MOTOR RACING / VINCE KOWALICK : Lyon Heartened After Breakthrough in Tucson

Bob Lyon has dribbled his way to success, but in stock-car racing circles has been stuck in park--until last weekend.

Lyon, a six-year veteran with the NASCAR Southwest Tour and a former high school basketball standout, ended his tour record for futility by driving his Chevrolet Lumina to a 100-lap victory at Tucson Raceway Park. After 84 consecutive starts, the most of any tour driver without a checkered flag to show for it, Lyon was as overdue as they come.

And as frustrated.

“There were a whole bunch of other times when I was close but just didn’t make it,” said Lyon, who has three second-place finishes. “Flat tires, crashing with a lapped car, lost a motor. . . .”

Last year, Lyon held the lead with 30 laps to go at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway before dropping out because of a broken hub.

“It was just mishaps that prevented us,” said Lyon of Newhall. “But you just keep plugging away at it. If I thought we couldn’t win, I would have quit a long time ago.”

Lyon, who turns 31 Sunday, will give it another go today when the tour makes its second of three appearances this season at Bakersfield.

Lyon competed in Saugus Speedway’s Sportsman and Modified divisions for five years before joining the Southwest Tour. Although he won numerous races, he never claimed a track championship, finishing no better than third in points. His best seasonal showing on the Southwest Tour came last season when he finished seventh.

“I think this is going to be a big benefit for us and we’re going to start winning some races,” Lyon said.

Lyon’s victory at Tucson, for which he earned $4,555, was impressive, considering he snapped a tour-record streak of three victories by points leader and defending champion Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale. Hornaday, who for the third time this season set the evening’s fastest qualifying mark, encountered tire trouble and finished eighth.

Still, Lyon had to hold off three rookie-of-the-year candidates--Jim Inglebright of Fairfield, Calif., Craig Raudman of Redding, Calif., and Keith Spangler of Northridge--who finished second, third and fourth. Lyon’s margin of victory of six-hundredths of a second tied a tour record for closest finish.

But who needs a cakewalk?

“Finally, the race went to us,” Lyon said. “The monkey is off our backs. We knew we could do it, but that doubt always lingered. Basically, we learned we have the potential to win a race.”

At Canyon High, Lyon, a 1980 graduate, twice led the Cowboys to the quarterfinal round of the Southern Section basketball playoffs. As a senior, he was selected the Santa Clarita Valley player of the year by the Newhall Signal. He also lettered in golf, although “I was no Arnold Palmer,” he said.

He hasn’t exactly been Richard Petty either. But that may be changing.

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Add tour: Hornaday retained the tour’s points lead, although Doug George of Atwater, Calif., closed the gap by finishing sixth at Tucson. Hornaday, with three victories, has 1,098 points. George has 1,059. George ($21,775) is the tour’s top money-winner this season. Hornaday ($21,615) is second.

Spangler, a former Saugus Sportsman competitor, moved to fifth in the tour’s rookie standings after finishing fourth at Tucson. Lance Hooper of Palmdale, Saugus Sportsman champion in 1991, is third among rookies after finishing seventh. Inglebright (57 points) leads the rookie race. Raudman (56) is second. Hooper has 52 points.

Saugus Notes

Tim Huddleston of North Hills, seventh in points in Saugus’ Sportsman standings, is 33rd in the NASCAR Sunbelt Region points standings. The Sunbelt Region, which includes drivers from tracks in Alabama, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and California, is one of eight national regions in which drivers from various tracks compete for a national championship. The national prize is worth $54,500. . . . Mike Kiedrowski of Acton is the points leader after three of eight events in the American Motocross Assn. 250cc national championship points standings. Kiedrowski, 24, who finished second Sunday at High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris, Pa., has two victories.