Schroeder Loses Hood, but Not the Race : Motor sports: He wins GTO-GTU Challenge after brushing wall at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Dorsey Schroeder came from behind to win a tight duel with Pete Halsmer by 3.464 seconds in the Chevron GTO-GTU Challenge at the Long Beach Grand Prix Saturday.

Schroeder, of Ballwin, Mo., squeezed his Mercury Cougar XR-7 between the Seaside Way wall and Halsmer’s Mazda RX-7 to take the lead for good on the 33rd lap of the one-hour race.

The winning GTU division car, a Mazda MX-6, was driven by John Finger of Greenville, S.C., who finished sixth overall.

Schroeder won despite losing his hood during a crash on turn 4.

“Pete was running faster than I can run, and because a lighter car has an advantage, I made mine lighter,” he joked.

Schroeder’s average speed for the 45 laps was 74.16 m.p.h.

His key pass of Halsmer, the 1989 GTO champion, was made under heavy braking.

“There wasn’t a lot of room,” Schroeder, 37, said, “but I didn’t have much body work left anyway. I figured that was it, that I wouldn’t be able to pass him again, so I had to take what was left of my car and ride the rest of the way as smooth as I could.”

Jeremy Dale of Toronto, in a Nissan 300ZX, finished third.

Bobby Rahal easily won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race. The fastest celebrity was actor Stephen Baldwin, who finished six seconds behind Rahal.

Rahal, who took the lead early in the 10-lap, 16.7-mile race of Celica GT-S liftbacks, averaged 59.15 m.p.h.

“I looked in my rear-view mirror and I saw this name--Bobby Rahal,” Baldwin said. “He was one millimeter off my bumper for a whole lap. When we got to the straightaway I pulled over. I said, ‘He’s Bobby Rahal, I better let him pass.’ ”

Baldwin, who plays Buffalo Bill Cody on television’s “The Young Riders,” managed to hold off ABC-TV commentator Paul Paige, who finished third.

“The car was nice and comfortable,” said Rahal, who was amused by the usual erratic driving of the celebrities. “I saw one car move the wall pretty heftily, but outside of that it wasn’t too bad.”

Singer Peter Cetera hit the wall shortly after the start of the race. Phil Stanchfield, a Toyota dealer, hit a wall on the third lap, flattened a tire and lost the lead to Baldwin.

And Paige and Joey Gian of “Knot’s Landing,” who had been fighting for second place in the celebrity class, collided on the eighth lap.