Hometown Hex for Hayden

TORONTO, Ontario — The NYC to L.A. Bullrun dash across North America made a stop north of the border over the weekend in Hayden Christensen’s hometown, but the young Hollywood star didn’t get much of a home-field advantage as transmission troubles held him up in New York.

Corey Haim, who lives in Toronto, waits for teammateCorey Feldman to arrive in the Lotus Exige that they'll co-drive the rest of the route. Behind Haim is the 2006 Spyker C8 Spyder that was driven by Carl Lewis.

Christensen, the 25-year-old star of two Star Wars prequels, is one of the biggest-name drivers so far in the annual Bullrun rally, along with iconic American race-car driver Mario Andretti, who drove to Toronto but didn’t make it to the Toronto Hilton hotel, which became the first stop for the group’s 118 vehicles. Chatter is circulating that Paris Hilton will drive for a leg closer to the end of the seven-day road rally, in which participants paid $14,000 for a unique run across the continent, with stops at racetracks, fine hotels and plenty of partying all included.

Carl Lewis in Toronto + click to enlarge | view slideshow >

Stars who made it to the downtown Toronto Hilton included co-drivers Corey Feldman and Corey Haim, who first starred together in the ’80s vampire movie Lost Boys, former fastest man in the world Carl Lewis and rookie IRL Pro Series driver Troy Hanson. The two Coreys are about to start shooting a reality show in which Haim moves in with his good friend Feldman — who starred in Stand by Me and Goonies in the mid-’80s and in the first season of VH1’s The Surreal Life in 2003 — and Feldman’s wife, said Haim Saturday night.

“I live [in Toronto], so I’m meeting up with my co-driver and we’re going to do the rest of the drive together, but the guy’s already late,” said Haim, as half the drivers had made it to the first night’s checkpoint before Feldman arrived in a silver Lotus Exige at 10:45 p.m. local time.

The first car that made it to the swanky downtown hotel was a $150,000 Ford GT, which arrived at 6:58 p.m., almost four hours before Feldman, and was driven by Rob Ferretti, 25, and Noah Lehmann-Haupt, 28. This was before the line of exotic, expensive, rare and all-around cool vehicles started arriving in earnest, prompting a crowd to gather at the hotel’s entrance to curiously admire the line of outrageous cars — and, occasionally, the even more outrageous people who emerged from them.

Related Story: Bullrun Blasts Off from Times Square

This included Miguel Mantovani, a member of the Bullrun Team Los Hermanos Cubanos, or as they are listed on their MySpace page, The Cuban Brothers. They are a music/comedy troupe easily distinguishable by their ’70s-inspired hair, makeup and digs, who sported lavender and purple chest-baring jumpsuits for their trip Sunday. The group is legendary for their 2004 appearance at the Bullrun, where they performed a set/strip show for Bullrun participants that has this year’s group wondering how they’ll top it. Helping to make up for the absence of Dennis Rodman this year, a team called Los Matadors arrived in Toronto wearing the full matador outfit, complete with big-eared hats and sequins.

It’s fun-loving people like these who are helping to increase the event’s popularity, said Bullrun co-founder Andrew Duncan on Saturday, with the most interesting cars and the most interesting people to drive them. “Compared to 75 entrants last year, we have 118 this year and had between 5,000-10,000 people on hand to watch us at Poconos (racetrack),” said Duncan of the location where the group had a demonstration drive. “Shutting down Times Square (for the Bullrun’s official launch) was a lot of work, but we started six months ago.”

The group left the Hilton at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning and headed off to Windsor, Ontario, just south of the American border in Detroit, on their way to the House of Blues in Chicago.

Click here to see more ForbesAutos.com coverage from the 2006 Bullrun.

Photographed by Michael Bettencourt for ForbesAutos.com