"The breaking was extraordinary": When celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay took an IndyCar ride at Long Beach

The IndyCar's Instagram account posted a video of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay driving around the Long Beach track. He drove around in a two-seater IndyCar.

Chef Ramsay was invited to the IndyCar race as a Grand Marshall for the 2011 Indycar race at Long Beach. He got to take a ride in IZOD Honda Al-Unser Jr.'s two-seater car around the track. After a lap, he spoke to the reporters at the race.

When asked about his experience, Ramsay commented that it was extraordinary.

"Extraordinary and also just so fast and breathtaking cause you actually hold your breath for the first sort of 30 seconds, and then you're tense, but then you gotta relax. But, yeah, I mean the breaking was extraordinary cause it just ...draws to a sudden halt," Ramsay said.

Further in the video, Ramsay went on to speak about teams' support and also chalked out an ideal pre-race meal for the drivers.

The 2011 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach took place on April 17. British driver Mike Conway won it by just six seconds over Ryan Briscoe. The Australian driver Briscoe placed second, while the British driver Dario Fanchitti completed the podium in third position.

The most memorable moment of the race was Mike Conway's win as he had been involved in a major accident in 2010's Indy 500 and had multiple fractures, making him miss out on the entire 2010 season. However, this victory at Long Beach was a major comeback for him.

The Long Beach street course is all set to host its 50th-anniversary IndyCar race this Sunday at 4:30 pm ET.

Kyle Kirkwood teases unprecedented racing action at Long Beach GP due to new IndyCar rules

The Andretti Global driver, Kyle Kirkwood, spoke about the upcoming race at Long Beach and his expectations for the race on Sunday. He highlighted how the new changes have brought about uncertainty amongst the teams.

The drivers will drive around the track with the hybrid engines for the first time as they were introduced by IndyCar midway through the season in 2024. Firestone has also introduced a new, softer alternate tire that will also come into play while deciding the strategy.

Kirkwood spoke to Racer.com about all these factors coming into play during the race.

“You could play it a little bit differently from St. Petersburg because everyone that started there on the primes was just hoping for no yellow in the beginning.

“Long Beach really isn’t the same. The place has always been an alternate race, and I think now, with the current tire, there’s almost no way that it will happen, given that the race is even longer. So it’s going to be a different one than we’ve seen there in the past because of that,” added Kyle Kirkwood.

During the last IndyCar race at the Thermal Club Grand Prix, the tire strategy played a major role as Alex Palou saved his soft compound tires for later in the race, while Pato O'Ward used up his soft tires at the beginning of the race. For the final laps of the race, the defending champion used his soft tires, which helped him overtake the McLaren duo towards the end of the race.