Trans-Am Race Adds a Thrill to the Chase
When a support race is scheduled after the main event, it is usually called the “crowd chaser.”
The Motorock Trans-Am, which will follow the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, does not fit that description. It should be called the “crowd pleaser.”
Trans-Am cars are closed-fendered, production-based, V8-powered sports cars, offering a distinct change from the open-wheel Champ Cars powered by turbocharged Ford-Cosworth engines in the earlier race.
Paul Gentilozzi didn’t invent Trans-Am, but he has been doing his best to restore it to its glory days of the 1970s when Parnelli Jones, Mark Donohue, George Follmer, Dan Gurney and Peter Gregg headlined the series. When Trans-Am began to founder, he stepped in two years ago and purchased the marketing and promotional rights.
The Champ Car World Series, now the official name of what was once CART and more recently the Open Wheel Racing Series, now operates Trans-Am and Toyota Atlantic. The Atlantics will run Sunday morning, before the Champ Cars.
Gentilozzi is also trying to save the Indy-style Champ Cars the way he did Trans-Am. With Jerry Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven, he purchased what was left of CART and created an organization that is holding its first race of a 16-race schedule this weekend at Long Beach. And if that is not enough, Gentilozzi’s Rocketsports team has two cars, driven by Alex Tagliani and 17-year-old Nelson Phillippe in the Champ Car race.
Sunday’s Trans-Am, a 75-minute, or approximately 50-lap race, will have one of the best balanced fields in years, featuring Gentilozzi himself, the only four-time winner over the temporary 1.968-mile Long Beach street course. Gentilozzi will again be in a Jaguar XKR, the make he drove to win in 2002 -- but that may be a jinx against his winning again. You see, each of Gentilozzi’s wins has come in a different make of car, an Oldsmobile Cutlass in 1988, a Chevrolet Corvette in 1998, a Ford Mustang in 1999 and the Jaguar XKR.
If history or tradition were to be believed, he might do better in, say a Dodge Viper, something he has not won in before.
“Hey, that Viper looks awful fast,” Gentilozzi said when asked about driving a fifth make. “I’d like to give it a try. If you know anybody at Dodge, put in a word for me.”
For the record, there will be one Viper in the race, driven by Ross Murray of Marina del Rey.
“Seriously, I won’t be in the same car I won with two years ago, I’m going to drive a brand-new Jaguar we just built,” continued Gentilozzi. “Tommy Kendall will be in the old one.”
Kendall, the only four-time series champion, will return to racing for the first time since winning his last championship in 1997. Kendall has 26 Trans-Am wins but none at Long Beach. He finished second to Scott Pruett in 1987 and Irv Hoerr in 1989.
“Tommy looked good the two days we tested at Firebird [Raceway, near Phoenix]. He looked smooth and never put a wheel off. He looks like he never left.”
Gentilozzi, 54, said he planned to run only a limited schedule this year but wanted to run Long Beach because “It’s a special place, it’s where I won my first Trans-Am 16 years ago.”
Spectators who stuck around after Michael Andretti’s Champ Car win in 2002 are still talking about the last lap of the Trans-Am where Gentilozzi, Boris Said in a Ford Mustang and Justin Bell in a Corvette swapped the lead before Gentilozzi muscled his Jaguar past Said on the final turn.
Said, the versatile Carlsbad driver who went on to win the 2002 championship, came back last year to avenge his loss by winning his first race at Long Beach.
“Winning at home last year was special,” said Said. “It’s cool to race an hour from home. We’d like to follow that up with a win this year.”
Gentilozzi had the fastest lap last year, 86.854 mph, but finished fourth after having to start 15th because his qualifying time was disallowed for a technical infraction.
Winning the pole is critical on the narrow Long Beach course. Of the last 12 races, six have been won from the pole. In 1998 Gentilozzi led every lap, the only time it has been done.
Qualifying is Saturday at 9 a.m. The race will be Sunday at approximately 3:45 p.m., or 20 minutes after the Grand Prix.
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For early arrivals Sunday, in addition to the Toyota Atlantic race, there will be a Historic Grand Prix with cars from three Long Beach eras -- Formula 5000, Formula One and CART.
Of special interest will be the Boraxo Lola T332 that Brian Redman drove to victory in the first Long Beach Grand Prix, the only F5000 race held; Williams’ F1 car that Alan Jones won with in 1980, and the Valvoline March that Al Unser Jr. won with in 1988.
Vern Schuppan, who was the first driver on the Long Beach streets in 1975 in an All-American Racer Eagle, will be back driving the same car in the Historic GP, which will be flagged off at 9:45 a.m. Sunday.
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Grand Prix of Long Beach
* When: Friday, qualifying, 2 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 1:45 p.m.; Sunday, race (Spike TV, 1 p.m.)
* Where: Streets of Long Beach (temporary road course, 1.968 miles, 11 turns)
* Race distance: 177.12 miles, 90 laps
* 2003 winner: Paul Tracy.
