Long Beach Spotlight Shines on More Than One Race

Centerpiece of this weekend’s 23rd annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach--the self-styled world’s fastest beach party--is the third race of CART’s 17-race PPG Cup World Series, but the surrounding cast is worthy of special attention.

All races will be over the eight-turn, 1.59-mile circuit through downtown streets surrounding the Long Beach

Convention and Entertainment Center, with the Queen Mary in the background.

On Saturday, along with final qualifying for Sunday’s main event, there will be 10-lap Toyota Pro-Celebrity race featuring stars from film, television and music against professional race drivers, and a 38-lap Kool-Toyota Atlantic championship race.

On Sunday, sandwiched around the 160-lap Grand Prix, there will be a 47-lap PPG-Firestone Indy Lights race in the morning and a season-opening Super Touring championship crowd-chaser in the late afternoon.

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Tom Kendall, the peroxide blond UCLA graduate who has won just about everywhere he has raced, will be back at Long Beach for the fifth time, still looking for his first victory on the seaside course.

This time, however, instead of being in a Trans-Am or Russell series car, he will be driving a Toyota Celica in his first celebrity race.

“Last year I was fast qualifier and had the fastest lap in the [Trans-Am] race,” he said. “But after leading the whole race, my car died about 100 yards from the finish line with a melted coil. And I was second to Jeff Krosnoff in the 1995 Russell race after starting on the pole.

“Maybe the celebrity race is where I need to be to win one. The Celica is a long way from the Trans-Am car I drive, but it’s very challenging to get the most out of it. I may be able to try some passes where I couldn’t in a faster car.”

Kendall, who lives in Santa Monica, is defending Trans-Am champion in one of Jack Rouch’s Ford Mustangs. He also won the 1997 opener in the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida.

“I keep winning, and I keep hoping to hear from an Indy car owner about a ride in the Indy Racing League, but the phone hasn’t rung yet,” he said. “I’ve also hinted to Rouch that I’d like a drive in one of his NASCAR deals. He has three Winston Cup cars, three Busch Grand National cars and two Craftsman trucks. So far, though, he hasn’t been listening.”

In the pro division of Saturday’s 1:45 p.m. race, Kendall will face three-time Formula One champion Jack Brabham, U.S. Auto Club Silver Crown champion Jimmy Sills and off-road veteran Ivan Stewart, as well as a host of entertainers.

Grant Show of “Melrose Place,” winner of last year’s celebrity race, will return in search of another moment of glory. Also entered are supermodel Carol Alt, Eric Braeden of “The Young and the Restless,” Sean Patrick Flanery of “Powder,” Bob Goen of “Entertainment Tonight,” Brian Austin Green of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” Dallas Raines of KABC-TV and Jason Bateman of “Chicago Sons.”

The field is filled out with Justin Huish, Olympic archery gold medalist; Christy Carlson, five-time world women’s jet ski champion; Lew Webb, a Toyota dealer in Cerritos; Wyland, a noted ocean artist; and Ze’ev Drori, whose friend Harry Brix won the ride with a winning bid of $36,000 at the Grand Prix Charity Ball.

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All one needs to know about the Toyota Atlantic series is that its graduates include Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Jimmy Vasser and Paul Tracy.

The series is considered an important steppingstone to international open-wheel racing, providing an opportunity to showcase young talent.

The contenders in Saturday’s $85,500 race are headed by Case Montgomery, last year’s pole sitter and race winner. The Salinas driver, who used to live in Long Beach and Moreno Valley, finished third to Anthony Lazzaro of Acworth, Ga., in the season opener at Homestead, Fla., after leading most of the race.

Joe Sposato of Arcadia will be driving in his 100th Formula Atlantic race. His first was in 1972 at Mosport, Canada. Also entered is David Pook, 25-year-old son of Long Beach Grand Prix founder-president Chris Pook.

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Defending Indy Lights champion David Empringham, another in a long line of Canadian drivers, will face a strong field of competitors in the 75-mile race, part of the “official development series” for CART, as well as the Indy Racing League. Empringham, 31, won last year at Long Beach and also won this year’s opener at Homestead.

Entries include Mark Hotchkis of Pasadena, who led most of the Homestead race before slipping to fourth place; Robby Unser, youngest son of three-time Indy winner Bobby Unser, and the Mears Gang of coach Rick Mears, a four-time Indy winner, and drivers C.J., Rick’s son, and Casey, Rick’s nephew and son of off-road veteran Roger Mears.

All drive identical Lola-Buicks on Firestone tires in cars designed to create a level playing field for young drivers seeking to move up to CART or IRL cars.

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Super Touring, the newest form of motor racing in North America, makes its season debut Sunday with two heats after the grand prix.

The Super Touring cars are mid-size, four-door sedans with worldwide production of at least 25,000 units. Among the entries will be Honda Accords, BMWs, Toyota Camries, Mazdas, Peugeots, Ford Mondeos and Pontiac Sunfires.

The race is expected to be a battle between defending series champion Randy Probst in his Honda Accord and the PacWest Dodge Stratus team of Dominic Dobson and David Donohue, son of former racing star Mark Donohue.

Probst had five poles and five victories last year, edging out Dobson and Donohue, who had five wins and eight poles between them. The PacWest pair finished second and third in Super Touring’s inaugural season.

NASCAR

After a wild weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, the Winston Cup chase moves to tiny Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City 500 on Sunday. Jeremy Mayfield says racing on Bristol’s steeply banked half-mile oval is “like racing inside an automatic dryer.”

Jack Sprague, a regular in the Craftsman truck series, will replace the injured Ricky Craven in Hendrick Motorsports’ Chevrolet at Bristol. Craven broke his right shoulder and cracked two ribs during practice last Thursday at Texas.

The crowd at Texas was so large--150,000--that a 17-mile traffic jam caused some fans to miss half the race. Helicopter traffic was so heavy that pianist Van Cliburn, who was scheduled to play the national anthem, was unable to get to the track.

FORMULA ONE

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve is expected to make another runaway of Sunday’s Grand Prix of Argentina, but behind him is developing one of the tightest competitions in recent history. In the Brazilian GP, five of the first six finishers were driving different makes of cars. After two of 17 races, Villeneuve and David Coulthard, winner of the season opener in Australia, are leading with 10 points each.

IRL

Hemelgarn Racing has signed Lyn St. James as a teammate to Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier for this year’s Indy 500.

NHRA

When Ron Capps went 301.30 mph in a Chevrolet Camaro funny car last weekend at Rockingham, N.C., he became the first driver to exceed 300 mph in two racing categories. He had reached 302.62 mph in a top-fuel dragster before switching to the funny car this season, taking over a car owned by four-time NHRA Winston champion Don Prudhomme.

LAST LAPS

In a survey of new race tracks opening this year, Chris Pook’s Gateway International Raceway, a 1.25-mile oval track in Madison, Ill., just across the river from St. Louis, was inadvertently left out. Gateway is scheduled to open May 24--the day before the Indy 500--with a CART race, the Motorola 300. Also scheduled is a Busch Grand National stock car race July 25.

The speedway motorcycle season will open Saturday night at the Costa Mesa Speedway, inside the Orange County Fairgrounds. National champion Mike Faria will ride this season at Costa Mesa after spending the last two years in the British League, where he was the leading score for the Edinburgh Monarchs. After more than 20 years of racing Friday nights, the speedway programs have shifted to Saturdays.

Veterans Billy Boat and Wally Pankratz will match wits in a U.S. Auto Club midget feature Saturday night at Ventura Raceway with Long Beach’s Jason Leffler, winner Wednesday night at Perris. . . . After a month’s absence, the Sprint Car Racing Assn. returns to Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night.

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GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH AT AT GLANCE

The event that brings approximately $30 million to the city will take place this weekend, with qualifying races Friday and Saturday and championship runs Sunday along the 1.59-mile course. Although it is probably wise to avoid the area because of heavy traffic and some street closures, Ocean Boulevard will remain open at all times.

WHAT: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, race No. 3 of CART PPG Cup World Series.

WHERE: Oceanside streets of Long Beach.

WHEN: Today--8:15 a.m., practice; 2:30 p.m., CART qualifying; 1:45 p.m., pro-celebrity race; 3:45 p.m., Toyota Atlantic series race. Sunday--10.30 a.m., Indy Lights race; 1:p.m., Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach; 3:40 p.m., Super Touring race.

PURSE: No prize money announced.

ATTENDANCE: Estimated 85,000 to 100,000 on Sunday.

TICKETS: Grandstands sold out. General admission--$40 for three days, $32 for Sunday only, $25 for today-Saturday. Tickets are available daily a four booths on Ocean Boulevard, on north side of racing circuit, and at TicketMaster outlets.

TV: CART Grand Prix, Channel 7, 3 p.m. (delayed); Indy Lights, ESPN2, 4 p.m. (delayed).