Up until 4:59 p.m. Thursday, January 26, Tom Naito had never entered an eBay on-line auction source: paddocktalk.com For that matter, he'd never turned some hot laps behind the wheel of a race car. All that changed with the flick of his computer's "Enter" key. Naito, a 34-year-old business analyst for an on-line marketing firm, was eBay's high bidder - with just six seconds remaining! - for a seat in a race-modified Scion tC in the 30th Annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. Come April 7-8, he'll be hitting 100 mph and banging fenders with the likes of past participants such as George Lucas, Cameron Diaz, Jay Leno and one of the 50 greatest players in NBA History, Karl Malone, in one of the fan-favorite portions of the 32nd annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend. His winning bid of $50,350 will benefit the Grand Prix Foundation of Long Beach which, since its inception in 1991, has donated more than $1.8 million to a wide variety of Southern California charities. "I heard about the auction from people at work," Naito says, "but I'd never done an on-line auction before. I was definitely exited when I won and I couldn't sleep at all that night. I'm sure I'm in store for some more restless nights leading up to the race, too!"
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