Reckell Has Day of His Life in Win

A soap opera star who plays a motorcycle rebel beat a real-life motorcycle rebel who spends his time in a garage on Saturday at the 27th Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Pole qualifier Peter Reckell, who portrays Bo Brady on “Days of Our Lives,” led from start to finish after fending off “Monster Garage” host Jesse James. Reckell won by 2.096 seconds in the 10-lap race.

Adam Carolla, host and creator of “The Man Show,” took third, 23 seconds behind Reckell around the 11-turn, 1.9-mile course.

Starting with a 30-second handicap behind the celebrities, seven-time AMA Supercross champion Jeremy McGrath won the professional division. McGrath finished fourth overall, 26.8 seconds behind Reckell, and led three other professionals, Josh Brolin, Milka Duno and Shawna Robinson. Leilani Munter, the other professional driver, finished 10th. Brolin, an actor who won the 2000 celebrity race, competed as a pro.

James passed Olympic gold-medal skier Picabo Street in Turn 1 of the first lap, but the only serious pass attempt for the lead came in the hairpin on the last turn of the race. James, who runs the Long Beach-based West Coast Choppers that specializes in building customized motorcycles, rubbed up against Reckell through the turn but couldn’t complete the pass.

“He always came up on me in that corner,” Reckell said. “He always took the inside line and I took the outside line. He likes to play bumper cars.”

Not so enthusiastic about bumper cars was Street. She started on the front row but could have wrung the neck of country singer Tommy Shane Steiner afterward. Street was running third when she smoked her tires twice on the back side of the track while braking. The second time, into the hairpin, Steiner tried to pass, but instead made contact on the inside. Street spun, and was passed by the entire 15-car field. A favorite to win, she finished 11th.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in his former career traveled faster than any of the celebrities or pros, finished a lap down in last place.

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A.J. Allmendinger, in only his second race in the Toyota Atlantic series, won the pole position as part of an all-RuSPORT front row. The Barber Dodge series champion last year, Allmendinger, 21, averaged 92.895 mph. Starting alongside him will be Crestline’s Aaron Justus, a teammate on the first-year RuSPORT team.

“We’ll make sure we’re both smart and not take each other out,” Allmendinger said, referring to a first-turn crash last season that involved several cars and bottlenecked the field. “Mainly, we want to get through Turns 1 and 2 and race from there.”

The biggest loser in that crash was Ryan Dalziel, who couldn’t continue. Dalziel will start third today. Luis Diaz, the pole sitter in the season-opening race in Monterrey, Mexico, starts fourth.

The first nine qualifiers finished within one second of each other, including defending race winner Michael Valiante, who starts sixth. Valiante also won in Monterrey.

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Scott Pruett topped qualifying for the BFGoodrich Trans-Am Series race. Pruett, driving owner Paul Gentilozzi’s Jaguar XKR, averaged 86.360 mph. Defending series champion Boris Said of Carlsbad was second at 86.074 mph in a Ford Mustang.

Pruett and Said were notably faster than Michael Lewis, who averaged 84.762 mph in a Jaguar and was moved from fourth to third on the grid because Gentilozzi was dropped to the back of the 19-car field after his Jaguar failed technical inspection.

“Poles are always important, but starting at the front is the name of the game,” Pruett said. “Being blistering fast doesn’t mean much if you can’t back it up with a solid race car.”