Pursley Gets in Familiar Pole Position

Organizers of the Ford Los Angeles Street Race should consider doing away with pole qualifying and name Greg Pursley of Newhall perennial pole-sitter.

Today will mark the third time in the three years the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour has been the event’s feature attraction that Pursley will start from the first position.

Pursley averaged 70.388 mph on the one-mile street course in Exposition Park during Saturday’s European-style qualifying session, shaving 1.444 seconds off the course record he set last year.

“My goal was to run three laps,” Pursley said. “I wanted to run two clean laps and get it in the show, then go all out on the third lap. If you can’t do it in three laps, your tires are cooked.”

Pursley said he thought he was going slow,but he blistered the course record.

Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills, making his first Southwest Tour start of the year, was the only other driver from the region to make the field based on his qualifying speed--67.780 mph, which places him 20th on the starting grid.

Sean Woodside of Saugus, Bob Lyon of Agua Dulce and Frank Maronski Jr. of Quartz Hill each used provisional spots to make the 36-car field and take three of the four spots in the 17th and 18th rows.

The handling problems that plagued Lyon in practice Friday became worse after he made adjustments to the car, and his top speed of 66.443 mph was 34th fastest.

“We thought we were making changes to make it turn better in those left-hand turns,” Lyon said. “We actually made it tighter, where it doesn’t want to turn.”

Woodside clocked 63.194 mph on his first lap, then hit the wall in turn one head-on during his second lap, damaging the car’s bodywork and radiator.

“It’s just one of those weekends,” Woodside said. “We were trying to go fast and went over the edge.”

Woodside explained that as he was heading over a series of bumps where the course leaves the Sports Arena parking lot and turns left onto Figueroa, the car became airborne and landed too close to the wall for Woodside to have any room to make the corner. He missed the majority of the morning practice session while the crew replaced a twisted rear axle in his car.

Maronski missed qualifying and practice because of his car’s broken rear end. His crew drove to the San Fernando Valley to pick up spare parts and was finishing installation when qualifying ended.

“Just when we were getting it off the jacks, an official came over and said they were throwing the checkered flag,” said Maronski, who was fourth-fastest in practice Friday.