L.A. Street Race Takes a New Course, This Time Around the Sports Arena

A variety of vehicles will test their speed today in the first practice sessions of the third L.A. Street Race--this year on Figueroa Street and the park roads surrounding the Sports Arena in Exposition Park.

Racing is scheduled Sunday and Monday over the eight-turn, one-mile course and there will be testing today for American IndyCar Racing series cars from an earlier Indy car era, Ultra Wheel spec trucks, PRO Racing series cars and Ford Alternative Fuel Vehicles.

The NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour cars, feature attraction of the weekend, will not test the track until Sunday, when practice will start at 9:40 a.m., with qualifying at 1:15 p.m. The 125-mile race is scheduled Monday at 1.

The circuit has changed each year, from the Olvera Street-Union Station area in 1997 to a course inside Exposition Park around the museums last year. After museum patrons complained that they were unable to enter the park on race day, the course was moved south and now circles the Sports Arena.

William Burke, founder of the event, announced that contracts for the race have been signed through 2003, but said it was likely that it would be run on yet another site next year.

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