LBGP Photos: Celebrity Field Gets Wood Laid to It

Rutledge Wood, one of the hosts of the automobile show “Top Gear USA” and a Fox racing commentator, started from the pole position and cruised to a victory Saturday in the 37th annual Pro/Celebrity Race.

Wood lost the lead on the first lap to second-place starter Mark Steines, but retook the lead on Lap 2 to to win the celebrity portion of the race during activities at the 39th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Driving identically prepared Toyota Scion FR-S sports cars, Wood won without incident and finished 1.5 seconds head of second-place finisher Brett Davern of MTV’s “Awkward” and 5.4 seconds ahead of third-place Michael Trucco of “Battlestar Galactica” and “Fairly Legal.”

The most entertaining aspect of this year’s race belonged to Marines Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, who managed to keep from hitting a wall—and continued onward—despite a full spin in the latter stages of the 10-lap race.

Although more a celebrity than a professional race driver, comedian Adam Carolla—last year’s celebrity winner—won the pro race. He led four professionals—either racers or former celebrity race winners—who started 30 seconds behind the celebrities and finished sixth overall. He is the first participant in the event's history to win the celebrity race and then win the pro race the following year.

Carolla finished directly ahead of another pro, Olympic gold medalist swimmer Tyler Clary, who recorded the fastest lap of the race, 1 minute 44.128 seconds.

Davern was the fastest celebrity at 1:45.188, followed by Wood's 1:45.222.

Steines, formerly of “Entertainment Tonight,” started second but dropped back to fifth place. Davern, who finished second after starting fifth.