Promoter, visionary

One day, former travel agent Christopher Robin Pook asked himself, “Why not a Monaco-style race on the streets of Long Beach?” From that idea, he became one of the brightest lights in American motorsports history, inventing the modern street race and establishing one of the country’s longest-running and most popular events, whether as a Formula 5000, Formula 1, or since 1984, IndyCar race and the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Inspired by this example, Pook also helped create major street races in Denver, Detroit, Del Mar, Las Vegas, Dallas, Meadowlands, NJ, and St. Petersburg. He oversaw the development of two permanent facilities, St. Louis’ Gateway Motorsports Park and Memphis International Raceway. “What’s the most influential street race in the world?” wrote Road & Track’s Preston Lerner in a 2018 article titled Ten Moments that Transformed Motorsports in the Last 70 Years. “It’s not the Monaco Grand Prix, a glamorous but anachronistic remnant of an era when many races were run on public roads. The correct answer is the Long Beach GP.”