L.A. STREET RACE: TOUGH BREAKS WOODSIDE'S ROUGH DAY.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

Sean Woodside searched for a bright spin on an otherwise dreary weekend of racing at the L.A. Street Race.

The Saugus driver of the Southwest Tenant Development Pontiac Grand Prix endured a weekend of multiple broken rear axles and a qualifying wreck that sent him to the rear for Sunday's NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series race.

Woodside suffered one rear-axle break at the conclusion of Friday's practice session, then another while warming up for Saturday's qualifying. He wrecked the car in turn one of his qualifying effort, taking a provisional starting position (33rd).

In Sunday's race, Woodside's modest move to 22nd was quickly soured when his Pontiac's rear end failed for a third time about 50 laps in.

``I was just kind of waiting. . . . We got to 22nd, but that was just people crashing and breaking,'' said Woodside, referring to a track that treated a big portion of the cars rudely.

``We were just trying to wait it out. But unfortunately we had another rear-end problem.''

Woodside wasn't the only local driver buried in a mound of bad breaks Sunday. Newhall's Greg Pursley sat on the pole at the L.A. Street Race for the third consecutive year.

At first glance, Pursley's Chevrolet Monte Carlo seemed unfazed. He led the first 31 laps before his ignition box failed and Jim Inglebright cruised into the lead.

Still, Pursley's car stayed within striking distance in the top five at lap 91. But what seemed like a minor brake problem earlier in the race cost Pursley's chances of winning when his right side smacked the wall in turn four.

``We were talking about putting a head shield on the master cylinder. We didn't do it and that bit us in the butt,'' said Pursley, who managed an 11th place finish.

The track also victimized Agua Dulce's Bob Lyon, who started his 244th consecutive Southwest Series race Sunday, an all-time record streak.

Bad brakes, a condition that affected several cars on the tricky one-mile course, made it even more difficult for Lyon's Monte Carlo to avoid trouble. The veteran collided in the pits with Jeff Hill but completed 108 laps to finish 13th and move up one spot to 10th in the season points race.

Critical of the track's transitions from parking lots to the portion of the course on Figueroa Street, Lyon was pleased to collect what points he could.

``When half the field is losing their brakes, it's just a poor deal. . . . Once we lost the brakes and got laps down, for us it was just a matter of the car staying in one piece, which it did,'' Lyon said. ``We just kept it all together and rode it out to do the best we could.''

Frank Maronski Jr. of Quartz Hill had to work hard to finish in 16th place. At lap 47, a shock and a trailing arm broke in his car's right rear.

That caused the rear end to twist and take the seal out of the transmission. Maronski's car was black-flagged twice as a result of a smoking transmission.

``We finished. (It was) survival,'' said Maronski, whose Chevy broke its rear end before Saturday's qualifying, forcing him to take a provisional spot in the 36th and last position.

``Mechanical failures kept happening left and right. We had a fast car. Right at the end I was running with all the leaders. I can't complain. The car was in one piece.''

Other drivers weren't so lucky on a day when just 20 cars were operating when Craig Raudman crossed the finish line in first place at lap 125.

Just another day at the track.

``Every time you go to race, you learning something,'' Pursley said. ``If you don't, then you need to stop doing it. That's how you get faster. You learn something new and you go back and work on it. If you do your homework, you come back faster.''

--The finer points: Despite all his rear-axle trauma, Woodside felt fortunate to move up one spot to third in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series points standings after 10 of 19 races.

Woodside, the 1999 NASCAR Winston West champion, has 1,332 points, trailing Matt Crafton (1,526) and Doug McCoun (1,391). The 16th-place showing wasn't bad considering Woodside had never run this track before and only took five laps in two practice sessions.

``We left with a race car and that's more than a lot of people here can say,'' Woodside said. ``It's just one of them days at the races where it makes you appreciate the good days.''

The Southwest Series moves onto Irwindale Speedway for a 100-lap main event on July 29.

--Other results: In Sunday's 36-lap Pro Series race, Buzz Guilbault of Thousand Oaks drove his Bob Beaty Ford Mustang to a 13th-place finish. Right behind him in 14th was Simi Valley resident Gino Lancellotti in the German Import Service/H&R BMW.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in AV editio only) A member of Bob Lyon's crew gets a face full of steam as he works on the car during a pit stopt.

(2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Greg Pursley of Newhall went neck and neck with Jim Inglebright, background, early in the L.A. Street Race.

David Crane/Staff Photographer