Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery from this weekend's LBGP

American open-wheel racing just had a pretty big weekend, in case you missed it. While one era was beginning in Japan, another was ending at America's Monte Carlo. With reunification finally about to commence, the last Champ Car (nee CART) race ever was held at the street course in downtown Long Beach. While we've already told you the outcome, we also wanted to share some more photos. Although the race should be back on the schedule for '09, this weekend's race was truly the end of an era.

After 25 years of Champ Cars and their predecessors, next year's race will bring us a series that has a female driver who is an honest-to-goodness winner. And not only is she a winner (and a part-time swimsuit model), but she is pretty hardy too. After winning the race at Motegi, she and unfortunate runner-up Helio "Dancing with the Stars" Castroneves hopped on a plane and made it back to LAX and the LBGP by the time things wrapped up on Sunday afternoon.

While we didn't get any pics of Danica or Helio, we did manage to capture a few dozen shots of some of the drivers (mostly ALMS and Champ Car), and a few of the models too. Click below to check out some of the people that made this race weekend a memorable one.

All photos Copyright ©2008 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.