In Southern California in the mid-1970s, Jim Michaelian was so determined to join the Long Beach group trying to bring motorsports to his hometown that he rode his bike several miles to meet Chris Pook, who was presenting his racing dream to the California Coastal Commission.

But don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. Michaelian, then 31 years old and a lifelong car enthusiast, would have driven if not for this one important element: His license had been revoked.

“(For) a series of speeding violations,” he said, laughing. “In those days, if you violated your suspended license situation, it had some drastic consequences.

“So, I rode my bike.”

Years later, it all adds up. The man who majored in physics at UCLA, earned a Master of Business Administration and later became an endurance racer, was destined to emerge as the face of today’s Grand Prix Association of Long Beach as its CEO and president.

Michaelian was at a career crossroads when he met Pook, an Englishman with a travel agency background. Michaelian had been helping a former college classmate with a small chain of bookstores, but he had no formal responsibilities. That “freedom” meant Michaelian was available to help Pook do whatever was necessary to get the event off the ground.

“My attitude was, if they’re going to run a race in my town, guess what, I’m going to be part of it,” he said.

It so happened that Pook was a visionary without many to help execute his vision, which made Michaelian’s business skills as necessary as they were applicable. The go-getter became Pook’s first financial controller, but on that original staff numbering about a half-dozen, everyone did a lot of everything. They still do.

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, which will be contested April 11-13, now has such a significant place in North America motorsports that it’s easy to overlook how far it’s come in its 50 years. For starters, Long Beach in the 1970s was as awash in idyllic weather as it is today, but its downtown streets were dark with unscrupulous activity. A full makeover of the working-class oil port was needed, something city officials recognized but didn’t know how to change despite acquiring and relocating the prestigious Queen Mary, a retired British ocean liner, in 1968.

Pook’s challenge was complicated by the fact there hadn’t been street racing in the U.S. since a car left the road during a 1952 race in the upstate New York village of Watkins Glen. But Pook was undeterred, envisioning a 2-mile circuit on the streets outside his Long Beach office. If Monaco could do it, he reasoned, so could Long Beach.

Having the support of SoCal hero Dan Gurney was a big help to Pook, and winning over the influential California Coastal Commission, which governed the coastline, was an important early victory. But Pook, who had his heart set on hosting a Formula One race, also had to win over Bernie Ecclestone, who ran F1. Ecclestone required prospective promoters to prove themselves with another event first, which is why Long Beach’s foray into motorsports in September 1975 featured the less-expensive Formula 5000 series sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America. A crowd estimated at 62,000 attended.

“It was fairly successful operationally,” Michaelian said of the race that used a section of Ocean Boulevard, the city’s main thoroughfare. “But financially? Not so much, and that brought on subsequent challenges.”

Pook’s group worked furiously over the next six months, and F1 arrived in March 1976. Ferrari’s Clay Regazzoni won that inaugural race airing a week later on CBS, and the Grand Prix of Long Beach earned its first true relevance the next year when 1969 Indianapolis 500 champion Mario Andretti won in a Lotus. Six more F1 races were held before Pook determined he was priced out of the market by the sport’s skyrocketing sanctioning fees.

The event pivoted to the INDYCAR SERIES for 1984, and Andretti won the first, second and fourth years, with his son, Michael, scoring a win in the third. Al Unser Jr. breaking the Andretti family’s stranglehold on Long Beach’s victory lane celebration was the talk of the 1988 race, and Unser became the event’s winningest driver with his fourth consecutive win in 1991. He finished with six such wins, earning the “King of the Beach” designation.

Unser and Mario Andretti will serve as co-grand marshals of the upcoming event.

While Pook stepped away from the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach years ago and Penske Entertainment acquired the event last fall, Michaelian has remained constant amid a seasoned staff. He is now 82 years old, still married to Mary and as president and CEO of Long Beach’s racing business is still active with every facet of the year-round business. He does point out that he has never turned a competitive lap on what is now an 11-turn, 1.986-mile circuit.

“So much of what I do every day incorporates what I enjoy being a part of,” said Michaelian, who thrives on drinking water, lemonade and one meal a day. “Operations, marketing, media, (public relations), insurance, ticketing … it’s all the things that were in my MBA background.

“The other thing is, I get to work in my hometown area. I know there’s a lot of criticism of California nowadays, but I still enjoy it here. So, to be able to work in your environment that you find to be very, very applicable to your interest and to do it in conjunction with your residence is a pretty good combination.

“I’ve never really been tempted to wander very far from the Long Beach setting.”

Michaelian is proud that next weekend’s event will showcase the history with first-of-its-kind races featuring Formula 5000, F1 and INDYCAR SERIES cars. Michaelian wants fans to see and, more importantly, hear what has made the Grand Prix of Long Beach the second-longest continuously held event in the U.S. behind Indy. But that won’t be his only highlight.

To his surprise, the GPALB staff nominated Michaelian for inclusion in the Long Beach Walk of Fame, and city officials agreed. Michaelian will be inducted with defending Long Beach INDYCAR SERIES race winner Scott Dixon, who also won in 2015, and Beverly O’Neill, Long Beach’s only three-term mayor who never missed a race during her 12 years in office. Pook was inducted in 2007.

Michaelian said he never considered receiving such a moment.

“I had the idea in 2006 to honor some of the heroes who had competed here and other places,” he said. “We’ve honored some really great racing icons – (beginning with) Dan Gurney and Phil Hill – and it went on with Mario and Michael and so many others. There are 37 of those inducted in the Walk of Fame. I’m very proud to be included in that group.

“To think the original idea was to honor real racing heroes and icons, and suddenly my name is in the middle of it, boy, it’s certainly a distinction I’m very proud of.”