Michael Andretti

* The 36-year-old oldest son of racing legend Mario Andretti will race through the streets in Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He won the event in 1986.

On the Waterfront: Because I’m so busy traveling around the world for the 20-race CART series, I don’t spend a lot of time in any one place, but my favorite weekend in Southern California is Grand Prix weekend. It starts with today’s celebrity event in Carson, which this year has me racing against Kathy Ireland, Jaclyn Smith, LeAnn Rimes, Deion Sanders and Herschel Walker. I’d have to hang up my helmet if I didn’t beat them.

Racing Has Its Perks: My favorite event of the Long Beach weekend is making an appearance for Omega watches at the very cool Sky Bar at the Mondrian Hotel [in West Hollywood]. Last year I drove a race car down Sunset Boulevard to the event. [Owner] Rande [Gerber] and Cindy [Crawford] were very gracious hosts.

Avoiding the Fast Lane: On the Friday of race weekend, our team sponsor, Texaco, always organizes a dinner for its executives and top salespeople. The team owners, Carl Haas and Paul Newman, and I always look forward to it because it’s at L’Opera, which is where we can always be found while in Long Beach--if we’re not at Mum’s. My teammate, Christian Fittipaldi, the most eligible race car driver in the world and a former Cosmopolitan magazine Single Guy of the Month in 1998, also comes, which makes all of the waitresses happy. We give him a hard time about that. I have to get up at 7 a.m. on Saturday, ready to drive at speeds approaching 200 mph [in Saturday’s qualifying runs], so I don’t really get to check out the night life. I only lead a fast life on the track.

Calm Before the Storm: After our starting order for Sunday is determined by who drives the fastest lap on Saturday, I go back to my motor home, which is parked inside the racetrack, and try to spend a quiet evening with my wife and family. Our team travels with its own chef, but we might sneak out for a quick dinner at Mum’s.

The Perfect Capper: My plan is to be drinking champagne in the winner’s circle by the end of business on Sunday.