LONG BEACH, Calif. — Despite the hype being propagated, the crowds at the 34th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weren’t as big as they were from the late ’80s to the mid 1990s. But Grand Prix Ass’n of Long Beach CEO Jim Michaelian was smiling anyway.
With the Champ Car World Series in limbo over the winter, Michaelian didn’t know who or what to promote. But the classic street race holds enough clout in the American open-wheel community that every effort was made to include it in this year’s unified schedule. When a date clash with the IndyCar Series race at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan could not be resolved, the compromise solution was to run Long Beach as Champ Car’s grand finale — but have it count toward the IndyCar Series championship.
The increased media profile the IndyCar Series has enjoyed this spring seemed to have paid off at Long Beach. Michaelian estimated race-day attendance “in the 70s” and pegged the three-day total as 172,000.
“Under the circumstances, I’m good with that,” he said. “After all the stuff we’ve gone through, we made what could have been an unattractive situation into a positive event.”
Kevin Kalkhoven, the co-promoter of the LBGP along with Gerald Forsythe, was also pleased with what he saw.
“Long Beach is a crown jewel in every sense,” Kalkhoven said. “Not only is it one of the oldest motor races in the world, in terms of consecutive events, it’s really just an original street-racing event. It has proven that over the last 34 years and will continue to prove it over the next at least 10.
“The crowds were just fantastic, and it was really interesting to me walking around not just the race but the exhibition center, seeing the interest in the green exhibits and things like that,” he added. “The future of this kind of event is to bring in all aspects of the  motoring environment.”

• The 20 cars fielded for the last Champ Car World Series event were the most for the series, at Long Beach or anywhere else, since 2002. When the erstwhile PacWest team folded its tent that season the grid dropped to 18, where it has remained, plus or minus one, ever since. It was the largest gathering of the Panoz DP01 chassis, which debuted last year. Mario Moraes’s accident was the only hard hit, so a full field went back in the trucks for the last time.

• Also fading in the late afternoon sun was the distinct sound of a turbocharged Indy-type engine, a staple since the late 1960s and universal for decades until IRL went back to free breathing in 1997. The “push to pass” limited-overboost feature, which helped to scramble the order from fourth place on back in the closing laps, goes in the history books as well.

• To the casual observer, it looked like winner Will Power and Alex Tagliani, his persistent chaser through two pit stop cycles, were teammates. The color scheme was that of Craig Gore’s Team Austrialia, Gore is partnered this year with KV Racing, Power’s team, after leaving Walker Racing under less than amicable circumstances, at least as far as Derrick Walker is concerned. Maybe he left Tagliani’s car green and yellow to make a point, or maybe he just didn’t think a repaint was worth the effort for one race.

• Mario Dominquez’s third place was the best by far in the brief Champ Car career of Pacific Coast Motorsports, which was the only rookie team in 2007. Fourth and sixth were the best team finish for Conquest Motorsports. Conquest is committed to the IRL for the rest of the season, PCM is not.

• Following Simona De Silvestro’s Atlantic win about 12 hours after Danica Patrick’s historic triumph in Japan, a beaming Lyn St. James was accepting congratulations in the press room. St. James’s sports-car exploits in the 1980s and rookie of the year performance at Indy in 1991 were a key link between the pioneering efforts of Janet Guthrie and today’s success of female drivers in major open-cockpit series. 

• This was the first year for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach to extend to four days, with practice for the American Le Mans Series cars and the drifting cars.

• Also on Thursday, three new names were inducted in the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame: Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones and the late Gary Gabelich. This was the third annual induction, as this year’s class joins previous inductees Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Brian Redman, Chris Pook and Newman/Haas Racing’s Paul Newman and Carl Haas.

• Leo and Greg Mansell, sons of 1992 Formula One World Champion and 1993 IndyCar World Series champion Nigel Mansell, made their American debuts in the Atlantic championship event. Greg finished 13th, with Leo claiming 19th spot.

• With Long Beach’s relative proximity to Hollywood, the Grand Prix often becomes a major promotional place for newly released films, especially if the movie has an automotive hook. This was the case with the new “Speed Racer” film. The car, known as the Mach 5, was on display, and the actor who played Speed, Emile Hirsch, served as Grand Marshal. Cast members Christina Ricci, John Goodman and Susan Sarandon were also on hand.
— John Oreovicz, Al Robinson and Dan Jack contributed to this report.