Garage Grill is recognized as one the foremost automotive-themed restaurants in the country with roots in motorsports going back to owner Steve Pruitt’s ownership interest in the Long Beach Grand Prix with a racing career that began in the Jim Russell Series at Riverside International Raceway.
While racing, Steve assisted the series in the acquisition and development of the Formula Russell Cars that became the cars used in the Star Mazda Series. He continued his driver development with two years at Ferrari’s Corsa Pilota program in Italy qualifying him to compete in the Ferrari Challenge series as well as SCCA and NASA events. Steve then created Corsa Motorsports campaigning the first Ferrari F430 in the Rolex Grand Am Series and then moving to international competition in the highly competitive GT2 class with his Ferrari team in the American Le Mans Series.
When the opportunity came to develop the world’s first P1 Prototype Hybrid, Corsa developed, at the time, cutting-edge battery technology placing his privateer Corsa team in competition with some of the world’s most renowned racing marques - Audi, Porsche, Aston Martin, Peugeot and Honda with teams that included Penske Racing, Patron Racing, and Andretti Autosport.
The #48 Corsa LMP1 car coupled a 650hp V8 with a 65kw electric motor using kinetic energy recovery to regen the battery powering the electric motor and became the first electric-powered car to finish on the podium in an internationally sanctioned race gaining awards from the EPA and the Department of Energy for its battery technology that has since become the architecture used in road-going hybrids.
Garage Grill regularly exhibits some of the Corsa cars as well as other race and sports cars including Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, Ferrari Lamborghini, McLaren, Lotus, BMW, Ford, and Saleen. The restaurant features hundreds of racing and motorsports memorabilia