Josh Brolin Wins 24th Annual Toyota Celebrity Race





 

LONG BEACH, Calif. ó Like father like son, actor Josh Brolin won the 24th annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race 22 years after his father, James Brolin, won in the same race on the downtown streets of Long Beach. The young Brolin outshone a field of 17 other celebrity and professional drivers that included George Lucas, Ashley Judd and John Elway. Former Formula One racer Derek Daly won in the professional category. 

The race was run under the beautiful sunny skies of Long Beach and was among the fastest and cleanest in the 24-year history of the event. Brolin started in the pole position and led wire-to-wire as the celebrities and professionals pushed their identically prepared 2000 Toyota Celicas to speeds in excess of 130 miles per hour on the street course that will challenge the top racers in the world on Sunday at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

Brolin, an accomplished stage and big screen actor, was most recently seen in "Best Laid Plans" and "Mod Squad." Taking second place was "The Young and the Restless" star Joshua Morrow, who pushed Brolin around the race circuit and ran a solid race. 

Meanwhile, in the pro category, Derek Daly and Shaun Palmer worked their way through the celebrity field in tandem and had several battles on the hairpin turns. Daly eventually prevailed over Palmer who was the 1999 overall race winner. 

The final standings for the celebrity category are: 

1. Josh Brolin (18:26) 
2. Joshua Morrow (18:29) 
3. Don Simons (18:30) 
4. Dutch Mandel (18:54) 
5. Jon Shirley (18:55) 
6. John Elway (19:00) 
7. Rod Brewster (19:01) 
8. Melissa Joan Hart (19:11) 
9. Cliff Cummings (19:26) 
10. Alyson Hannigan (19:27) 
11. Ashley Judd (19:29) 
12. George Lucas (19:30) 
13. Dallas Raines (DNF; lap 5) 

As part of the event, Toyota raised more than $120,000 for "Racing for Kids," a national fund-raising program to benefit children's hospitals in Long Beach, Los Angeles and Orange County through its involvement with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The 10-lap race, held on the 1.99-mile Champ Car track, featured a field of 17 drivers and will be broadcast in its entirety on ESPN2 on Thursday, May 11 at 6 p.m. EST. 

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