An eclectic roster of stars of film, television and sports will strap into brand new race-ready Scion tCs to vie for the checkered flag in the world’s longest-running, most successful celebrity racing event: the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race on Saturday, April 19, part of the 34th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The field of 18 is revved up for competition in this historic, 10-lap race for charity on a 1.97-mile street circuit through the downtown streets of Long Beach in Southern California. The Pro/Celebrity race, one of six featured events during race weekend, gives fans a chance to see their favorite stars duke it out on the track during exciting action-packed competition.

This year’s field includes the following group of fiercely competitive entertainment personalities, sports stars and media:

• Drew Lachey - Singer and actor, best known as the second-season winner of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and member of the group 98 Degrees. Appeared on Broadway in “Rent.”

• Raymond Cruz - Actor, best known for his roles as Det. Sanchez on CBS’s The Closer and as Tuco in the critically acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad. Film roles include “Clear and Present Danger,” “The Substitute,” “The Rock,” and “Training Day.”

• Wilmer Valderrama – Actor, best known for the role of Fez in the FOX sitcom That ’70s Show and host of MTV’s Yo Momma.

• Eric Dickerson - Pro Football Hall of Famer, widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs in NFL history. In his 10-year career, played for the Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Raiders and Atlanta Falcons.

• John Salley - Sportscaster, Emmy-nominated Best Damn Sports Show Period; four-time NBA champion. Retired from the NBA Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers.

• Daniel Goddard - Actor, starring as Cane Ashby on The Young and the Restless. Also played Dar on the BeastMaster TV series.

• Jamie Little - Pit reporter for NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series. Has covered the Indy Racing League and both the Winter and Summer X Games.

• Nancy Lieberman - ESPN women’s basketball analyst. Renowned collegiate and WNBA professional basketball player and coach; member of the Basketball Hall of Fame; Olympic Silver Medalist.

• Brad Lewis - Film producer and director. Executive Producer of Pixar’s Academy Award winning film “Ratatouille,” the 20th Century Fox hit “Broken Arrow” (with John Travolta and Christian Slater) and Dreamworks’ “Forces of Nature” and “Antz.”

• William Fichtner - Actor, starring as FBI special agent Alexander Mahone in the FOX series Prison Break. Also appeared in Academy Award-winning best picture “Crash,” as well as “Blades of Glory,” “Armageddon,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Go,” and “Heat.”

Professional off-road racer, ESPN pit-reporter and feature host for the Champ Car World Series Beccy Gordon joins the “Pro” category with cyclist Marty Nothstein, the 2000 Gold and 1996 Silver Medalist in the 1000-meter (Sprint) Olympic Track Cycling competitions and 34-time U.S. Nationals Champion with titles in seven different events. Other Pro drivers include NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion Mike Skinner, NHRA Funny Car Champion Tony Pedregon, two-time NHRA U.S. Nationals Funny Car winner Whit Bazemore, and Grand-Am race car driver/fine jewelry designer Sarena Traver (who garnered a spot by bidding $80,000 in the Boys and Girls charity auction).
The Southern California Toyota Dealer seat is being filled by Bud Gordon, General Manager of Quality Toyota of Corona. Rounding out the field is the second Boys and Girls Club charity auction winner Craig Barto, whose matching $80,000 donation also earned him a chance to challenge the celebrities and pros in this year’s race.

“We’re looking forward to one of the most competitive races since we created the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race more than 30 years ago,” said Les Unger, Toyota’s national motorsports manager. “The Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race is renowned for attracting ‘the fast and the famous’ because it offers the unparalleled celebrity-pro challenge of real high-speed racing, combined with a chance to support a worthwhile charity.”

Toyota will donate $5,000 to “Racing for Kids” in the name of each celebrity racer, and another $5,000 to the winning racer’s charity of choice. Racing for Kids is a non-profit program benefiting children’s hospitals in Long Beach and Orange County, Calif.

Finally, a $15,000 donation is made in conjunction with the 11th annual “PEOPLE Pole Award.” Sponsored by PEOPLE magazine, the award honors the pole-position winner of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race qualifying session on Friday, April 18. On behalf of the race and its participants, Toyota has donated close to $1.6 million to various children’s organizations since 1991.

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And there also have been icons from the sporting orbit like the late Walter Payton, Joe Montana, John Elway, Carl Lewis, Fred Dryer, Bruce Jenner, Larry Csonka, Greg LeMond, Rick Monday and Bill Goldberg.

The race is staged on a Saturday, and always has drawn great interest among the viewers, forever intrigued by the presence of people deemed as famous, even though such types are no different than you and I with the same insecurities and imperfections.

Oh, their Dun & Bradstreet rating might be more impressive, but I’ve always felt the greatest German poet of the 20th century, Rainier Maria Rilke, summed up it best when he said, “Fame is the sum total of all the misunderstandings that can gather around a new name.”

This is certainly true – the public images of so many well-known people I’ve know across the years seldom matches their private conduct – but there still is a fascination among the masses about individuals who are in the public limelight.

This is the reason the Toyota Celebrity race always has been such a popular affair.

And this is the reason I called the Toyota national motorsports manager, Mr. Les Unger, who’s been in charge of the Long Beach event for the past 25 years, the other day to find the answer to a most puzzling question.

Why is this year’s race overflowing with B list performers?

I mean, there’s Eric Dickerson, no doubt one of the greatest running backs in NFL history who last carried a football in 1993; there’s John Salley, a mediocre NBA player who’s a member of the Best Damn Sports Show Period when, in reality, it’s the Worst Damn Sports Show Period; and there’s Nancy Lieberman, an ESPN commentator on women’s basketball and who once herself was once quite a player.

After that, well, there’s Nick Lachey’s younger brother, Drew Lachey – he’s the one who wasn’t married to Jessica Simpson – and Raymond Cruz and Daniel Goddard and Wilmer Valderrama and Jamie Little and Brad Lewis and William Fichtner.

Who?

Why, my private physician, Dr. Franklin Lowe, is more renowned in these parts than this obscure group.

“I could have gone out and lined up more famous people than what you have this year,” I told Unger, who coughed nervously. “Why, I could have gotten you Tommy Lasorda.”

Oops, I knew I made a mistake with that assertion.

Poor Tommy has put on so much weight in recent times that he wouldn’t even be able to fit inside of one of those race-ready Toyota Scion tCs.

Ol’ Les uttered something inaudible, but didn’t disagree with my assessment.

“It turns out the writer’s strike really hurt us,” he conceded.

“Because it was settled so late, the studios have forced their performers to get back to work, and won’t let them take any extended time off. We did have people like Vanessa Williams, Jay Mohr, Regina King, Carrie Ann Inaba, Chris Noth, Jason Lee and some others lined up, but they all had to drop out. Still, we’ve managed to come up with a good group.”

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I’m not sure, say, Daniel Goddard is going to inspire great recognition among the race patrons.

Ol’ Les, of course, has to say what he says because he’s in charge of the race, and he makes a nice salary from Toyota to say nice things about their products and events.

But he would have been better off had he gone with local luminaries.

He should have persuaded the revered Long Beach mayor, Bob (Bananas) Foster, to ride in his race, as well as Foster’s predecessor, Beverly O’Neill. Her presence would have been a staggering publicity coup for Toyota.

Imagine the sight of Ol’ Bev tooling around the 1.97, 11-turn course, reaching speeds in excess of 100 mph on the Shoreline Drive straightaway.

For me, that no doubt would have been the highlight of the April 18-20 Grand Prix weekend, if not the top highlight of all the ones I’ve ever witnessed.

Long Beach’s top cop, Anthony Batts, also should have been enlisted by Unger, as well as the new City Manager, Pat West, not to mention the Transportation Czar, Larry Jackson.

And the elegant Councilwoman, Suja Lowenthal, certainly would have cut quite a glamorous figure in a race notably without it.

And why not prominent local restaurateurs like John Morris and Phil Trani and Joe Picarelli and Terry Antonelli?

And for laughs, Unger should have lined up Long Beach’s zaniest character, Dickie (2Fast2Furious/Count Dracula) Babian, the 5-3, 250-pound saloon owner who, alas, also probably would be unable to fit into a Scion. No doubt he would have certainly been a crowd favorite.

Well, anyway, Les Unger does at least have one legitimate storied figure in Eric Dickerson, an old friend and nice guy who just happened to be the best running back in the history of the Los Angeles Rams.

If Eric drives a car as speedily as he once romped around a gridiron, he should win a race against a lot of people I’m sure he’s never heard of, either.

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The field of 18 is revved up for competition in this historic, 10-lap race for charity on a 1.97-mile street circuit through the downtown streets of Long Beach in Southern California. The Pro/Celebrity race, one of six featured events during race weekend, gives fans a chance to see their favorite stars duke it out on the track during exciting action-packed competition.

This year’s field includes the following group of fiercely competitive entertainment personalities, sports stars and media:

    -- Drew Lachey        Singer and actor, best known as the second-season
                          winner of ABC's Dancing with the Stars and member of
                          the group 98 Degrees. Appeared on Broadway in
                          "Rent."
    -- Raymond Cruz       Actor, best known for his roles as Det. Sanchez on
                          CBS's The Closer and as Tuco in the critically
                          acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad.  Film roles
                          include "Clear and Present Danger," "The
                          Substitute," "The Rock," and "Training Day."
    -- Wilmer Valderrama  Actor, best known for the role of Fez in the FOX
                          sitcom That '70s Show and host of MTV's Yo Momma.
    -- Eric Dickerson     Pro Football Hall of Famer, widely considered to be
                          one of the greatest running backs in NFL history.
                          In his 10-year career, played for the Los Angeles
                          Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Raiders and
                          Atlanta Falcons.
    -- John Salley        Sportscaster, Emmy-nominated Best Damn Sports Show
                          Period; four-time NBA champion.  Retired from the
                          NBA Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers.
    -- Daniel Goddard     Actor, starring as Cane Ashby on The Young and the
                          Restless.  Also played Dar on the BeastMaster TV
                          series.
    -- Jamie Little       ESPN/ABC pit reporter for NASCAR Nationwide and
                          Sprint Cup Series.  Has covered the Indy Racing
                          League and both the Winter and Summer X Games.
    -- Nancy Lieberman    ESPN women's basketball analyst.  Renowned
                          collegiate and WNBA professional basketball player
                          and coach; member of the Basketball Hall of Fame;
                          Olympic Silver Medalist.
    -- Brad Lewis         Film producer and director. Executive Producer of
                          Pixar's Academy Award winning film "Ratatouille,"
                          the 20th Century Fox hit "Broken Arrow" (with John
                          Travolta and Christian Slater) and Dreamworks'
                          "Forces of Nature" and "Antz."
    -- William Fichtner   Actor, starring as FBI special agent Alexander
                          Mahone in the FOX series Prison Break.  Also
                          appeared in Academy Award-winning best picture
                          "Crash," as well as "Blades of Glory," "Armageddon,"
                          "Black Hawk Down," "Go," and "Heat."

Professional off-road racer, ESPN pit-reporter and feature host for the Champ Car World Series Beccy Gordon joins the “Pro” category with cyclist Marty Nothstein, the 2000 Gold and 1996 Silver Medalist in the 1000-meter (Sprint) Olympic Track Cycling competitions and 34-time U.S. Nationals Champion with titles in seven different events. Other Pro drivers include NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion Mike Skinner, NHRA Funny Car Champion Tony Pedregon, two-time NHRA U.S. Nationals Funny Car winner Whit Bazemore, and Grand-Am race car driver/fine jewelry designer Sarena Traver (who garnered a spot by bidding $80,000 in the Boys and Girls charity auction).

The Southern California Toyota Dealer seat is being filled by Bud Gordon, General Manager of Quality Toyota of Corona. Rounding out the field is the second Boys and Girls Club charity auction winner Craig Barto, whose matching $80,000 donation also earned him a chance to challenge the celebrities and pros in this year’s race.

“We’re looking forward to one of the most competitive races since we created the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race more than 30 years ago,” said Les Unger, Toyota’s national motorsports manager. “The Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race is renowned for attracting ‘the fast and the famous’ because it offers the unparalleled celebrity-pro challenge of real high-speed racing, combined with a chance to support a worthwhile charity.”

Toyota will donate $5,000 to “Racing for Kids” in the name of each celebrity racer, and another $5,000 to the winning racer’s charity of choice. Racing for Kids is a non-profit program benefiting children’s hospitals in Long Beach and Orange County, Calif.

Finally, a $15,000 donation is made in conjunction with the 11th annual “PEOPLE Pole Award.” Sponsored by PEOPLE magazine, the award honors the pole- position winner of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race qualifying session on Friday, April 18. On behalf of the race and its participants, Toyota has donated close to $1.6 million to various children’s organizations since 1991.

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