Pre-Race Notes & Quotes: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
The NTT INDYCAR® SERIES returns to California this weekend for the 50th anniversary of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Firestone has been the official tire supplier for over 25 editions of North America’s longest-running major street race.
More than 1,500 race tires will be supplied for 27 entries as they take to the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course (six left and five right turns) that runs along Long Beach’s shoreline for practice, qualifying (including the Firestone Fast Six), and Sunday’s 90-lap (177.12 mile) race.
Firestone continues its efforts to explore and accelerate the use of sustainable technologies in motorsports by providing alternate race tires, marked with a green sidewall, for the Grand Prix of Long Beach and all street course races for a third consecutive season. The green alternate tire’s sidewall construction features natural rubber sustainably sourced from guayule desert shrubs grown at the company’s research facility in Arizona.
All Firestone Firehawk race tires are manufactured at the Advanced Tire Production Center (ATPC) in Akron, Ohio, which opened in 2022 and is certified by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) system for its transparency and traceability of sustainable raw materials*.
Each NTT INDYCAR SERIES entry will receive the following allocation:
- Primary (black): 5 sets per entry (Rookies receive an extra set)
- Alternate (guayule green sidewall): 5 sets per entry
- Rain (gray): 5 sets per entry
Firestone Racing provides a real-time tire tracker at Livetiming.net/firestone for media and fans to follow track tire strategies in qualifying and the race. As per INDYCAR rules, each entry must use one set of primary and one set of new (sticker) alternate tires for at least two laps in the race.
Cara Krstolic, Director of Race Tire Engineering and Manufacturing:
“We’re providing teams with five sets of both Firestone Firehawk primary tires and alternate guayule (green sidewall) tires for the Grand Prix of Long Beach that have the same design, construction, and compound as those we brought to the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
“While the softer alternate tire will be quicker and have more grip than the primary tire, its’ lower compound durability means that we’ll probably see cars coming in for a pitstop before the end of a fuel stint, which was the requested design intent set forth by INDYCAR. The drop-off gap between the primary black tire and the softer compound green sidewall alternate tire should be similar to what we saw in the season-opening street race.
“With Indy cars running hybrid engines for the first time at Long Beach, the addition of five laps to the race length, the expected increased wear of the green alternate tires and five sets of primary tires available, it is likely that we’ll see two sets of alternates run in the race like we did at St. Pete. We expect tire management and strategy to play an important role in how the Grand Prix of Long Beach will play out.”