Alex Palou celebrates atop the podium after winning the 51st Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 19. Felix Rosenqvest (podium left) came in second place, while Scott Dixon (right) finished third.
Acura Celebrates as Title Sponsor of Long Beach Grand Prix; New CEO Takes Over
By TIM YUJI YAMAMOTO
Special to The Rafu
Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President and CEO Jim Liaw was personally asked by his predecessor, Jim Michaelian, to follow as the next president and replied, “When do I start?”
That came very quickly as Michaelian unexpectedly passed away on March 21 at the age of 83. Over the past 51 years, he served as the Grand Prix Association’s controller, chief operating officer and, in December 2001, was named president and CEO.
Liaw was general manager of Performance Racing Industry. Before joining PRI in 2021, he served as president of Formula Drift, which he co-founded with Ryan Sage in 2003.
Following are results of this year’s Grand Prix.
April 18
WeatherTech/IMSA drivers Renger Van der Zande of the Netherlands and Nick Yelloly of the U.K. drove their No. 93 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) Acura ARX-06 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian to victory in Saturday’s 100-minute race.
Acura, the title racing sponsor for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is located in Torrance.
The International Motor Sports Association WeatherTech Series race features two styles of race cars racing together, making it challenging running the GTP cars through the field of GT Daytona cars.
IndyCar Qualifying
Felix Rosenqvist qualified Saturday for P1 (pole position) in his Honda-powered #60 Meyer Shank with Curb-Agajanian IndyCar out of a field of 25 cars. Pato O’Ward was next on the starting grid in the Chevy-powered #5 Arrow McLaren.
This year’s new qualifying format of the fast six drivers had each take the final lap one at a time and not multiple cars on the track simultaneously. Rosenqvist’s P1 in addition to Acura’s IMSA win accentuated the presence of Acura and HRC (Honda Racing Corporation), which includes Honda’s motorcycle racing.
April 19
Sunday’s start on Shoreline Drive was incident-free at Turn 1, where some drivers often try to get a more favorable position at the last second. Alex Palou started third behind O’Ward and overtook him early. Rosenqvist led 51 of the 90 laps and Palou led 32 laps.
Palou’s pit crew’s quick tire-changing and refueling helped in getting him ahead of Rosenqvist. Palou finished ahead of Rosenqvist, with Scott Dixon third.
The four-time IndyCar champion and defending Indianapolis 500 champion Palou scored his first victory at Long Beach. He was told in a post-race interview that his podium visits are 50% of his total races — something that he didn’t know and was quite surprised by.
The top four finishers in Sunday’s IndyCar race were all Honda-powered and also past winners in 2025, 2024 and 2023.
Two-time Indianapolis 500 champion and 2013 Long Beach winner Takuma Sato of Japan will attempt another Indy 500 win, driving for RLL (Rahal Letterman Lanigan) Racing at the 110th running on May 24.
Among many of the IndyCar drivers, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach ranks next in popularity and winning checklist to the “Crown Jewel” Indy 500. Long Beach is the longest-running street course race in North America.