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Peter Murphy Clinches 2008 Bandit Series Championship With Win! By Peter "the pretty good"
Popular Peter Murphy from Clovis wrapped up the 2008 Bandit Series Sprint Car Championship at Santa Maria Speedway September 6th with his record setting 10th victory of the season. With three point's races left, Murphy is on the cusp of clinching track titles at Kings Speedway and Santa Maria Speedway to go with the Bandit-VRA Grand Slam Challenge Series title he claimed in August. Four championships in one season are a feat to remember and one that will be difficult for anyone to repeat anytime soon. To clinch this title with a win is a fitting tribute to a driver and a team with the fire in the belly to earn championships.
Murphy demonstrated his experience with this win as he started eighth on the field with tough competitors in front and behind the Tarlton and Son owned black twenty-one. He survived wrecks in front of him and used several yellow flags to his advantage and set up rookie Tyler Schmidt for the crowd pleasing victory. A boisterous crowd cheered as track announcer Jim Pluhar interviewed the new champion in victory lane while cameras flashed and his two man crew grinned from ear to ear and high fived each other and fellow competitor's congratulations.
He win did not look like a sure thing as five of the first six starting positions were headed by a sterling group of ultra fast and talented rookie drivers. The race lasted just one lap when leading rookie contender Richard VanderWeerd, who started right in front of Murphy, collected the turn one wall and flipped out of the race. That left rookies Jared Little, T.J. Smith, Tyler Schmidt, Jace VanderWeerd and veteran Jayson May to do battle on the restart with Murphy. The race picked up intensity as Smith battled Little and Schmidt for the point, resulting in the very aggressive Schmidt making hard contact with Smith battling into turn three on the 5th circuit. The resulting pile up affected the race from that point on. Smith, Little, and Davey Knott, were all knocked out of the race while "the professor" Jeff Culver was collected and although restarted, succumbed to the damage to his Stinger chassis just two laps later as he tangled with Rick Eberhardt on the 7th lap.
As Schmidt led the field he used gamesmanship on the restarts and defensive driving techniques to keep his lead while fending off ferocious challenges from veteran Jayson May over the next ten laps until the field was halted on lap 17 for Bill Jones flip. Remarkably, Jones ride suffered light damage and was quickly repaired by his Ron Menane and James Herrera led crew and never missed a lap. On the restart, Schmidt again created a stir as he worked some restart tactics that met with the ire of Bandit officials and fellow competitors, which were discussed with the talented and heady rookie on the very next break in the action which last a mere lap.
Albert Pombo brought out the red flag for his devastating front straight flip on lap 18. After suffering a flat left front tire, Pombo was on the move catching the contending pack just prior to the lap 17 red flag. Setting up for an end of race charge "Fast Albert" slid up off of turn 4 and collected the wall which set up a violent wreck reminiscent of Greg Porte's nasty flip at the July Grand Slam event. Albert climbed from the badly torn up car shaken but not stirred and worried that his great season has ended prematurely as he gazed at the heap of steaming carnage.
With a more orderly restart May reapplied the pressure to young Tyler who protected the low line while Murphy proved to be the master of racing where they ain't. Using the high line, Murphy crept next to May and took the second position while may battled back. Murphy then used the stealth powers of his stealthy black Tachi Casino Maxim to tip toe around the learned Schmidt before he was detected and had the pass headed off on the 25th time around the well prepared and racy 1/3 mile clay oval.
J-May was not done and still put pressure on Schmidt to the end for an unsatisfying third place finish. Rusty Carlile in an attempt to move around Jace VanderWeerd in the "2Fast" car as the white flag waved slammed the front straight wall and popped his right rear tire and literally slid to sixth place after the opportunistic Justyne Hamblin confiscated fifth place from the wounded green South West Contractors 51 Bullet.
SPINTECH MUFFLERS heat 1 went to Tyler Schmidt in a feature preview with fast time qualifier Murphy and May earning the pass to the feature with time while Pombo, Knott and Eberhardt had to line-up on time after the invert draw. The next heat was the STAINLESS STORAGE SOLUTIONS Heat 2 where versatile Hanford warrior Jared Little led Carlile and Smith to the checkers while Hamblin missed the timed transfer pass and Culver was unable to make the call and did not start. The EXTREME MUFFLERS Heat 3 was won by rapid Richard VanderWeerd while Jace VanderWeerd comfortably raced their way into the feature while Bandit Veteran Josh "T.L." Davis handily made the transfer with a struggling DeMott and Bill Jones trailing out of contention.
Next up for the Bandit Series is the Kings Speedway Championship point's finale before the last two events point's races at the Santa Maria Speedway. We'll see you all this week-end at the lightning fast 3/8 Mile Kings Speedway in Hanford California this week-end.
BANDIT RESULTS SANTA MARIASPEEDWAYSEPTEMBER 6th, 2008
(16 Cars) Qualifying Results: VMAC Quick-time award 21Peter Murphy, 13.809; 51 Rusty Carlile, 13.858; 10 Richard VanderWeerd, 13.939; 8M Jayson May, 13.943; 8 Justyne Hamblin, 13.955; 2F Jace VanderWeerd, 14,015; 49 Tyler Schmidt, 14.121; 14 T.J. Smith, 14.248; 35D Steve DeMott, 14.275; 35 Albert Pombo, 14.337; 25 Jared little, 14.394; 98D Josh Davis, 14.483; 28 Davey Knott, 14.565; 71C Jeff Culver, 14.588; 16J Bill Jones, 16.642; 4 Rick Eberhardt, 16.793
SPINTECH MUFFLERSHeat 1: Schmidt; Murphy; May; A. Pombo; Knott; Eberhardt
STAINLESS STORAGE SOLUTIONS Heat 2: Little; Carlile; Smith, Hamblin; Culver
EXTREME MUFFLERS Heat 3: R. VanderWeerd; J. VanderWeerd; Davis; Pombo; Jones
30 Lap Feature (w/ starting pos.): Murphy (8); Schmidt (3); May (5); J. VanderWeerd (4); Hamblin (10); Carlile (7); DeMott (11); Jones (14); Pombo (12); Eberhardt (15); Culver (16); Smith (2); Little (1); Knott (13); Davis (9); R. VanderWeerd (6)
iTi Performance Motorsports Award: Peter Murphy
BR Motorsports Rookie-of-the Race: Tyler Schmidt
KaedingPerformanceCenter Award: Tyler Schmidt
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