|
Bandits Cap Off 2008 Bandit Season at Kings Speedway Crown Track Champ Murphy! By Peter "the Pretty Good"
2008 Bandit Sprint Car Series Champion Peter Murphy heads into Kings Speedways point finale with the track Championship in hand. With an insurmountable margin over second place the Tarlton/Tachi Race team still wants to win to put another exclamation point on the season. In a season that has been dominated by the new champ has been fraught with challenges at every event. A remarkable record of consistency by never finishing out of the top ten in series event points combined with 10 wins spread across three tracks has led to a dream season for the popular Aussie transplant.
Rusty Carlile from Bakersfield who is in a heated battle for second in track points with Hanford favorite Justyne Hamblin, separated by a scant two points. Carlile has made a steady climb in the Kings standings recovering from a bone crunching back straight flip at the season opening Grand Slam event to work his way into the runner up spot. With a few fast times and a feature win at Kings, John Goldman and new dad Randy Carlile have got the team flying in the new number 51 Bullet chassis. On the other Hamblin has used steady workman like consistency and a well prepared car by dad Steve and crew to over come their obstacles this season. On several occasions this stand out High School Senior has converted tough feature starting positions into great finishing results by using her talent and abilities to their maximum. With a win earlier this season at Santa Maria, Justyne will be surely looking at capping the season with a win in her Tachi palace sponsored number 8.
The Kings track also has a significant battle over the best rookie for the season with tricky Ricky Kirkbride from Bakersfield with an 11 point advantage over Visalia's Richard VanderWeerd and 23 point margin over Jace VanderWeerd. Always racing hard and tough is a hallmark of the banner rookie crop this season. Standout rookies include T.J. Smith, Wes Gutierrez, Rick Eberhardt, Tyler Schmidt, Jared Little, Geoffrey Strole, Austin Mero, and the most recent Kings winner Justin Grant.
'Fast' Albert Pombo who has dropped in the Kings points and series points in recent weeks sits in fourth place and in a battle to rebuild a badly torn up race car after a devastating flip at last weeks bandit race at Santa Maria. Fifth in points is former SCRA Champion Jonathon Logan who is always a fast and as tough as they come at his home track. Venerable veteran Davey Knott is heading into Kings with his perpetual grin and fondness for flying down the backstretch of the fast 3/8 mile and capping his season with a win. All are looking to contend for the win in the last event of the season before the season ending Tachi Palace Open Invitational non point's event.
|
