The 50th anniversary of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach has officially come and gone, leaving another record-setting turnout in its wake.

Crews began work to dismantle the downtown Long Beach track on Monday, a day after the golden anniversary of Southern California’s 200-mph beach party concluded on Sunday.

The three-day event drew around 197,000 attendees this year — marking the third year running the event has beat its own attendance records.

That number, though, is an early estimate, said Jim Michaelian, president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach — meaning the final total, which is still being calculated, will likely be higher.

“We’ll have something more firm here in a couple of days,” Michaelian said Monday. “We went into the weekend with some strong presale results — so it’s safe to say that there will be a new modern-era record here coming out of this weekend.”

That’s starting to become a trend.

Last year’s Grand Prix, for example, brought in a record 194,000 visitors, which beat the event’s 2023 turnout of about 192,000 people. The 2024 Grand Prix also generated around $100 million worth of economic impact in Long Beach and the Southern California region at large.

“Just from my observations, there was a measurable number of more people here. It was difficult getting around, which I’m not in any way apologizing for,” Michaelian said. “There were a lot of people here doing a lot of different things, which is exactly the environment we want to set for people.”

This year, Kyle Kirkwood — the 2023 Grand Prix winner, who started on the pole Sunday after having the fastest qualifying time on Saturday — took his second Long Beach checkered flag in dominant fashion, beating second-place finisher Alex Palou by about 4 seconds, and leading 45 of the 90 laps.

Long Beach was the third race in the IndyCar Series season. The first two races this season were the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (in Florida) and the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix.

Besides the titular race on Sunday, however, this year’s Grand Prix was packed with both on- and off-the-track activities throughout the weekend — and even before the start of the event — to celebrate five decades of motorsports history in Long Beach.

“This was, by far, the most complex weekend of activities we’ve ever had in the history of the Grand Prix,” Michaelian said. “Then on top of all of that, we told the staff we’re here to celebrate the 50th — so we need to have a couple of events here that remind people of the legacy and the history of the Grand Prix.”

Before Grand Prix festivities kicked off on Friday, the celebrations began with Thunder Thursday — an evening event aimed at offering the community a chance to experience the Grand Prix for free — at the Pike Outlets.

Earlier Thursday, three new people, including driver Scott Dixon and Michaelian himself, were inducted to Long Beach’s Motorsports Walk of Fame.

The Grand Prix also had a special exhibit at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles to celebrate its anniversary, and the Road Racing Drivers Club helped ring in the anniversary during its Legends Dinner and Gala on the eve of the event.

The Grand Prix itself featured two Historic Formula Exhibitions — on Saturday and Sunday — that paid tribute to Long Beach’s open-wheel racing heritage, a new addition to the event’s offerings this year.

The Grand Prix also featured its regular standards, with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Super Drift Challenge and Robby Gordon’s SPEED/UTV Stadium Super Trucks all returning this year.

Fans were delighted to have racing legends Mario Andretti and Al Unser Jr. act as co-grand marshals for the 2025 Grand Prix.

The pair delivered the traditional “Drivers, start your engines” announcement on Sunday, and also participated in on-track interviews before the Grand Prix and showed up for a meet-and-greet autograph session in the Lifestyle Expo on Saturday.

This year’s expo featured more than 100 vendors, from toy car sellers to a high-tech racing simulator, alongside a special exhibit honoring the Grand Prix’s 50 years in Long Beach — and much more for visitors to check out.

Off the track, DJ duo DVBBS — known for hits such as “Tsunami,” “La La Land” and “Not Going Home” — delivered an electric set during the Friday night concert, while Saturday night visitors watched legendary rock band Foreigner perform at the Terrace Theater Plaza.

This year’s Grand Prix also featured special tributes on Saturday to the first responders who fought the L.A. wildfires in January.

“We have attempted very hard to create a really attractive environment for all ages when they attend the event, and to look at the variety of different options with regard to providing them with a sense of enjoyment,” Michaelian said. “That all happens, in addition to the six races we put on here — which are all designed to have unique appeal to people.”

With the 50th anniversary party finally over, Michaelian and the Grand Prix, alongside its new owners, Penske Entertainment, are now looking to future of the event.

Penske Entertainment acquired the Grand Prix of Long Beach in November, just a few months out from the 50th anniversary of the event.

“They (Penske) had a chance to come out and take a really close look at the event (over the weekend),” Michaelian said. “Now, as the owners, they’ve seen it from the inside and how we present the event and who our audience is, etc.”

Now, Michaelian said, as planning for the next Grand Prix gets underway, he anticipates a larger influence from the Penske team and its resources.

“I’m sure, as time goes along and knowing of the resources that the Penske Entertainment Group have, I see us sitting down and exchanging ideas about how we can even further expand on the opportunities here,” Michaelian said. “And I can say that to date, our relationship with the Penske Entertainment management has been seamless.”

All in all, Michaelian said, this year’s Grand Prix was another success in the books — and now, it’s on to the next.

“For us to perform the myriad events we did this weekend and do it successfully, it took a huge cooperative effort, and we were able to obtain that from our team, our staff, our volunteers, our vendors, but also the city and others,” Michaelian said, “who all contributed to the idea of making the 50th anniversary something special.

“And you know what,” he added, “they did it, and we’re very thankful for that.”