RETRO: Forbes-Robinson recalls being wowed by inaugural Long Beach race

You only get one opportunity to make a first impression. At Long Beach, that opportunity came in a Formula 5000 race in 1975. Elliott Forbes-Robinson, veteran sportscar racer and current IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver advisor, participated in that inaugural event and came away wowed with what he saw.

“It was an amazing race, Forbes-Robinson recalled. “I had run a few street races in Super Vee and Formula Atlantic up in Canada, but it was amazing to be driving on the streets of Long Beach along with stars from IndyCar and Formula 1. I couldn’t believe the amount of people that showed up and all the PR going on. For a young kid getting started in racing, it was a pretty amazing experience.”

Forbes-Robinson helped promoter Chris Pook prepare for the event by participating in several media functions. Driving for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers, “EFR” posed with his Eagle 73A Formula 5000 car in a Long Beach parking lot with the iconic Queen Mary in the background back in 1974 (LEFT) to help give the event advance publicity.

EFR didn’t enjoy success with the early version of the Eagle, running into a series of mechanical failures. For Long Beach, he raced a Lola T332 sponsored by Evel Knievel (whose famous star-spangled overalls he emulated, LEFT), with the famed motorcycle stuntman in attendance for the event.

EFR finished fifth in the opening heat race, behind winner Tony Brise, Mario Andretti, Tom Pryce and Vern Schuppan. He then completed 27 of the 50 laps in the feature before being sidelined with engine problems, finishing 17th.

“I was racing with the Eagle with Vern Schuppan and the car broke while I was running sixth,” he recalled. “I learned a lot that day. We had the wrong differential in the car. It turned out that the Hewland diff was wrong for that place – it made the car run really loose, it was a real handful.”

Schuppan, driving Gurney’s upgraded Eagle 755, went on to finish second behind Brian Redman.

The event was held on a 2.02-mile circuit in 1975, with the starting line on Shoreline Drive and the finish on Ocean Boulevard. Formula 1 replaced F5000 in 1976, and used the same circuit through 1981. Today’s 1.968-mile layout has been used since 2000. It retains the scenic Shoreline Drive for the start/finish, but now utilizes Seaside Way.

 “We ran along Shoreline Drive, but otherwise it was substantially different from what we run today,” EFR said. “We used to run on Ocean Boulevard. Coming off that street, cars actually got a little bit of air under them when we made the transition coming down the hill.

Since the opening event, EFR returned to run several sportscar support races at Long Beach. He was the inaugural champion in the ALMS in 1999, and a three-time winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Now, he enjoys a new role at all WeatherTech Championship races, watching the action on the television monitors from the race control booth.

“It’s quite different now,” he said. “I don’t get around the track anymore. I take a drive around it to look at the track from a street car, but that’s it. Back then, I saw nothing but the track.”

Coming to Long Beach for more than 40 years, Forbes-Robinson and his wife Lounette are no strangers to the area, having several favorite places to visit.

“We like the Acapulco [Mexican Restaurant Y Cantina] in San Pedro, which we had gone to many times, among many other places,” he said. “I’ve gone down there a lot. In addition to racing at Long Beach, I used to do autocrosses on Terminal Island all the time, running slaloms several times a year. So that was a regular place for us to visit.”

Source: IMSA