Street Race or Demolition Derby? : Motor racing: Winner in L.A. averages 46.943 mph as fender benders and caution flags dominate day.

It wasn’t billed as a Demolition Derby, but that is about the best way to describe the third annual Ford L.A. Street Race that ran Monday in Exposition Park before a small but enthusiastic crowd.

A.J. Alsup, a second-generation driver from Mooresville, N.C., was the last one standing and took home the $17,725 winner’s share of the NASCAR Featherlite Tour purse. Craig Raudman of Redding was second and rookie Eric Holmes of Escalon, Calif., was third. All drove Chevrolet Monte Carlos.

Almost half the race--48 of 125 laps--was run under yellow caution flag conditions as a series of fender-bending accidents continually clogged the narrow streets around the Sports Arena. Ten cars finished on the lead lap after the 2-hour 39-minute marathon, but not one of them looked like it did when the race started.

Cars were going faster down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a few yards from the race course, than Alsup’s average speed of 46.943 mph. Alsup finished with one side of his car bashed in.

Kenny Irwin Jr., who flew here from Darlington, S.C., after a 500-mile race Sunday, moved from 35th all the way to second before getting squeezed against the wall. At the end, Irwin was driving without his right-side door or fenders.

Several cars were so undressed they looked more like super-modified cars than NASCAR stock cars.

Most of the favorites were long gone by the time Alsup, who started 19th, got the lead on lap 58.

Ron Hornaday Jr., after winning his second straight Ultra Wheel spec truck race earlier in the day, stole the lead from pole-sitter Greg Pursley on the first lap around the eight-turn, one-mile circuit, but he only lasted two laps in front before he hit a wall and pitted.

Pursley and Kevin Harvick took turns leading until Alsup emerged from the pack and took command.

Ken Schrader, who like Irwin, flew here from North Carolina, was battling his way forward after starting last when he ran into Rudy Revak and drove both of them into tire barriers at the end of the first hairpin corner. Irwin and Schrader had to start at the rear of the 36-car field because their cars were qualified by other drivers. Once Alsup got the lead, he was pursued relentlessly by one challenger after another. On several occasions, he seemed to lose control in close quarters, only to catch his car before he hit anything.

“My dad helped me prepare for driving on a street course, and he was on the radio with me all the way today,” the winner said. Bill Alsup, A.J.’s father, drove Indy cars in the 1980s.

There were plenty of yellows, 11 in fact. The longest stretch in the entire race without a caution flag was the final 14 laps during which Alsup fought off Jim Inglebright, Holmes and Raudman. On several laps, in the switchbacks, Holmes pulled alongside Alsup and appeared to have him overtaken, but when the cars straightened out down the long back straightaway, it was Alsup’s car in front.

The race was Alsup’s first start of the year. He has been working as an instructor at the Richard Petty Driving Experience in North Carolina.