1996 Grand Prix of Long Beach

The 1996 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the 4th round of the 1996 IndyCar season. It happened on April 14, 1996, on the streets of Long Beach, California.

1996 Grand Prix of Long Beach

Race details
Race 4 of 16 in the 1996 IndyCar season
Date	April 14, 1996
Official name	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Location	Long Beach, California, United States
Course	Street 1.590 mi / 2.559 km
Distance	105 laps 166.950 mi / 268.680 km
Weather	Temperatures up to 94 °F (34 °C); wind speeds up to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h)[1]
Pole position
Driver	Gil de Ferran (Hall Racing)
Time	52.208
Fastest lap
Driver	Paul Tracy (Penske Racing)
Time	53.482 (on lap 99 of 105)
Podium
First	Jimmy Vasser (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Second	Parker Johnstone (Comptech Racing)
Third	Al Unser, Jr. (Penske Racing)

Race

Start

At the end of lap 1, de Ferran was leading the race, as he led most laps of the race.

Laps 4–39

At lap 4, Brazilian driver André Ribeiro crashed at turn 1. He retired. At lap 14, the top 6 was: Gil de Ferran, Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser, Scott Pruett, Paul Tracy and Parker Johnstone. The 1st caution came out at lap 39, as Zanardi had hit Bobby Rahal at turn 1. Zanardi retired. At the same lap, Robby Gordon had a fire in his pit area. Despite this, Robby did not retire.

Laps 41–65

The top 6 at lap 41 was: de Ferran, Vasser, Tracy, Johnstone, Pruett and Greg Moore. At lap 49, the 2nd caution came out, as Moore collided with Christian Fittipaldi at the last turn before the hairpin. Both retired. Emerson Fittipaldi had hit some debris from that collision, thus, damaging the suspension of his car. He also retired. Al Unser, Jr. was now in sixth place. Then, at lap 54, Raul Boesel committed a mistake and missed the turn 1. He would do this again laps later. At lap 57, Robby Gordon had hit Bryan Herta at the hairpin. They did not retired. At lap 65, Teo Fabi, who was replacing Mark Blundell, after he suffered a broken foot at the Rio 400, suffered a puncture. The cause of the puncture, probably, was when he collided with Michael Andretti at the opening laps. Andretti had hit Fabi from behind and damaged his front wing.

Laps 70–95

The 3rd caution came out, as Robby Gordon had hit the wall. The top 10 was: de Ferran, Tracy, Vasser, Johnstone, Unser, Jr., Adrian Fernandez, Andretti, Roberto Moreno, Eddie Lawson and Richie Hearn. At the same lap, Paul Tracy was black flagged after overtaking Vasser during caution. He did a stop-and-go penalty one lap later. At lap 95, Dennis Vitolo retired due to mechanical problems

Closing stages

With 4 laps to go, de Ferran suffered mechanical problems and lost the lead to Jimmy Vasser. Then, 1 lap later, Bobby Rahal and Bryan Herta collided at the hairpin. Jimmy Vasser won the race.

Final results

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Jimmy Vasser	Chip Ganassi Racing	105	1:44:02.363	3	20
2	49	Parker Johnstone	Comptech Racing	105	+ 3.447	6	16
3	2	Al Unser, Jr.	Penske Racing	105	+ 4.409	9	14
4	3	Paul Tracy	Penske Racing	105	+ 5.000	4	12
5	8	Gil de Ferran	Jim Hall Racing	105	+ 32.073	1	12
6	32	Adrián Fernández	Tasman Motorsports	105	+ 36.322	13	8
7	6	Michael Andretti	Newman/Haas Racing	104	+ 1 Lap	12	6
8	34	Roberto Moreno	Payton/Coyne Racing	104	+ 1 Lap	18	5
9	10	Eddie Lawson	Galles Racing International	104	+ 1 Lap	24	4
10	44	Richie Hearn	Della Penna Motorsports	103	+ 2 Laps	22	3
11	20	Scott Pruett	Patrick Racing	103	+ 2 Laps	5	2
12	28	Bryan Herta	Team Rahal	100	+ 5 Laps	17	1
13	5	Robby Gordon	Walker Racing	98	+ 7 Laps	7
14	18	Bobby Rahal	Team Rahal	98	+ 7 Laps	21
15	17	Maurício Gugelmin	PacWest Racing	97	+ 8 Laps	11
16	1	Raul Boesel	Team Green	90	+ 15 Laps	16
17	64	Dennis Vitolo	Project Indy	87	Electrical	28
18	21	Teo Fabi	PacWest Racing	86	Clutch	19
19	16	Stefan Johansson	Bettenhausen Racing	50	Engine	20
20	9	Emerson Fittipaldi	Hogan-Penske Racing	48	Accident	14
21	11	Christian Fittipaldi	Newman/Haas Racing	47	Accident	10
22	99	Greg Moore	Team Forsythe	47	Accident	8
23	22	Michel Jourdain, Jr.	Team Scandia	46	Radiator	27
24	4	Alex Zanardi	Chip Ganassi Racing	39	Accident	2
25	36	Juan Fangio II	All American Racers	29	Oil leak	26
26	25	Jeff Krosnoff	Arciero/Wells Racing	23	Engine	23
27	31	André Ribeiro	Tasman Motorsports	4	Accident	15
28	19	Hiro Matsushita	Payton/Coyne Racing	1	Electrical	25
Sources:[2][3]

References

1. "1996 Grand Prix of Long Beach weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
2. "Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach". Ultimate Racing History. Archived from the original on 1 August 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
3. "1996 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach". Champ Car Stats. Archived from the original on 1 August 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2011.

Preceded by 1995 Grand Prix of Long Beach	Grand Prix of Long Beach	Succeeded by 1997 Grand Prix of Long Beach