Roger Penske adds Long Beach Grand Prix to his motorsports empire
Roger Penske didn’t invent motorsports. But he certainly found a way to dominate it, winning 17 championships in the IndyCar series he owns and five NASCAR titles. His drivers have won the Indy 500 a record 20 times, which may be one reason he decided to buy that track as well.
On Thursday he expanded his empire by acquiring the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the longest-running major street race in North America and one of the largest and more important events on Southern California’s sporting landscape. Financial terms of the deal between Penske and Gerald R. Forsythe, the long-time owner of the event, were not disclosed. Forsythe and partner Kevin Kalkhoven paid a reported $15 million for the event in 2005.
Not that the cost mattered to Penske, who said he considers the Grand Prix priceless.
“It’s an iconic race,” he said. “When you think about markets and where we want to be sure that we have IndyCar long term, this is a place we want to invest in for sure.”
The three-day event, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in April, draws nearly 200,000 people to the streets of Long Beach, contributing an estimated $63 million to the region’s economy annually. But Penske is more interested in what the Grand Prix does for racing, particularly IndyCar. The series will stage 17 events next year, six on oval speedways, seven on road courses and four on the streets, making it the most eclectic racing series in the U.S.
“I’m a business guy and I think the diversity makes a huge difference,” Penske said. “We’ve been looking at, from a management perspective, to try to make our series better.
“We’re not competing with NASCAR, Formula 1."
The acquisition of the Long Beach race, the second-longest-running race on the IndyCar schedule, complements another major change the series is making in 2025. After 16 years with NBC as its primary broadcast partner, IndyCar is jumping to Los Angeles-based Fox, which reportedly offered more than $25 million a year for the rights, said to be a significant increase from what NBC paid. Fox also promised to broadcast all 17 races on linear television in addition to coverage on its Spanish-language cable network, Fox Deportes.
Read more: Long Beach plans to host eight Olympic events, will spend $933 million on infrastructure
Rumors of Penske’s interest in purchasing the Long Beach race have been swirling for months, with the long list of other interested buyers said to include the France family, founders of NASCAR; Mark Walter, chairman of the Dodgers' ownership group; and Liberty Media, which has a stake in Formula 1 racing.
The event was the shared property of Forsythe, 87, an American businessman and auto racing magnate, and Kalkhoven, his Australian-born partner. After Kalkhoven died in 2022, his estate put its 50% stake in the race up for sale and Forsythe bought it last March, promising to keep it an IndyCar event while also preparing to sell.
At a time when the land that racetracks sit on has become so valuable that developers are paying record sums to tear them down and build industrial parks in their place, buying a race that is run on city streets was a smart investment on a number of levels.
“It was absolutely important strategically,” Penske said. “Jerry Forsythe I've known for a long, long time. We raced together, raced against each other. When Kalkhoven passed away I contacted him and said, ‘Look, if you're going to do something with Kalkhoven’s share, we'll buy it. In fact, we'll buy the whole thing.
“It was a handshake over the phone. And we're going to close this thing this week.”
Penske, 87, said he plans few noticeable changes to what Jim Michaelian, the Grand Prix’s president and CEO, has set for next year. But he’s likely to get more involved in the race going forward.
“I never call me a hands-off owner,” he said. “We’re going to take the lessons learned and look at what the fans want and we’re going to execute the playbook Michaelian has put together. He’s done a great job.
“We’re very lucky that Jerry [Forsythe] would give us the opportunity.”
The purchase of the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the second-largest street race in the world behind only the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, also marks Penske’s return to Southern California racing at a time when the sport appears to be in retrenchment. Penske was on the board of the short-lived Ontario Motor Speedway in the 1970s, then built the California Speedway on the site of the Kaiser Steel mill in 1994. Both tracks have since been demolished, a fate that awaits the Irwindale Speedway after its final program next month.
Read more: It's the end of the road for Irwindale Speedway, the home of NASCAR and drag races
That leaves the Grand Prix of Long Beach as the only major motorsports event in a region that once hosted dozens of racing series each year.
“One of the nice things about the race in Long Beach, it's been there, and the city and the people have supported it,” Penske said. “So look, we're wide open and we're in for business. This is not a hang on or something. We want to try to roll over and make it better.
“What we want to do is add to the guest experience and make it a place so we can take our sponsors. Quite honestly, it's a great spot to entertain in.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
