FACES IN THE CROWD

Paula Murphy, 28, an amateur racer from Granada Hills, Calif., drove her Studebaker Avanti an average of 161.29 mph on two runs over a measured-mile course at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to establish a new stock car land speed record for women.

James McAlvin, 62, of Lake Forest, Ill., after competing in the North and South Seniors' Golf Championship for seven years, finally won the title with a 17th-hole 25-foot putt to upset Merrill L. Carl-smith, the USGA Senior Amateur champion, 2 and 1.

Bernard Clinton, 59, a Dallas lawyer who started playing tennis 40 years ago at the University of Texas, won his first national singles title in the Knoxville (Tenn.) USLTA Senior 55 Clay Court Championships by defeating top-seeded Joseph Lipshutz in the finals.

Roger Hewlett, 16, a tackle at Hanover-Horton (Mich.) High, broke his team's 5½-year, 37-game losing streak when he intercepted a fourth-period pass and ran 25 yards for a TD to beat Jackson (Mich.) Northwest 7-0. "It was like the Rose Bowl," his coach said.

Bill C. Stegman, 14, of Patchogue, N.Y., accomplished what most youngsters just daydream about when he was towed in his sailplane to 3,000 feet and glided alone for nearly an hour, becoming the youngest member of the Long Island Soaring Association to solo.

Susan Piggott, 24, whose husband Lester has a good chance to be the winningest jockey in Britain this year, won her second 4½-mile Newmarket Town Plate, the only recognized English race open to female jockeys, by a decisive eight lengths at Newmarket.

SIX PHOTOS