Racing

INDIANAPOLIS -- Danica Patrick's return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a stock car ended in a hard crash less than halfway through Saturday's Indiana 250. Patrick, the former IndyCar driver who now races in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, was running about 20th when the top five race leaders made pit stops. Patrick remained on the track and was running behind Reed Sorenson. As the two entered Turn 1 on lap 39 of the 100-lap race, Patrick's No. 7 Chevrolet tapped the back of Sorenson's No. 98 Ford, sending Sorenson into a spin.

An incumbent who styles herself as an outsider and a reform-minded community activist and political aide will face each other in a runoff election Tuesday for the final seat on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees. Unlike the hard-fought Los Angeles mayor's race, the match between trustee Nancy Pearlman and challenger David Vela has been conducted with little public scrutiny and virtually no contact between the two candidates. It's a source of frustration for Pearlman and Vela, running for a seat in the largest community college district in the nation - with nine campuses serving 240,000 students in communities spread across 882 square miles, from Sylmar to San Pedro.

International Space Station Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield returns to Earth, and eventually Canada, on Monday. So, what better way to end the mission than doing a personalized rendition of David Bowie's classic "A Space Oddity," in the first music video from space. Hadfield, from the Canadian Space Agency, has been one chatty dude up there in the International Space Station, tweeting constantly during the Expedition 35 mission, which included a precedent-setting emergency spacewalk this weekend to repair an ammonia coolant leak.

Spending in the hotly contested two-year race for Los Angeles mayor exceeded $33 million on Saturday, breaking previous records as unlimited outside money continued to play a dominant role in Tuesday's contest. Candidate super PACs and so-called "independent expenditure" donors, which do not have to abide by the city's campaign contribution limits, provided 41% of the $25.6-million total raised just for candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti since the contest began in March 2011, according to campaign reports.

Magnus Walker steps between the scarred carcasses of Porsche 911s lining his garage wall. He pauses and points to a gaping hole where the car's front hood should be. "Cars in here have to die," he says, "so others can live. " With a chest-length beard and finger-thick dreadlocks, the 45-year-old English immigrant doesn't look like a prototypical buttoned-down Porsche collector. But for more than a decade, Walker has worked in downtown L.A.'s arts district, transforming scrap heaps into one-off custom 911s, earning him the nickname "Urban Outlaw.

That Dale Earnhardt perished from the earth on the last turn of the last lap at his favorite race on his favorite track is almost poetic. That he perished while guarding victory for his friend and his son is more than heroic. In life, he transcended his sport. In death, he resides in Valhalla. RHYS THOMAS Van Nuys You must have heard from countless shocked readers by now concerning Dale Earnhardt's appalling lack of judgment in driving a passenger vehicle 60 mph in rain so hard he couldn't see the highway, narrowly averting collision with numerous vehicles stopped in front of him because of the bad visibility ["An Unforgettable Drive," Feb. 20]

Re "Horse Racing Is Having a Breakdown," Aug. 5 The problem with racing 3-year-old horses is racing 3-year-old horses, not the footing. The horse-racing people have been fooling themselves, saying it's OK to push an animal to its maximum, before its bones are fully developed; any serious, informed horse person could tell you that that is a dangerous gamble. Horse racing is tantamount to cock fighting, but Hollywood and the rich have glamorized the one and not the other. Harrumph! Footing indeed!

The racing industry was handed a gift from God via the Belmont Stakes in the filly Rags To Riches. Her performance was remarkable and one for the ages. Many have written that racing needs a star to become the people's horse and assumed that star would come from having won the Triple Crown. Rags To Riches raced in only one leg, but Barbaro's Kentucky Derby had nothing on her Belmont. If Barbaro captured America's imagination last year and left it wondering what-if because of his demise, she certainly should have exclusivity to that imagination now. The thoroughbred racing industry has no excuse now for declining attendance numbers.

Because of ongoing reductions to The Times Sports staff and space for news in the Sports section, the handicap charts and results from Del Mar will not be included in the daily sports report. There will be coverage of major events during the seven-week meeting. In addition, other weekly features that have been eliminated are the Gearing Up package on motor racing, Teeing Off on golf and Corner Kicks on soccer.

In their feisty final debate before election day, controller candidates Dennis Zine and Ron Galperin repeatedly hammered an insider-versus-outsider theme, seeking to convince voters they would be best prepared to be the city's next chief auditor and accountant. Zine, completing 12 years on the City Council and a 33-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, said he'll be ready to navigate City Hall on his first day. "I know how the system works. I don't need to be trained," Zine said at the Wednesday face-off before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.

The two apparent front-runners to replace Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas are veteran public officials with strong connections to the east San Fernando Valley Democratic machine that has sent candidates to City Hall since the mid-1990s. Both also are women, which means the race gives voters the best shot in the city of putting a woman on the overwhelmingly male council. Nury Martinez, a Los Angeles Unified School District board member, and Cindy Montañez, a former state assemblywoman and executive at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, are among six candidates competing in the special election Tuesday to replace Cardenas, who was elected to Congress.

The 1st District City Council race has garnered more than four times the money of previous races there, buoyed by the deep pockets and independent spending of labor and business leaders. In the runoff to replace council member Ed Reyes in the district near downtown Los Angeles, a combined $1.97 million has been raised on behalf of former Sacramento lawmaker Gil Cedillo and Reyes' chief of staff, Jose Gardea, according to campaign finance reports. The election almost ended in the primary: Cedillo received 49.32%, less than 1% shy of winning outright.

It is difficult to be at the Preakness this year without feeling a tinge of jealousy. That is especially true if you are just a few days removed from a visit to the current dungeon of California racing, a.k.a. Hollywood Park. All signs here point to a racing boom. All signs at Hollywood Park point to the exits. New brick and mortar are coming and the place will feature tracts, not a track. Not that long ago, Maryland was in a similar place when it came to its thoroughbred industry.

Eric Garcetti's lead in the Los Angeles mayor's race has narrowed to seven percentage points, but his strength among conservatives has blocked rival Wendy Greuel from securing a San Fernando Valley base that is vital to her chances, according to a new USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll. As the candidates and their partisans swarmed across the city in advance of Tuesday's runoff election, Garcetti, a city councilman from Silver Lake, held a 48% to 41% lead, the survey found. Voters in the Valley and every other key region of Los Angeles favored him over Greuel, the city controller.

The media coverage and much of the public perception of the Los Angeles mayor's race have relentlessly focused on the money Los Angeles' labor movement is spending to elect Wendy Greuel, and on the wages and benefits of city and other employees that could be affected by the outcome of the mayoral runoff. That is the primary prism through which most journalists view the unions' role in the race. Talking about who contributes what to which campaign - and who benefits - is a fair discussion.

I have been a reader of the L.A. Times for 36 years. That is ending. If I wanted generic national sports news I could just watch ESPN. I want to know what is happening locally. I want to see regular features with prep sports. This used to be a strength of The Times. A fantastic resource, Eric Sondheimer (one of the best in the business in my opinion), is being wasted. (No, I don't want to be pointed to the Web when I'm reading a newspaper in print). The nail in the coffin for me was the steady reduction, and now elimination, of horse racing coverage.

TEHRAN - Iranians must wait until next week to find out who will be on the ballot in next month's presidential election, a key electoral panel said Thursday, as it continued to mull the fate of two prospective candidates who have shaken up the race. The Guardian Council, which vets office seekers, said it needed an extension until Tuesday to judge the suitability of the nearly 700 presidential aspirants. A council official told reporters that 10 or more candidates may be approved, a relatively high number that could make it difficult for one to win a majority without a runoff election.

After a contest for mayor of Los Angeles that has consumed the better part of two years, the two finalists, their staffs, the media and a largely disinterested electorate doubtless would welcome an end to the drama Tuesday, election day. But the large number of Angelenos voting by mail, the apparent tightness of the race and the peculiarities of the City Clerk's ballot-counting procedures open the possibility that the winner might not be known for...