Sealy sponsors drivers in Toyota Grand Prix

RoomStore's Selznick also a driver

David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 18, 2006

“Racing and punk rock music are a good blend … it’s a ‘pedal to the metal’ kind of attitude.” — Greg Hetson of the punk rock band Bad Religion

Phil Linder, left, of Linder’s Furniture, Garden Grove, Calif., and Jim Kehoe of Sealy in the Sealy suite overlooking pit row.

Phil Linder, left, of Linder’s Furniture, Garden Grove, Calif., and Jim Kehoe of Sealy in the Sealy suite overlooking pit row.

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The Toyota Grand Prix roars into town for a three-day celebrity-studded run that is part circus, part sport and part spectacle. It feels like the State Fair, sounds like a rock concert and a bunch of really angry lawnmowers, and tastes like cold Tecate beer and warm tacos and burritos from King Taco.

And now a few words about our sponsors: Tecate and King Taco are among the numerous sponsors of this loud, sprawling race weekend, which is “by far one of the most exciting, action-packed” events in the country, according to Toyota, the major sponsor. The souvenir program calls it “the ultimate speed festival.”

The weekend features plenty of auto races to inject a surging shot of velocity into the proceedings. The biggest one is the Grand Prix itself, which unfolds on the final afternoon and pits the drivers against a tricky 1.97-mile road course. Crashes are part of the entertainment.

This year’s event was the 32nd annual gathering in downtown Long Beach, and it drew a crowd of 200,000. With the city’s attractive skyline providing the backdrop, the race weekend played out under clear blue skies and the kind of shimmering sunshine that first attracted filmmakers to a place called Hollywood just up the road.

Finding their spots in the sun this year were two drivers with Sealy mattresses on their mind. One was Alan Sciuto, a promising young racer whom Sealy is sponsoring this season. The other was Dan Selznick, one of the owners of The RoomStore, the nine-unit Phoenix retailer that is a Sealy-only bedding dealer.

Enjoying the scene on pit row are Terry Stowe, left, of Mattress King, Rogers, Ark., Al Boulden of Sealy and Darrell Stowe of Mattress King.

Enjoying the scene on pit row are Terry Stowe, left, of Mattress King, Rogers, Ark., Al Boulden of Sealy and Darrell Stowe of Mattress King.

Both compete in the developmental Champ Car Atlantic Series. Selznick has competed in that series for several years, and this year his RoomStore team is among Sciuto’s sponsors. Sciuto will drive the Sealy car in seven Atlantic Series races this year in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The first was on the Long Beach street course here earlier this month. Sciuto started 15th in the race; Selznick started 26th. The two Sealy-connected drivers were competing against each other and the rest of the field. The winner of that little Sealy versus Sealy duel? Sealy. Details later.

First we must introduce Bad Religion. This punk rock band first made its mark in 1982 with its hit, “How Could Hell Be Any Worse.” (Note: Music historians are pretty sure that was a reference to the High Point market as it stood in the early 1980s. Ha. Ha. Just kidding. Actually, that is a reference to the devilish temperatures outside the World Market Center in Las Vegas in July. Just kidding again, I think.)

Anyway, Bad Religion headlined the “Rock-N-Roar” concert held on Saturday night before the big races on Sunday. Guitarist Greg Hetson made this solemn promise before the concert: “There will be no compromises on the track or on stage that evening. Bring your earplugs for both events, because it’s going to be loud and exciting.”

Members of the Sealy team compare notes before the start of the Atlantic Series race.

Members of the Sealy team compare notes before the start of the Atlantic Series race.

I know all this because the slick souvenir program (cost: $10) devoted an entire page (62, if you are curious) to a profile of the band, which it said offers “thoughtful, intelligent and sometimes political lyrics.” Music is one of the threads that runs through race weekend in Long Beach. The pages of the program carry this tag line: shifting, drifting and guitar riffing. Shifting is what the drivers do in the races, of course. Drifting requires a definition, found on Page 64 of our program: “Simply put, the goal during a drift is not to maximize traction, but have the car behave as though racing on ice or snow, with drivers judged on style and showmanship, rather than speed.” Three drifting sessions were held during the Long Beach event, one each day.

And riffing, as you might imagine, is what guitar players do while playing. On this weekend, the riffing wasn’t confined to Bad Religion, however. On Friday, El Tri headlined Tecate’s Fiesta Friday. Page 98 of our program tells us that El Tri is “often referred to as the ‘Mexican Rolling Stones’ because of their timeless rock sounds.”

And Page 108 tells us that Tecate, the official beer sponsor of the 32nd Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, was first brewed in Tecate, Mexico in 1944 and “is the most widely-sold canned beer in the U.S.” Say it ain’t so, Budweiser.

Tecate is another thread that runs through race weekend in Long Beach. Tecate had a big presence at the race. It sponsored two Cantinas, where race fans 21 and older could enjoy beer and Mexican food, while listening to live mariachi music. (Drinking note: The program says that Tecate “is traditionally enjoyed with salt and lime.”)

The Tecate Miss Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Pageant was held immediately after the Bad Religion concert ended. And a delegation of lovely Tecate ladies marched out to the Atlantic Series drivers on pit row before the race, thoughtfully holding umbrellas over the drivers’ heads to shield them from the sunshine — and posing for a picture or two.

Drivers? Yes, that’s another theme that runs through the race weekend. Forgive me for waiting so long to get into the racing part of this story, but, as you can see, a race weekend is filled with all sorts of fascinating diversions. “Seventy percent of racing is what happens outside the race itself,” someone said at the race. That wasn’t one of the guitar players for Bad Religion, by the way; it was the Champ Car president himself. So we will attempt to honor the importance of the diversions by giving them plenty of ink in our modest narrative.

But before we get back to diversions, let’s talk a bit about the racing part of the weekend. And it is at this point that I must admit I was a raw rookie in Raceland. Yes, my trip to Long Beach was my first close encounter with motor sports.

My friends at Sealy had invited me to join them and some of their dealers at the race, which they attended to show their support for the aforementioned Sciuto and Selznick, the two Sealy-connected drivers. We had pit row credentials, which enabled us to watch the races from the high vantage point of Suite 7 along pit row. And that pass also gave us an inside look at the fascinating world of racing.

Despite all my earlier talk about Bad Religion, beer, celebrities (the lineup this year included Paul Newman, who co-owns one of the top race teams, Hugh Hefner, accompanied by three (or should we say six?) of his female friends and celebrating his 80th birthday, and John Elway, the grand marshal, who tossed footballs into the stands along Shoreline Drive before the race), etc., the racing that goes on is a very serious affair. That other stuff is just the backdrop, one that helps entertain the fans, who help pay the bills.

Atlantic Series racing is a high-tech affair in which computer technology “drives” the teams to success. Computers monitor the performance of various elements of the cars as they zip around the tracks in practice and during races. The teams use all of that information to improve the car’s speed, gaining precious seconds and tenths of seconds that separate the winner from the losers.

The difference between Alan Sciuto’s 15th place start in the first Atlantic Series race and that of the driver on the pole was a mere seven-tenths of a second. “You can’t click your fingers that fast,” said Jim Griffith, the president of the Polestar Racing Group, for which Alan drives.

Griffith was standing inside the semi-trailer that takes his cars to the races on the Atlantic circuit when he made that comment. He was briefing us on some of the intricacies of the sport.

He has a calm, confident manner, much like Sciuto. The two make for a powerful combination. The Champ Car Atlantic Series Web site provides this 2006 outlook for the Polestar team: “After a tremendous run in the Atlantic Championship with the two talented rookies last season, the Polestar team returns with a new sponsor (Sealy) and two new drivers that both have championship aspirations in 2006.”

Sciuto is one of the new drivers with Polestar. The other is Alex Barron, who has teamed up with Griffith once again. Griffith was Barron’s engineer in 1997, when Barron won the Atlantic Championship. Griffith also engineered Atlantic championships in 1996 and 2000. So the guy knows a thing or two about championship racing. And while racing is in his blood (the Polestar Web site says he has been racing “forever”), he’s a man of diverse interests, including collecting art. His favorite movie is “Batman Begins,” his favorite food is Mexican, his favorite track is Long Beach and his favorite color is yellow. (The Polestar Web site supplies all of those tidbits.)

Jim’s wife, Pam, is also involved in Polestar Racing. (Her favorite color is red, her favorite food is Mexican, and she also enjoys collecting art.) Both are gracious hosts to the Sealy delegation throughout the day. They are both articulate spokesmen for the sport. They made us feel right at home in the garage, where the teams meet before the race.

Jim called Alan over to meet us. He is a blonde-haired young man who has been racing for 10 of his 17 years. He lives with his parents in Orange, Calif., is poised and polite, and has compiled a string of racing firsts. The Atlantic Series Web site describes him “as one of the leading title contenders in 2006.”

I glanced over at the food table set up for the Polestar team, and there I saw a key to the team’s success: a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I don’t know if that is Alan’s cereal of choice, but I know my own 18-year-old son uses it as basic morning fuel.

Now might be a good time to further explore the food equation in racing. The teams put out their own spreads in the garage before the races, and then return to those same areas after the race to unwind, pack the car up, and perhaps have a more substantial meal. Jim was attempting to dig into a plate of rice and chicken after the race when we visited with him and the team.

On this day, I had him beat. The fare in the dining tents behind the pit row suites, where the Sealy delegation watched the races, was superb. The luncheon buffet featured five salads: Greek, tomato mozzarella, Caesar, roasted vegetable, and one with cucumber, pepper and jicama. But those were just the preliminaries. The buffet line then offered saffron basmati rice, steamed parsley potatoes and assorted “vegetables of the moment.” The stars of the show were up next: Chicken Monterey, herb-garlic rubbed filet (nestled amidst a forest medley of mushrooms) and, finally, oven-roasted lobster tails with drawn butter. Assorted miniature pastries provided the sweet ending.

And to think that I was expecting chicken wings!

Actually, wings were on the menu for the post-race reception, slated for 3 p.m. And not just any chicken wings, but “spicy chicken wings and cucumber ranch dressing.” Polynesian egg rolls, sesame-crusted chicken pinwheel and spanakopitas were also on the menu for the post-race reception.

We found the lunch buffet plenty filling and skipped the mid-afternoon snacks. Thus I wrapped up my full day at the races without a single chicken wing.

Race fans, meanwhile, faced a dizzying array of food options. Kiosks selling everything from roast corn to pepperoni were set up on the grounds. King Taco was doing a brisk business. The famous Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., next to the Aquarium of the Pacific down in Turn Three, featured a live race feed on ten televisions inside the restaurant, and offered this bit of wisdom: “Mama always said, life is like a race car … it goes by too darn fast.”

The Atlantic Series race that was the main draw for us was in the morning, when the prospect of oven-roasted lobster tails danced pleasantly on the horizon. The warmup began at 8:35 a.m., with the race set to start two hours later. Long Beach is a road course almost two miles long, and featuring 11 turns, including the famous Turn One on Shoreline Drive, which gets an entire page in the program. I learned that Turn One “is a tight left-hander” but that it has been widened by 12 feet this year. “The days of hair-raising traffic jams in the turn may be over,” the program suggested.

Well, it didn’t work out that way. As the Champ Cars entered the turn in the Grand Prix event that afternoon, four of them crashed, knocking four top drivers out of the event — on the very first turn of the first race of the season.

Alan and Dan avoided trouble in that tricky turn in their Atlantic Series race, but crashes took their toll. There were three yellow flags. Both racers drove the course cleanly, moving up in the standings as the field thinned.

In the open-air Sealy suite, we had two TV monitors and tables and chairs to keep us comfortable. A canvas awning kept the bright sunshine at bay.

The suites, of which there are 21, and skyboxes, of which there are five, offer a sweet way to see the race. You have room to spread out, you can avoid the ear-reddening sun, and you have TV monitors close at hand. Did I mention the oven-roasted lobster tails?

The competition was international. Of the 29 Atlantic drivers listed in the program, 12 were from the U.S. Others were from Brazil, England, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Venezuela, Austria, South Africa, France, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands.

The cars whizzed around the course, their engines emitting high-pitched screams. This is where a set of Moldex Pura-Fit 6800 earplugs came in handy. The package provided these helpful instructions on how to use them: With clean hands, roll the foam plugs into their smallest diameter, quickly insert the tapered end into the ear canal, and hold until fully expanded. The earplugs reduced the roar to a manageable level.

The TV monitors kept us posted on the order of the cars, which would otherwise be just about impossible to determine for the uninitiated. The screens told us how far back each driver was from the leader and eventual winner, Andreas Wirth of Germany. “There are no pit stops,” the race announcer said as the cars zoomed by. “This is a sprint.”

Sciuto, who is used to winning, finished in 10th place, a solid effort, but one that didn’t particularly please him. Selznick, who has managed a number of Top 10 finishes on the Atlantic circuit, finished 17th.

The race ended as the noon lunch hour approached. Did I mention that oven-roasted lobster tails were on the menu? I guess I did.

After lunch, we headed back to the garage to see Sciuto and Selznick. I asked Jim Griffith how he felt the race went.

“The driver did a good job,” he began. Then he launched into a detailed explanation of all of the variables at play in a race car and how bringing them all together is sort of like solving a Rubik’s cube puzzle. On this day, the solution proved elusive. But savvy engineer Griffith said the team would find the answers.

He also expressed the lament of competitive team owners and drivers throughout the garage: “Nobody’s happy not to win. You want to be up on the podium.”

Griffith was speaking in the fishbowl of the garage area, where people and cars were constantly coming and going. There were huge crowds at the Lifestyle Expo just a railing away, where dozens of companies had set up booths and stands, some of them quite elaborate. The automotive, travel, home fitness, home improvement and recreation fields were all represented. The Marines had a nice booth, complete with chin-up bars and a huge inflatable Marine.

Among the exhibitors was Linder’s Furniture, based in nearby Garden Grove, Calif. The retailer was selling furniture and consumer electronics to the race fans. “This is a good customer base for us,” Phil Linder, CEO, said back at the Sealy suite. Consumers at the expo can easily spend $5,000 or more, he said.

As I walked through the Lifestyle Expo with Sealy’s David Evans I was impressed with the retail component of the event. I came to Long Beach expecting to watch a race, but I had found a retail extravaganza and a vast, happy crowd (80,000 on the final day, and 200,000 for the three days) that presented appetizing marketing opportunities for those companies, like Sealy, seeking their place in the racing universe.

The highlight of the weekend was the Grand Prix race that afternoon. The two-hour race gave us a chance to watch the pit crews below us spring into action, changing tires and adding gas in seconds, and sending the cars back into the battle. Compared with the Atlantic Series, these cars have bigger engines that generate more speed — and make even more noise. The earplugs went back in. Again, the TV monitors were critical to our racing enjoyment.

Sciuto dropped by the suite during the race. I spent a few minutes with him, tossing out questions in the quiet moments when the cars were farther out on the course. Then, in a few seconds, the whine of the cars would drown out his answers. I think I heard him say that Champ Car racing “is attracting a lot of younger fans.”

Would these race fans like Sealy bedding?

As Sciuto spoke, the field screamed down the straightaway in front of our suite. His answer was lost in a mighty roar of high-tech horsepower. What was that? “They could become good customers,” he said.

I liked Sciuto. As Jim Griffith said, he is mature beyond his years. He has a bright future.

Selznick was already thinking about his furniture stores. He told us in the garage earlier that he was eager to get back to that business, noting that Sunday is the day he reviews orders for the new week.

The Grand Prix race ended with another foreign-born driver taking the checkered flag. This time it was Sebastien Bourdais of France, who made the Newman-Haas Racing team a winner once again, sending Paul Newman back to the Winner’s Circle. Since 1983, co-owners Newman and Carl Haas have won more than 90 races. Sadly, I didn’t see Newman in person. Nor, for that matter, did I see Hugh Hefner and his friends. Alas…

But I did meet some compelling Atlantic Series drivers and team owners, who I will now be rooting for throughout the rest of the season.

And I learned that racing, music, beer, retail and celebrities are all intertwined. “Racing is all about speed and adrenaline and nothing can imitate that sensation quite like rock-n-roll,” said a member of El Tri, the “Mexican Rolling Stones.”

And did I mention that Tecate, which hosted El Tri, is “the beer of choice for every race ran”? See Page 108 of the race program for more details.