Pursley Has Front-Row Seat for Today’s L.A. Street Race

For the second year in a row, Greg Pursley of Newhall will start on the pole in the L.A. Street Race main event, a 125-mile NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour race today on a one-mile road course laid out around the Sports Arena in Exposition Park.

Pursley qualified his Chevrolet Monte Carlo at 68.455 mph on an entirely different track configuration than used last year.

Ross Thompson, a Craftsman Truck driver from Phoenix, qualified a Ford Taurus at 68.023 mph, just a tick behind Pursley, but a post-qualifying inspection found the car illegal. Thompson would not have driven today anyway, as he planned to turn the car over to Ken Schrader.

Schrader, who finished ninth in the Pepsi Southern 500 Sunday in Darlington, S.C., and Kenny Irwin, who finished 31st, were to fly out after the race to drive here today.

Because the No. 33 Ford was disqualified, Schrader must qualify today in the second round. Irwin’s car, driven Sunday by Jon Zaretski, qualified 23rd.

Kurt Busch, the series leader from Las Vegas, will move up to the front row alongside Pursley after qualifying third at 67.867. On Busch’s first qualifying attempt, the shifter on his Chevrolet came off in his hand and he had to return to the pits. The crew had five minutes to get him back on the track.

Said Busch, who turned 21 last week: “The mechanic was still working on getting a new shifter in place, so the crew started pushing me to the line. That’s how close it was.”

Busch won the series’ only other road race, at Sears Point.

“I qualified third up there, too,” he said. “Maybe it’s an omen.”

Pursley finished 29th last year’s race, which was won by Steve Portenga, who moved up Winston West this year and is not driving here.

Ron Hornaday Jr., who took advantage of a weekend off from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series, returned to his old haunts and qualified a Tour car fourth and an Ultra Wheel spec truck on the pole. He is defending champion in the Ultra Wheel race, which will follow the Tour main event.

“This track is awesome,” said Hornaday, who lived in Palmdale when he won two Southwest Tour championships. “It’s better than last year because the cars some around quicker. Whoever laid out the course did a great job. The switchbacks are awesome, just awesome.”

Although most of the mile circuit circles the Sports Arena, there are two 90-degree turns in the parking lot that provide most of the excitement. On Sunday, they also caused several delays as crews worked to patch up places where the track was breaking up.

“We’ll have crews working tonight to have the track ready for Monday,” said William Burke, founder of the event.

Bill Tempero, who founded the American IndyCar series in 1987, drove a ’97 Lola-Buick to victory in his race, which was cut in half to 30 miles.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Points Leaders

NASCAR Southwest Tour points leaders going into today’s L.A. Street Race:

*--*

Name, Residence Team Pts. 1. Kurt Busch, Las Vegas Chevrolet 1,808 2. Kenny Shepard, Merced Chevrolet 1,640 3. Damon Lusk, Kennewick, WA Chevrolet 1,630 4. Matt Crafton, Tulare Ford 1,490 5. Dennis Dyer, Palmdale Pontiac 1,484 6. Darrell LaMoure, Glendale, AZ Chevrolet 1,434 7. Doug McCoun, Prunedale Chevrolet 1,434

*--*

Today’s Race

What: L.A. Street Race main event, a 125-mile NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour race.

Where: A one-mile road course laid out around the Sports Arena in Exposition Park.

Time: Today, noon

TV/Radio: None

Pole-sitter: Greg Pursley

Defending Champion: Steve Portenga