Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One boss, will be making an unscheduled pit stop of his own this week.

Seems thieves jacked up the new silver Mercedes parked outside his London home and made off with half of its tires.

"It's a real nuisance. It was only the first night I had the car," Ecclestone told the Daily Telegraph. "They probably think they can sell the wheels and make some money, but they probably can't."

That's because his $300,000 model — CLS55 AMG V8 — is the only one of its kind in Britain.

Paging Gerald Ford

The theory that crashes appeal to auto-racing fans apparently translates to golf watchers as well, as indicated by Newcastle Brown Ale's "Golf & Romance Survey."

The question: "What is the most exciting thing that happens in golf?"

The top two answers:

2) 34.4% — "Watching a tie going into the 18th green at a major."

1) 34.8% — "Watching someone hit an unsuspecting onlooker in the gallery."

The err up there

Two Parisian men spent the night dangling on a ski lift in the French Alps in 25-degree temperatures after employees at The Arcs prematurely shut it down and went home, Agence France-Presse reported.

The men, 26 and 36, were hospitalized with hypothermia. Meanwhile, well-wishers are hereby urged to refrain from saying such things as "Hang in there, pal" or "Hey, buddy, you sure look like you could use a lift."

Pump up the football

Q: Why would three Carolina Panthers players, as alleged by CBS's "60 Minutes," get steroid prescriptions filled in the two weeks leading up to their 2004 Super Bowl date against the New England Patriots?

A: They'd heard some pundits make it clear they were about to get creamed.

Mark your calendars

Now that all the hysteria has calmed down from Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt surpassing Dean Smith's record victory total, it's time to turn to the pro game.

So, before the WNBA hype machine cranks up, you heard it here first: The Houston Comets' Van Chancellor is on pace to blow past Lenny Wilkens' 1,332 coaching wins sometime during the 2054 season.

Talking the talk

• John Salley, co-host of FSN's "Best Damn Sports Show Period," on reports of steroid use by NFL players in the 1970s: "Who cares? Their job is to entertain us and go back to their cages."

• Comedian Argus Hamilton, on the Yankees' Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui — not Jason Giambi or Gary Sheffield — being chosen for random drug tests this week: "By this logic, the Nuremburg trials would have indicted General Eisenhower and Bob Hope."

• Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, to the Salt Lake Tribune, on NBA superstars getting preferential calls from referees: "That's the way life is. Miss America gets all the good dates."

• Red Sox GM Theo Epstein to ESPN.com, on why he steers clear of the team's World Series Trophy: "I don't want to catch anything. That thing has been passed around more often than Paris Hilton."

Seat ya later

Bryant Jackson, the Pistons fan accused of hurling a chair during November's fourth-quarter melee with Pacers players, is facing 90 days to a year in jail after pleading no contest to two assault charges.

It could have been a lot worse. Rumor has it that Jackson, coveting Exhibit A for a souvenir, nearly asked the judge to give him the chair.

Dwight Perry: 206-464-8250 or dperry@seattletimes.com