In car racing terms, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is coming out of the pits.

With crowds well in excess of 150,000, the Southland’s premiere auto race is second only to the Indianapolis 500 as the most-attended open-wheel event in the nation. But the hundreds of laps around the city’s seaside course are just part of the appeal of the fuel-injected bacchanal, which features rock concerts, celebrity races, beauty pageants and all manner of four-wheeled fun.

The 32-year-old event is the marquee event in the Champ Car racing series. But that series has been spinning its wheels in recent years, plagued by ownership upheaval, the defection of top-name drivers and financial woes caused by drops in sponsorship and attendance.

Even the former president of the local charity foundation set up around the event was charged with embezzling.

Despite recent turmoil, race officials are revved up.

“We’re really hoping this year will be big for us,” said Jim Michaelian, president and chief executive of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, which stages the event. “We came back from 2004 last year and want to continue that.”

Determined to put recent problems in the rearview mirror, the association and the firm that owns the race series are shifting gears on their marketing and sponsorship campaigns. The intent is to build on its traditional fan base and focus on the event’s growing appeal to Hispanics, who were 30 percent of the crowd last year.

Michaelian said that last year’s attendance of more than 150,000 was up from 2004, when uncertainty regarding the race lineup and rain dampened ticket sales and revenue. The association is expecting more than 175,000 fans to pour into Long Beach the weekend of April 7-9.

Michaelian said sponsorship sales are running about 5 percent ahead of last year’s. Typically, the event draws about 15 sponsors, which account for millions in revenue. The association’s yearly fortunes are tied to sponsors not just for money, but for marketing, too spreading the word to their target demographic audiences and bolstering the race’s image.

Michaelian said “the good years” were the early 2000s, before things got lean in 2003 and 2004. Last year’s Grand Prix showed some improvement, and officials are hoping to accelerate the growth.

“We still had about 12 sponsors, but the amount and participation levels promotions, events, marketing buys were not nearly as big,” Michaelian said of the 2004 race.

Race officials believe that the Long Beach event, the first in the Champ Car World Series, is regaining traction.

The Champ Car races are owned by Open Wheel Racing Series LLC, formed by race team owners Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe. The company took over after Indianapolis-based CART, the former owner, agreed to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2003. CART’s assets were sold for a paltry $3 million, less $1.5 million in 2003 prize money that was paid to race teams.

Last summer, the rights to the Long Beach race also changed hands, when the assets of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach were sold by Dover Motorsports Inc. for $15 million to two of the Champ Car World Series co-owners: Kalkhoven and Forsythe.

Big name


Toyota Motor Corp., the event’s title sponsor since its inception, re-upped its sponsorship agreement in August for another five years, which enabled officials to approach other sponsors with confidence.

“That relationship is remarkable, because today you rarely see an agreement where sponsorships continue for that long,” Michaelian said. “When Toyota renewed, it made a significant statement that proved valuable in our discussions with other partners.”

Toyota’s U.S. headquarters are in Torrance. Southern California and Florida are Toyota’s strongest regions for sales.

Les Unger, Toyota’s national motorsports manager, said that the sponsorship cements his company’s strong relationship with the city, which has long been the port of distribution for the automaker.

“The race continues to be our most valued sponsorship,” Unger said. “The brand has historically been incredibly strong here, so it’s more reinforcement for us, rather than creating awareness.”

One of Toyota’s biggest draws is the celebrity race, which capitalized on L.A. ample star power. Clint Eastwood and Cameron Diaz have driven in it, along with sports stars like John Elway and Joe Namath.

Cerveza scores


Tecate beer is back on board, too, recently signing a second two-year sponsorship agreement. The firm will host concerts with Bad Religion and popular Mexican rockers El Tri, host beer tents and cantinas, a beauty pageant and other events on the nearby beach.

Jorge Cornejo, Tecate’s field marketing manager for the Western U.S. region, said that in the four years since Tecate has come on board at the Grand Prix, Southern California sales of the beer have more than doubled.

“The L.A. area has a huge Mexican population, and they couldn’t afford to not reach out to that group,” said Maria Amor of Formula Public Relations, the public relations firm hired by Tecate’s parent, Fomento Econ & #243;mico Mexicano. “This is a huge audience,” Amor said, “and it offers a possible lifetime fan base.”

In addition to the millions spent on the sponsorship agreement, Tecate spends hundreds of thousands of dollars staging local Grand Prix events, Cornejo said.

“It’s most definitely worth the money we spend, because our audience is there,” Cornejo said. “Year after year our involvement continues to expand, and there’s still room to grow.”

Bullish on youth


Race officials think that they can tap into both the race crowd and the younger, extreme-sport audience through their new sponsorship deal with Santa Monica-based Red Bull North America Inc.

“It’s our home market, and we wanted to increase our visibility at the event,” said Red Bull spokesman Steve Pegam. “The Long Beach Grand Prix is the most well-attended U.S. event in the Champ car series, and if we can bring some of the world of Red Bull to the audience there, then that’s a win for us.”

The three-year deal involves highly visible stunts and demos, including Red Bull skydivers, an aerobatic stunt plane that will fly over the harbor and grandstands, a motocross demonstration team. The caffeinated energy drink will be readily available to guests, of course.

Red Bull has long been involved in motor sports of all kinds. The company owns two Formula One racing teams, sponsors one Champ Car and one IRL driver and recently announced plans for a two-car NASCAR team.

Even with its already hefty investments in racing, the value of sponsoring the Grand Prix is in the target audience it attracts, the coveted youth demographic.

“The Southwest United States, and in particular Southern California, is a trendsetting region of the country,” Pegam said. “Things are adopted here faster, and the action sports industry is also based out here.”