Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, California - Preview

Col Dixon (@ColDixon78)
Apr 15, 2016
2 min read

The Verizon IndyCar Series returns to the streets of California on Sunday 17th April (9:30pm UK Time) for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – the third race of the 2016 season.

The two-mile street circuit around the Long Beach Convention Center has been a mainstay of the IndyCar Series (in its various guises) since 1984. Prior to that, the track hosted eight Formula One races between 1976 and 1983. The 80-lap race has certainly become a prestigious one on the calendar and one that all drivers want to win.

Juan Pablo Montoya - one to watch this weekend Picture Credit: Sarah Stierch

After a successful opening weekend in St. Petersburg, Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya will be looking to bounce back from a frustrating weekend at Phoenix in race two, where he blew a tire after dominating the early part of the race.

But Montoya faces tough competition, not only from his Penske team-mates of Will Power, Helio Castroneves and points-leader Simon Pageneud, but also from Phoenix winner Scott Dixon.

In 2015 the New Zealander won at Long Beach for the first time in his career, going on to win the 2015 championship in his Chevrolet powered #9 Target Chip Ganassi machine.

It will also be interesting to see if two-time Long Beach winner Will Power can recapture his form on road and street circuits this weekend.

Will Power - hoping to regain his form. Picture Credit: By SarahStierch (Own work) [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Australian Penske driver missed the first race of the season with a suspected concussion having already won the pole for the race. As a result, he is already playing catch-up in the points standings. But the 2014 Indycar Series Champion is very much a ‘one-to-watch’ this weekend.

After a relatively poor showing at Phoenix, there are no reported significant updates to the Honda packages as yet, so the Chevrolet powered cars are expected to dominate in Long Beach.

The race will be shown Live in the UK on BT SPORT 2 from 9:30pm.

PRACTICE 1 – Fri April 15th (6pm BST)

PRACTICE 2 – Fri April 15th (10pm BST)

PRACTICE 3 – Sat April 16th (6pm BST)

QUALIFYING – Sat April 16th (10pm BST)

PRACTICE 4 – Sun April 17th (5pm BST)

RACE – Sun April 17th (9:30pm BST - LIVE on BT Sport 2)

#Indycar #Indy #Verizonindycarseries #JuanPabloMontoya #JPMontoya #Montoya #WillPower #Verizon #LongBeach #California