Famous faces at the races

About 30 years ago, her name was just Diane Brooks, and she clerked in the race office.

"We registered the drivers and their crews," said Diane Pollard, now a truancy counselor. "I met Gene Hackman, Bruce Jenner, Tom Cruise, James Brolin. They were all here to drive."

Sebring International Raceway has been a Hollywood magnet, and it's attracted the most expert drivers as well, like a four-time Indianapolis winner.

"I got to meet Mario Andretti back then," said Flo Cooper of Sebring.

She also knew Gene Beach, a Clearwater architect who made Beach Formula Vee race cars. Her father air conditioned the buildings Beach designed.

"In fact, when my folks bought 14 acres in Crystal River at Kings Bay, Gene designed and built dad's 2,100 sq. ft. one-bedroom boathouse," Cooper said.

Party central

One reason why Sebring fans love their races is that the famous and the infamous stroll through Green Park, the infield where friends and families party.

"We have had the Bud girls and Phil and Derek Hill at our spot," said Jennifer Noel. Four generations of her family have camped at the Hairpin for 27 years, including her son, who was only three weeks old during the 2009 event. The races have become an unofficial family reunion, with uncles coming from Ohio and her Marine brother jetting from Hawaii. They pitch their tent under the pine trees and fly the Marine flag.

One day, the three-time Sebring champ showed up at Jennifer's door.

"Phil was looking for property in our neighborhood that he won as part of winning a race at Sebring," Jennifer said. "My dad was outside, so he stopped and asked him for help finding it. I don't think he realized it was Phil Hill until after they talked for awhile. My dad told them where our spot was, and they showed up."

Big names, small men

If you've never seen one - a driver up close - they're rarely tall, says track executive director Tres Stephenson.

"Especially the drivers from Europe. They are tiny," he said. He's been meeting racers for 25 years.

Stephenson and Ken Breslauer, the track historian and media director, rattle off names: Patrick Dempsey, Dick Smothers, James Garner, Craig T. Nelson, Steve McQueen, astronaut Pete Conrad, quarterback Dan Pastorini, and Jimmie Carter, before he was governor of Georgia. Many came before Breslauer's and Stephenson's quarter-century of service.

Jim Morrison of the Doors came here and passed out, according to his friends, Breslauer said.

There were two prominent percussionists: Frank Beard banged the drums for ZZ Top and then hung out with Skip Barber's crew; Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, didn't race but brought classic cars, Breslauer said.

"Walter Cronkite used to announce here - and drove," Stephenson said.

Burning desire

"Remember Lorenzo Lamas?" said Breslauer, the "Falconcrest" nighttime soap star. "I think it was probably you and I's first year."

"Yeah, that's when his car caught fire?" Stephenson asked.

"He drove, I think, one lap," Breslauer said. "Parked it in Turn 1, and the car burst into flames."

"It burned to the ground," Stephenson finished, laughing.

And, in the days when cars were still racing on the airport runways, James Brolin's car ran over a wild hog.

"They went out later and picked it up and barbequed it," Stephenson cracked up.

Streisand's squeeze

"James Brolin was gorgeous," Pollard recalled. She worked at the office five years before Stephenson and Breslauer got there, so Brolin apparently came for several years. Back in the 1970s, Brolin got famous as young Stephen Kiley in the doctor drama "Marcus Welby, M.D."

It was Pollard's job to pick up drivers at the Sebring airport and ferry them to the pits. She had her photo taken with Robert Carradine, one of "The Cowboys" in a John Wayne movie and the star of three "Revenge of the Nerds" films.

However, she swooned back then over the gentlemanly, polite Brolin: "All that gorgeous dark hair and dark beard and white teeth," Pollard remembered. "He wanted to buy me dinner. But we were ordered to treat them like regular people, so I had to decline."

Lucky, because in 1996, Brolin was destined to meet a certain blonde singer from New York. It's no mystery to Diane why Barbra chose Brolin.