The Verizon IndyCar Series’ future in Long Beach became a bit clearer this week. The City Council of Long Beach, which had spent several months evaluating bids by a pair of open-wheel groups -- the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach (IndyCar) and the World Auto Championship California (Formula One) -- announced Tuesday its intent to award the contract to the Grand Prix Association.

According to the Long Beach Press Telegram’s Tim Grobaty, the city council identified the GPALB -- headed by Jim Michaelian as “as the most qualified firm to promote and operate the Long Beach Grand Prix race.”

More IndyCar coverage:

It also said the group’s proposal “was the best proposal in fully demonstrating the ability to deliver a race and providing the breadth of information required to financial stability, race implementation, marketing plan, minimizing negative impacts and conformance with the terms of the request for proposal.”

It’s a done deal yet, however. The city council has yet to formally award the bid and will give final approval Aug. 8. Grobaty also reported that the council has elected not to extend its current contract with the GPALB -- which expires in 2018 -- in hopes of negotiating a more city-friendly deal for the future.

The streets of Long Beach have hosted an open-wheel race every year since 1975, the past 34 of them with IndyCar.