More Grand Prix party photos (including a shocker!)

We have more party photos from the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. These shots came from Dan Wheldon's after-party at the plush Push Ultra Lounge in St. Pete.

Here's Wheldon dancing with wife Susie Behm ...

 

Here's Wheldon with teammate Scott Dixon...

 

Here's driver Buddy Rice, at left, with some friends ...

Finally, we are proud to present Marco Andretti and Dan Wheldon ... flashing the shocker!

You cheeky Brit, you.

(Photos: Luis Santana/tbt*)

Celeb sightings at the Grand Prix and Final Four

Despite hosting a pair of high-profile sporting events, the Tampa Bay area was surprisingly light on celebrity action this weekend. Miss America (above, with Charlie "Mr. America" Crist) was in town for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and so was Gene Simmons (below, with the private plane that brought him here). Paul Newman, whose driver, Graham Rahal, won the race, was rumored to be in town, but alas, t'wasn't to be. Finally, we present to you a photo of Danica Patrick eating an energy bar, because why not.

Meanwhile, over in Tampa, the celebrity action was even lighter. Aside from the star power on the court, celebrities were few and far between. If you're going back on Tuesday, the concourse outside the ESPN setup seems to be the best place to spot players and coaches. We spotted ESPN's Stacey Dales, Stanford's Candice Wiggins and Tara VanderVeer, and Tennessee men's coach Bruce Pearl hobnobbing with fans there. A lot of the Forum's luxury boxes appeared to be dark and empty.

The biggest star in the house might have been the Stanford Tree, a.k.a. Patrick Fortune, a 21-year-old Stanford junior. The Juice* got to hang with Fortune, who seemed like a pretty cool conifer.

But after meeting the tree, we realized something amazing -- Stanford's upset victory over UConn was portended (in a way) by none other than Christopher Walken on this past weekend's Saturday Night Live.

Plants with googly eyes -- you just can't trust 'em.

(Photos: Grand Prix, Luis Santana/tbt*; Bruce Pearl, Carrie Pratt/St. Pete Times; Tree, Jay Cridlin/tbt*.)

Dan Wheldon at the Grand Prix

We've been keeping an eye out for celebrities at this year's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, but so far we haven't seen anyone on par with David Letterman and Gene Simmons, who were on hand last year. (Though those nutty lugs at Lug Nuts chatted with race director Kevin Savoree, who intimated that Paul Newman is somewhere in town.) In the meantime, here are two shots of St. Pete's Dan Wheldon and his wife, Susie Behm. For lots more shots, check here throughout the weekend.

 

(Photo: Luis Santana/tbt*)

Danica Patrick, hanging out at the Hard Rock

If Danica Patrick plans to win her first IndyCar Series race this weekend at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, she'll have to drive better than she did Wednesday in Tampa. Patrick was among the drivers who took part in a charity remote-control car race at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. She was paired with Bay News 9's Virginia Johnson, and together they endured more flipouts and fender-benders than we could count. "That’s why I’m leery of doing these sorts of things," Patrick said. "If people feel like they beat me in some way, they feel like they can beat me as a race car driver. There are going to be a lot of people here that think they can probably beat me in racing."

Arie Luyendyk Jr. and 101.5-WPOI The Point's Corey Dylan won the 20-lap race, bringing in $5,000 for All Children's Hospital. (The Hard Rock also donated $1,000 apiece to the Children's Cancer Ceter, the Ryan Neece Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Awww.) If you'd like to bid on the battle-damaged cars, check out WPOI's Web site in the near future; they'll be auctioning the 18-inch hot wheels off.

Check out Thursday's tbt* for a one-on-one with Danica. In the meantime, Luis Santana of tbt* snagged some footage of her and the other drivers racing. (Danica's car is the blue one.)

(Photos/video: Luis Santana/tbt*)

Lighten up, Danica

That Danica Patrick is something else. Besides barely signing autographs at the track and, according to our spies, hardly acknowledging her fans, Danica the Diva apparently needed not one, not two, not three, but FIVE St. Pete PD officers to escort her to her trailer, easily outpacing her fellow drivers in the security department. Now if only she could outpace them on the track!

Ouch, maybe that was uncalled for. But hey, it's not like she's Jessica Simpson or anything. And yes, we notice that she's signing something in this Luis Santana pic -- we're just saying what we heard.

Helio wins again

In case you didn't see it, Helio Castroneves easily won the St. Pete Grand Prix, leading all but five laps to top Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. That's the same 1-2-3 finish as last year, btw. Check it out at http://racing.tampabay.com/.

Intrepid tbt* paparazzo Luis Santana was there again today, shooting Helio's celebration:

Dear readers, if you'd like to see more, head on over to tbt*'s online photo galleries at http://tampabay.textamerica.com/.

Sights and sounds on Sunday

tbt*'s Luis Santana had his ear to the ground all day long and managed to get pretty close to the action. How close? Let's just say homie is still asking why the phone keeps ringing.

During today's Grand Prix, Gov. Charlie Crist talked about ethanol and was a really nice guy, Luis says, as was Target Chip Ganassi team driver Dan Wheldon, who was especially cool with the kids and took the time to sign every hat, t-shirt and photograph shoved his way (hear that, Danica?). Of course St. Pete mayor Rick Baker was there, but for good measure, David Letterman was in the pits supporting his Rahal Letterman racing team.

But don't take our word for it. The versatile Mr. Santana shot lots of video for your enjoyment:

Dig those crazy Helio Castroneves fans!

On the scene in St. Pete

tbt*'s Luis Santana catches the flavor of Saturday's action with this short montage. We're not sure how much Gene Simmons is getting paid for his little plug, but at least he's good-natured about it. And girls, use sunscreen next time.

Saturday at the races

It was a busy Saturday on the streets of St. Pete, with native son Dan Wheldon crashing in morning practice and Tony Kanaan careering into Turn 9 during the league's "Fast Six" qualifying scramble. That leaves last year's winner Helio Castroneves on the pole for Sunday's main event.

Get all the racing news you can bear at http://racing.tampabay.com/.

Meanwhile, KISS Army leader Gene Simmons was seen stalking the track on Saturday. tbt* photog extraordinaire Luis Santana caught Gene on video, so we promise to have that up soon. In the meantime, here's Simmons stating the obvious:

And speaking of young Luis, he's been busting his hump in downtown St. Pete all day in the blazing sun, just so he can catch Indycar drivers like Dan, Tony, Helio and one woman you may have heard of -- Danica Patrick (as if seeing her mug plastered on every racing poster in town wasn't enough):

 

To see more of Danica and the rest of the people on pit row, click on over to tbt*'s online photo gallery at http://tampabay.textamerica.com/.

More to come!