, but they were itching to be where the action is.

Race officials never release crowd figures for the event, but when asked about attendance Pook acknowledged that “I think it’s off a little bit.”

The effects of the slow-arriving crowd could be heard in the plaintive wail of a vendor outside the arena: “Programs. Programs. Anyone? Anyone?”

Pook predicted that fans would file into the grandstands in the last 10 minutes before the race, the way they always have, and he was right. The seats by the start/finish line were filled before the green flag, and the fans cheered and high-fived as the cars zoomed into action. There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush at the start of a race.

And we can only imagine the heartache of having a race end the way it did for Michel Jourdain Jr. on Sunday.

The pole-sitter came in for a pit stop with seven laps to go and a sizable lead. All he needed was fuel and new tires and he could roll on out to his first victory on the circuit.

But his engine stalled and wouldn’t restart, so he had to watch Paul Tracy take the checkered flag that should have been his.

“These are the days when you shake your head and say, ‘Why me?’ ” said Bobby Rahal, Jourdain’s team owner. The team suspected a problem with the gear box or the clutch.

“We tried to get him the first win,” team manager Ray Leto said. “He got the pole, he was on top of his game. He will get a victory

Said Jourdain: “It is terrible when everything goes so perfect and you don’t win.”

Maybe it wasn’t too late for him to join Pook for a drink.

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com.