LONG BEACH, Calif. – Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport is the hometown hero of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Already a winner in the 2021 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Santa Clarita, Calif. native grew up at this event and understands the pride and importance of one of the biggest racing events in the world.
“As a young kid, I always dreamed of becoming an IndyCar driver and it was because of this race,” Herta said. “I grew up around here. It was my first IndyCar race. It was the track that made me fall in love with IndyCar racing because it was the one West Coast race a year I would go to.
“I think that part of it, that aspect of it, probably played the biggest role.”
When Herta drove to victory at Long Beach as a 21-year-old in 2021, he became “The California Kid.” It was his second-straight win in the state of California after driving to victory the previous weekend in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has held a traditional place on the schedule every year in April, but because the State of California was emerging from the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2021 race was held at the end of September as the final race of the season.
“This is the biggest race for me outside of Indy,” Herta admitted. “This is the first race I ever was able to come to, being from Santa Clarita. I was two weeks old when I first came to Long Beach. My father was driving in 2000. It was the only race I could go to because I was so young, and I couldn’t fly yet. Lucky enough that it came around.
“I remember growing up around here, coming to this race every year when I was five, six, seven, all the way up until I was racing in IndyCar in 2019.
“I can’t believe I won it on my second try. It is a big one for me.”
When Herta was a kid, he discovered King Taco – the famed eatery based in Long Beach that is quite popular with its location inside the paddock area at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
But Herta’s King Taco story also extended to the race track when he was a youth.
He raced against the owner’s daughter, Raquel Martinez, when he was in the go-kart ranks.
From attending his first race as a two-week old infant in 2020, to King Taco, to racing against the owner’s daughter, Herta’s hometown hero status at Long Beach came full circle with his big win in 2021.
He had the fastest car on the track in practice but was unable to win the pole the following day because there were too many laps on his Firestone black tires.
By not advancing into the final round, however, Herta was able to save one more set of the faster Firestone reds for the race.
Herta started 14th, but quickly raced his way through the field until he was finally in the lead. Once he was there, nobody was going to pass the California Kid as he led the most laps in the race with 43.
“It was perfect,” Herta said. “Without the muff-up in qualifying, I think we could have had a great shot at pole, have another dominant race. It was fun to come from the back. A little bit more stressful, but it was a lot of fun.
“I was pretty focused the whole time. Not really stressed, just focused, and trying to nail corner by corner, just focusing to the next one. It was a big ask to keep guys like Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden behind when they’re on new reds. I guess Josef was on used, but Scott was on new.
“I think it showed how good the car was. We were kind of all in tune, in one, fast on blacks, fast on reds, didn’t matter. We were just fast.”
Herta grew up 61 miles away from Long Beach in Santa Clarita, California. That is also the home of Honda Performance Development (HPD), which builds the engines for Honda’s and Acura’s racing teams.
That connection has been a vital part of the Herta family, from his father Bryan’s days as a racing driver to Colton becoming a racing star in IndyCar who may one day move to Formula One.
Honda, Acura, and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach are part of Colton Herta’s DNA.
“It’s a big one for us,” he said. “They have a big thing at their headquarters. But it’s always big for HPD in Santa Clarita. They moved there after my father lived there in the 1980s. I was always two minutes away from where they build the IndyCar engines.
“It takes an hour-and-a-half to get to Long Beach. A good amount of people come down from Santa Clarita. I always hear people tell me they went to high school with me, or their daughter went to high school with me. It’s a cool dynamic to see people show up to support me.”
When Herta drove to victory in the 2021 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, he slowed down and waved to the fans in turn 10.
There was a special reason for that wave.
“I was waving to the HPD people,” he recalled. “They do so much for us. I was giving them a wave, a little thank you. They always bring people out and sit them in turn 10. You see all the red shirts. That’s everybody that works up at HPD in Santa Clarita, which is where I’m from.”
With a strong lineup of drivers in IndyCar and IMSA, Honda and Acura are well represented over the race weekend. But to Herta, Honda is part of his family.
“Exactly,” Herta said. “David Salters has brought that dynamic. Honda has done that, and you feel like it.
“It’s a super important race for me because it’s my home race. It’s a fun race. We have fairly good packages for street courses. I enjoy driving around that track. It’s the first race I ever went to.
“It’s a big one. It’s a big one for sure. Close to 100,000 people on race day and over 150,000 for the weekend. They are putting up big numbers for IndyCar races and have a lot of interest there. It’s really good to see.”
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has established itself as one of the greatest sporting events in the State of California. In Southern California, it is auto racing’s version of The Rose Bowl – an event that has established itself in terms of tradition, history, and impact for the California.
It’s a chance for race fans, from serious to casual, to come to event that turns Long Beach into California’s biggest street party.
For decades, professional sports fans in the greater Los Angeles area were famous for arriving late and leaving early for Los Angeles Dodgers, Anaheim Angels, Los Angeles Lakers, and Los Angeles Clippers games.
But at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, fans come out early and stay late.
“It’s tough with motorsports to have a permanent facility in the area because they are located so far from anything in Los Angeles,” Herta said, referring to some of the major racing facilities that have come and gone in Southern California in the last 40 years. “That’s why it is super important to have a street course at Long Beach because you bring the race to the people.”
Under the guidance of Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President Jim Michaelian and his staff, some who go all the way back to the first race in 1975, they succeeded in bringing the race to the people.
And with drivers such as Colton Herta in his high-powered Honda, the people have found a hometown hero to support.