Few people were as consequential to racing — and to Long Beach’s place on the world stage — as Jim Michaelian. His was a decades-long career that made him almost synonymous with speed: After years as a professional endurance racer, Michaelian helped found the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1975.
But before he was a race car driver, a caboose operator or a father, before he was nicknamed the “Energizer Bunny,” “Cecil,” or “Squeaky,” before he led the Grand Prix, Michaelian was a long-haired boy from Alhambra with a penchant for death-defying speed.
His first taste came at age 13, aboard a three-speed tractor at his grandmother’s vineyard in Fresno…