American Honda tipped to take over as Long Beach sponsor

A major press announcement has been scheduled for Feb. 5 in Long Beach, and RACER.com has learned that American Honda is expected to be the new title sponsor for North America's longest-standing and most successful street race.

With Toyota bowing out after a 35-year run, there has been speculation for months that American Honda would be the natural replacement since it powers more than half the IndyCar field in addition to Acura's involvement in IMSA, which share the bill with IndyCar every April at Long Beach.

"We've got a very exciting development in the history of our event and we'll announce next Tuesday," LBGP president Jim Michaelian told RACER on Thursday afternoon.

It's believed American Honda's vehicles will adorn the Long Beach Grand Prix, which started in 1975 with Formula 5000, moved to Formula 1 from 1976-1983 and has been an IndyCar race ever since.

Honda is also the title sponsor at IndyCar events at Barber, Toronto and Mid-Ohio.

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Robin Miller

Robin Miller flunked out of Ball State after two quarters, but got a job stooging for Jim Hurtubise at the 1968 Indianapolis 500 when Herk's was the last roadster to ever make the race. He got hired at The Indianapolis Star a month later and talked his way into the sports department, where he began covering USAC and IndyCar racing. He got fired at The Star for being anti-Tony George, but ESPN hired him to write and do RPM2Nite. Then he went to SPEED and worked on WIND TUNNEL and SPEED REPORT. He started at RACER when SPEED folded, and went on to write for RACER.com and RACER magazine while also working for NBCSN on IndyCar telecasts.

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