When he was working feverishly in 1973 to get the first Grand Prix of Long Beach off the ground, one of the things Chris Pook remembers vividly is a cocktail napkin.
If you’re wondering how a cocktail napkin fits into the history of a race that has become a worldwide motorsports success story — and will celebrate its 50th anniversary next weekend — you’re in luck.
I recently sat down with Pook, the founder of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach to talk about that napkin and those early days, when he was struggling against multiple obstacles to host a car race on the city’s streets.
We met at the 555 East Restaurant on Ocean Boulevard. Back in the 1970s, that location was Lombardo’s, a venerable restaurant owned by an ebullient Leonard Lombardo.
Pook’s travel agency was outside the back door of Lombardo’s, so it was a convenient place for him to do his personal business — and then his Grand Prix work.
“Leonard was a great big guy, very Italian, from New York,” Pook recalled. “He was an old-fashioned restaurateur who greeted all of his customers by name. It was definitely the place in Long Beach to see or be seen.”
For more on the napkin and other insights and recollections of those early Grand Prix days, keep reading.
Q: When did you get the idea, which some people said was crazy and would never happen, to run a grand prix race on the streets of downtown Long Beach?
A: On Memorial Day 1973, I was a young travel agent (age 32) in Long Beach watching on television a grand prix race on the streets of Monaco when an entrepreneurial lightbulb went off. I thought to myself, “If Monaco can do it, why can’t Long Beach?” I figured this would help the city’s economic development and also help my travel business.
Q: You were born Christopher Robin Pook in 1941 in Glastonbury, in the south of England. Were you a racing fan in England before you came to the United States?
A: Oh, yes. I loved racing. I first discovered motor racing after World War II when cars were racing at an airfield that had been abandoned after the war. I was 7 or so and rode my bike to watch drivers race. I also made pram racers with wheels from baby carriages, which in England were called prams or perambulators. In 1960-61, in my early 20s, I did some amateur rally driving with Mini Coopers and Austin-Healeys. One of my favorite races was driving from Glasgow to Monaco. I liked competing and enjoyed it. I also met the famous Dan Gurney during a race. He didn’t know me, but he was friendly. He was to have a big impact on me and the Long Beach race 15 years later.
Q: Why did you immigrate to the United States?
A: I believed there were more opportunities to get ahead in the United States if you were prepared to work hard, which I was. I came to California in 1963, did some construction work and started Hollywood Tours, a sightseeing tour business. Eventually, I opened a travel agency in Long Beach in 1971 in the Fidelity Savings and Loan Building next to Lombardo’s. I was married with two children and working hard with my travel business when I saw the grand prix race in Monaco on TV.
Q: You needed city approval for the race. John Mansell was city manager at the time. Describe your first meeting with Mansell when you talked about putting a contract before the City Council.
A: I thought Mansell typified a character out of one of Damon Runyon’s novels. When we entered his office, he had his back to us in his chair, with his feet up on the credenza. We could only see the top of his hat — a cloth fedora. He turned around in his chair with a cigar in one hand and an apple in the other, and his opening words were, “So you want to run a car race in my city, huh?” Everything went fine until I was asked the name of our company. I hadn’t really thought of that, but The Grand Prix Association of Long Beach was the answer that rolled off my tongue.
We had to quickly incorporate that name. That’s when we went back to Lombardo’s and we structured the company — that is, who could be the CEO, VPs, etc. — on a Lombard’s napkin, which attorney Don Dyer took with him to register the company that afternoon and in time for the council meeting, which is when the Grand Prix of Long Beach was officially born.
Q: You were relatively new to Long Beach. Did you know anyone on the City Council?
A: No. My path to councilmembers was the introduction to Al Crutchley at his sporting goods store, where I met Councilmen Don Phillips, Tom Clark, Russ Rubley and Bert Bond on the Saturday morning before the council meeting.
Q: Did you ever think the Grand Prix of Long Beach wouldn’t survive?
A: There were several occasions when I was concerned that we would be stopped. Two of the occasions were with the California Coastal Commission. In July of 1975, in San Diego, we prevailed. The worst was in January 1977 in San Francisco, when the late Peter Douglas came to me and said he was going to recommend an adjournment because we did not have the votes. The real savior was then-Gov. Jerry Brown, who had his office make calls to his appointees because Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula 1 motorsports executive, said the Coastal Commission’s cancellation of the Long Beach race would create “a slap in the face” to an International Sporting Federation made up of over 100 countries. Jerry Brown was about to run for president, and his office was concerned that fallout from cancellation of the race would have a negative effect on his campaign. The Coastal Commission approved the race.
Q: Did you ever think there were just too many obstacles to continuing the race and wanted to quit?
A: No, never! I always believed we would succeed.
Q: What kept you going?
A: I’m not really sure. Probably a good bit of naivety, the enthusiasm from Dan Gurney and the people at the Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau and the belief that, if we could make it work, it would be really good for the city and business. Gurney was of real importance because he instilled in me that the event was worth fighting for, no matter what it took. I also had an incredible supporter from Day 1: a local businessman, John Queen Sr., who worked tirelessly with me in 1974 and 1975 on a pro-bono basis and then formed the Grand Prix Charity Foundation, which has endured over all these years and has raised millions of dollars for the less fortunate of our community. (It’s formal name is the Grand Prix Foundation of Long Beach.)
Q: When Mario Andretti won the race in 1977, did you feel you had turned the corner on the event?
A: Yes. When we got massive media coverage from around the nation and the world after he won that year, we realized that what we had promised the city would happen, actually happened. During the same time frame – 1977-78 – together with Toyota, we developed the Toyota Celebrity Race, which drove our Friday and Saturday audiences up in quantum leaps, which, in turn, allowed us to get financially healthy.
Q: Do you have any favorite races? Favorite drivers?
A: My favorite races: 1977 when Andretti, Jody Scheckter and Niki Lauda put on an 80-plus lap driver demonstration, with Andretti winning, and 1983 when John Watson and Lauda started on the last row of the grid and sliced through the entire field to finish one and two.
My favorite drivers: Andretti and Al Unser Jr. because they were so good with the media, worked with us, with everyone, and always spoke highly of Long Beach.
Q: You were recently inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame, where you were honored “as the father of modern-day street course road racing in North America.” How does that and the 50th anniversary of the Grand Prix of Long Beach make you feel?
A: I feel very humbled by this. I would be less than honest with you if I didn’t say that every time I drove through today’s downtown, I feel a little sense of pride, but this must be shared with a whole lot of people. This was not just me; I had some tremendous folks who worked alongside me, from Jim Michaelian (the current CEO and president of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach) and his personal assistant, Allison Wilson; to Patti Butcher and Gemma Bannon, my personal assistants; to Pete Biro, Hank Ives and Adam Saal in public relations; Brian Turner, our original marketing director and Mike Clark, his successor; and to Dwight Tanaka, operations director. One cannot operate this kind of an event without volunteers and the Committee of 300. A big thanks to city officials, including John Dever, George Medak, Jim Hankla, John Shirey, Jerry Miller and former Mayor Beverly O’Neill.
Finally, my wife, Ellen, has kept my feet on the ground and in the right direction for 40-plus years. She is the champagne in my bottle, and I am lucky to have her by my side.