It’s Grand Prix weekend here in the greater Long Beach,California area, so I thought I’d better get downtown and see what was up!

Thanks to my nephew, I was able to get some free tickets for Friday’s practice and qualifying (Thanks, Nef!).

I grabbed my bro-in-law and we loaded up the truck and we moved to Beverly…I mean, headed for the action in Long Beach.

Here the sign says “Will Power”, but after seeing the sign girls, there was none of that left.

The sights and the sounds at the Long beach Grand Prix are just way cool. They’ve rebuilt the Pike and have a carnival atmosphere going all the time. It’s like LeMans and Monaco but in English (real english, not the King’s english).

Plenty of brightly colored uniforms, with everyone looking their best. Dressed up (or down) to the nines, it’s as close as we’ll get locally to a Formula 1 race.

The day started out cool and cloudy (and quite possibly the worst contrast for taking scenic pictures) but we were soon rewarded with another “Grand Prix Weekend” of beautiful weather. Between the Rose Parade and the LBGP, they almost always have great weather…must be hooked up for sure.

But, back to the sights and sounds, the pits were a beehive of activity, and there was no lacking of cool stuff to photograph.

Overhead, we had both B-17’s and DC-3’s flying above the race, and on the ground were all kinds of low flying objects.

With wrenches flying, and air-ratchets screaming, the cars were taken apart and put back together as quickly as possible.

There’s plenty to do, and see, for all the fans who flock down to Long Beach for the weekend. the hardest part in being able to keep your head on a pivot to avoid missing something scenic!

I had my Nikon D200, Nikon 18-200VR lens, and my Nikon 80-400 VR lens, the perfect combo for taking in as much as possible. I was using my SanDisk Ultra II cards, as well as my High-speed Lexar cards, and the camera and the cards had no trouble keeping up with the action. the D200 will just tear through a bunch of pictures and not hesitate a moment. Beautiful.

The sights, the sounds, and the colors of Long Beach are a great place to fill up your memory cards.

The auto racing was nice too!

After all the excitement, My bro’ in law and I had a beer and we were outta there!