Post by robhart on Apr 24, 2016 11:08:07 GMT -8
I went to the Long Beach IMSA race last weekend. I'm not a fan of street courses in general or the Long Beach circuit in particular, but I've lived within 100 miles of Long Beach for decades and had never attended a race there. As soon as I got through the gate, I asked one of track courtesy workers for directions to my seat. Being a good employee, he gave me directions that routed me through every food court, manufacturer display, and carnival ride park present. It took me an hour to hike from where I parked to my seat. There was a distinct party atmosphere and a capacity crowd on hand. It was by far the best attended IMSA race that I have been to and the selection of track food available would rival any county fair. Although I paid for a reserved seat, I only had an unobstructed view of the fairly low speed, turn 10. However, my seat was closer to the track than I have ever been at any other race track and the sensation of speed as the cars went past was really enhanced by that. Most of the people sitting in my seating section were employees of the nearby Mazda Corporate Headquarters. They had been treated to free tickets by their employer and were all wearing identical black Mazda t-shirts. During the Indycar qualifying, one of them asked me how many cylinders the car's engines had and if the engines were 'souped up'. The race itself was kind of a parade with only a handful of position changes on the track, but it was nice to see the Mazdas running so competitively on a track that didn't favor them (I predict they'll win something before the season is over). The Porsches were the class of the GT field and would have dominated, if not for the penalties. Whether they would have won without punting the Corvette is open to speculation.