Celebrities Looking for Some Wheel Fun
It isn’t often that a celebrity race can take the spotlight from the main event, but given the shaky status of the Champ Car World Series, next week’s Toyota Pro-Celebrity race on Saturday may be more attractive than the Grand Prix of Long Beach the following day.
For one thing, Toyota national motorsports manager Les Unger has guaranteed all along that there would be 17 cars in the starting field.
Champ Car, the successor to CART, was unable to do that until just recently, and Thursday announced that Mario Haberfeld, in a Derek Walker car, would be No. 18. Not included in the announcement, however, was mention of how many of them would be classified as field fillers.
The celebrities will race 10 laps in identically prepared Celica Liftbacks over the 1.97-mile course laid out on seaside streets in downtown Long Beach. What gives it added excitement is the rule that professional drivers must give the novice celebrities a 30-second head start, setting up a chase scenario through the testing 11 turns a lap.
Among them are two former winners, Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, who won in 2002, and daytime soap actor Peter Reckell, last year’s winner. Joining them in the professional category will be Max Papis, who drove a Lexus-powered Daytona Prototype to victory in last month’s 12 Hours of Sebring, and Mike Follmer, an offshore jet ski champion from Newport Beach.
The San Francisco Examiner once said of the 6-foot Torres, “She was born gorgeous and talented, with spectacularly long limbs suitable for both modeling assignments and championship swimming.”
And, apparently, driving fast race cars, like the Celica she will be driving.
“I won it two years ago and I want to win it again,” said Torres, who did not drive last year.
Papis would have to be the favorite, though, since he has raced six times at Long Beach in the Grand Prix main event, finishing as high as third in 2002. He will be feeling peer pressure, though, from Scott Pruett, one of his sports car racing partners. In 2001, Pruett was the overall winner, overcoming the 30-second handicap.
“I won’t expect less than the overall win from Max,” Pruett said when Papis was invited. “I showed it could be done.”
Follmer could be the sleeper in the race.
The nephew of Hall of Fame driver George Follmer, he received an invitation to drive in the Pro-Celebrity race off his feats in winning International Jet Sports Boating Assn. championships. He once was a professional race car driver, though, and drove in Super Vee races when they were part of the Long Beach program.
“I drove my first one in 1983, the year the Grand Prix was moved off Ocean Boulevard and the last time the Formula One race was here,” said Follmer during a lull in practicing for the celebrity race. “I drove cars until 1989, before my finances ran out. My best finish was sixth in 1986.”
A chance ride with a friend on a Yamaha Wave Runner in the ocean off Dana Point in 1994 turned him toward offshore racing.
“I went out just to have some fun, but I had so much that I asked about getting into racing,” he said. “I had ridden motocross for 13 years, from the time I was in high school, and found out that riding a jet ski was like motocross on water.”
He won the first race he entered, in San Felipe, Mexico, on Oct. 29, 1994, and was so exhilarated that he founded Mike Follmer Watersports in 1995 and campaigned in the IJSBA novice class, finishing second.
In 1998, Follmer became a factory rider for Yamaha and reached the height of his career in 2002 by becoming the first to be named rider of the year and image maker of the year by the IJSBA. He won eight of nine races and the overall championship. He also won the Long Beach-to-Catalina-and-back race and the Team Endurance six-hour marathon.
After four days of testing with other celebrity drivers at Willow Springs and a few laps during media day Tuesday over the Long Beach course, Follmer said he had forgotten how much enjoyment he got from racing cars.
“It felt really good to be driving again, and I’d love to do it again,” he said.
Follmer, 48, has also been around enough to know that it will be difficult for any of the four pro drivers to take the checkered flag.
“Because the average race time is around 20 minutes, making up a 30-second deficit and then going on to pass all the celebrities that are there to win too is a very big challenge,” he said. “I am confident I can win the pro category, and with a little bit of luck, win the overall title too.”
When he is not on the water, he keeps busy running Mike Follmer Specialties, which supplies custom-designed pins and other promotional items for racing teams all over the world.
“I’ve been making pins now for 23 years,” he said. “My first customer was Keke Rosberg, the Formula One champion in 1982. My favorite pin is one I did for Ayrton Senna. I was at a race in Europe in 1986 when he was driving for Lotus and he saw some of my work and asked me to make one to look like his helmet. When I finished it, he gave me one of his helmets.”
Among the celebrity entrants will be such diverse characters as hip-hop recording artist Lil’ Kim, female boxing champion Laila Ali, and actors Frankie Muniz of “Malcolm in the Middle,” and Andrew Firestone, the bachelor in “The Bachelor.” Then, too, there is Jill Pasant, whose high bid of $60,000 at last year’s charity ball auction bought her a seat.
The main charity beneficiary is Racing For Kids, a nonprofit program benefiting children’s hospitals in Long Beach and Orange County.
Sweet Spray
With alcohol banned in Bahrain and the Arabic world, Formula One officials had to devise another drink for Michael Schumacher to spray after last Sunday’s inaugural race in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The drink, called Warrd, was a blend of juices of pomegranate and other locally grown fruit, mixed with rosewater to produce a carbonated beverage.
“It smells very good, I have to say,” said Schumacher after celebrating his third consecutive victory on the podium with Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button in the traditional manner. “Usually, we smell a bit strange [after being soaked in champagne], but all three of us had a beautiful smell after this race.”
Formula One returns to Europe for its next race, the San Marino Grand Prix, on April 25.
The Local Scene
For fans who want to get a jump on Grand Prix festivities in Long Beach, the partying starts this week. A 30th-anniversary party will be held tonight at Harry O’s in Manhattan Beach, and on Saturday the Grand Prix Assn. will host all-day “Roar by the Shore” festivities at Belmont Shore.
Next Thursday, the race cars will be on display along Pine Ave., starting at 3 p.m. A “Tecate Thunder on Pine” will feature funk rock concerts, pit stop demonstrations and a radio sports talk show from Mum’s restaurant.
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Jeremy Sherman, winner of the Oval Nationals last year at Perris Auto Speedway, will drive Saturday in the USAC/CRA sprint car series on Perris’ half-mile clay oval. He will be in a car owned by Anne Wilkerson, whose husband Billy won CRA championships in 1967 and 1970.
Favored will be Damion Gardner, last week’s winner in Hanford for championship car owner Ron Chaffin. Gardner is 19 points behind Cory Kruseman in USAC/CRA standings, but Kruseman will miss Saturday’s race to drive Tony Stewart’s sprint car in the USAC national series at Nashville.
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Drag racing fans who want to know how strips are operated are invited to attend a panel discussion at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum at 10 a.m. April 17.
Among the panelists will be C.J. “Pappy” Hart, who operated the first commercial strip at Santa Ana and later at Lions in Long Beach; Steve Gibbs, who ran Irwindale before his three decades with the NHRA; Mike Jones, who ran the highly successful Orange County Raceway; Blackie Gejeian, who operated Fresno Dragway, and Don Rackemann, who at times managed Saugus, Fontana and Riverside strips.
Details: (909) 622-8562.
