Long Beach is a very popular race with fans and teams, but cramming all of the American Le Mans Series, Indy Car, Toyota celebrity and support race series teams into the already tight confines of the downtown street circuit creates some logistical challenges.

The record field of 36 ALMS entries means that ALMS teams cannot use their full transporter canopies or support areas.

In fact, ALMS paddock space is at such a premium that Michelin and the ALMS tire competitors have had to set up shop for tire mounting and distribution in a parking deck across the track from the ALMS paddock.

“I should have called the Michelin maps and guides group to produce a special map so the teams could find us, but after the first day of set-up everyone got sorted out,” laughed Michelin ALMS operations manager Jerry Rinaldo.

“One by one our Michelin teams from Corvette Racing, Risi Competizione Ferrari, Flying Lizard Porsche, Extreme Speed Motorsports and the prototypes from Highcroft HPD, Cytosport Porsche, Drayson, and Aston Martin all sorted it out very quickly and our LMP Challenge class teams were right in there with them. The teams are pretty good about helping each other out. There are lots of cars and great fans here in Long Beach. We are all racers and we all adapt. Racing teams aren’t going far without their race tires,” said Rinaldo, a 35 year racing veteran.