Long Beach Press-Telegram Article(
w/picture of Kathryn in the car)
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It's all fun & games now for celebrities2007's field of the famous is half female. By Don Jergler, Staff writer
Article Launched: 04/03/2007 10:29:31 PM PDT
LONG BEACH - Most of the highlights of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity warm-up in downtown Long Beach Tuesday were outside the race cars.
And with a cast that included a Hollywood icon, a former NBA player-turned-smart aleck, and a local businessman bent on perpetuating his bad-boy image, one would be hard-pressed to pick the best moment:
Former NBA player John Salley picked up and cradled "Star Wars" creator George Lucas in his arms like a baby.
Actresses Kathryn Morris and Emily Procter joked that they were talking with each other on their cell phones while racing. Actress-comedian Aisha Tyler told Long Beach topless club owner Jerry Westlund that "middle-aged white men can't say L-B-C" after he boasted to camera crews that he was born and raised in Long Beach, aka "the L-B-C."
The event on Tuesday was staged in the Long Beach Arena parking lot south of Ocean Boulevard, where celebrities and hordes of media mingled between practice sessions at the track on Shoreline Drive.
This year's field of 18 celebrities, pro-racers and high-bidders in charity auctions is half women, the first time the sexes have been evenly split in the race's 31-year history, according to organizers.
The 10-lap race for charity through a 1.97-mile, 11-turn street circuit through downtown Long Beach on April 14 is one of six racing events during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend. The weekend culminates in the Champ Car World Series on Sunday, April 15.
The racers have been training for next week's race for the last three weeks in the Antelope Valley.
This year's celebrity drivers include Joshua Morrow from "The Young and the Restless," actress and former model
The race usually brings out a smattering of celebrities from the most popular to the weirdest. Past champions include Bruce Jenner, Ted Nugent, Rick Schroder and Frankie Muniz.
Because he won the 2006 race, pro skateboarder and X Games Gold Medalist Bucky Lasek returns in the "Pro" category.
"I'm psyched. I'm going to do better and go faster," said Lasek. "It's about kind of finding the limitations and then pushing the limits."
New to this year's race is a betting line on the participants by pregame.com on its
www.hollywagers.com Web site.
The site, which only gives odds and does not take bets, has made Navratilova the 5-1 favorite to win the race.
Mirra is next at 6-1, followed by Morrow, actress Kendra Wilkinson, Quivers, Lucas, Morris and Hu. At 30-1, oddsmakers believe Procter is most likely to finish last, a ranking she earned when it was discovered at the start of practice weeks ago that she didn't know how to drive a manual transmission.
At Tuesday's warm-ups, the "CSI: Miami" star stayed within a few car lengths of Morris.
"We're just trying ride next to each other to talk on the phone," she quipped.
Quivers said she got racing fever.
"I'd love to come back and be racing with the pros one day," she said.
Racers spent much of their time interacting with one another.
Lucas and Hu talked quietly when they could in a corner near a trailer about some of his next projects.
The soft-spoken Lucas politely answered media questions.
"It's great. I love doing this," Lucas said, adding that his goal for the race is "to just have fun."
Salley, a sportscaster for "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," roamed among fellow celebrities with a microphone conducting impromptu interviews and doling out verbal jabs.
"I never listen to Howard Stern," he said to Quivers. He also admonished her about her racing, saying, "Do not get close to my a--."
Salley issued a challenge to "The Girls Next Door" star Wilkinson.
"One hundred dollars you hit the wall before I do," he told Wilkinson, who declined the bet, but opted to discuss plans to celebrate boyfriend Hugh Hefner's birthday on April 9.
Throughout the day racers hopped in their race cars - supercharged Scion tCs - to take practice laps.
For Morris, Tuesday was a return to the streets of downtown.
The "Cold Case" star has come to Long Beach in the past to shoot episodes for the popular TV crime drama, including a scene earlier this week filmed at Acapulco Inn on Second Street in Belmont Shore.
Morris said she spent most of the practice session just trying "not to run into the California Pizza Kitchen."Westlund, who owns several topless clubs and real estate in Long Beach and Signal Hill, rose to a level of temporary stardom at the event.
He was on the receiving end of jabs from celebrities and organizers thanks to his businesses and his jocular personality, which pit him in verbal jousting matches with Quivers, Salley and Tyler.
Westlund, who once threatened to open a topless bar on Pine Avenue, bid more than $70,000 in an online auction to take part in the race.
He found it funny that organizers and others refer to his businesses only as "nightclubs."
"I own topless bars," he said, adding that his goal in the race "to make sure I beat all of these women."
Naples resident Annamarie Dean bid more than $50,000 in a Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach charity auction to be in the race. The mother of four said she spent practice sessions making celebrity friends.
Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President & CEO Jim Michaelian said he was encouraged that the race was packed with women drivers.
"There could be a woman standing on the winners' podium this year," he said.
In 2002, Dara Torres in the celebrity category and Danica Patrick in the pro category became the first and only female race winners in the event's 31-year history.
The weekend's other events include a Lifestyle Expo, an X Games display with skateboarders and BMX riders, go-cart races and other activities.
Also at Tuesday's celebrity affair was Graham Rahal, son of legendary racer Bobby Rahal, who at age 18 will be the youngest racer in the Champ Car race at the Grand Prix.
Rahal signed with Paul Newman's Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (NHLR) last week.
"It's going to be good to finally get going," he said of signing with the team.
Rahal, who finished second in the Champ Car Atlantic championship last season and is in the midst of his senior year of high school in New Albany, Ohio, said he decided to take a year off and race before attending college at Denison University in Ohio, the alma mater of his father and grandfather.
"I want a year to focus on racing," he said.
Mayor Bob Foster attended Tuesday's event to show his support and to take a ride in a Formula Drift car.
"The drift car was unusual," he said. "It was exciting as hell."
, anyways Kathryn is going to win, I know it.. She rocks totally
Check it out. Pic 52, Martina N. is sooo checking Kathryn out! Well, who can blame her?
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