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(Photo courtesy Brian Lugo)
Murphy Fights His Way back To 4th After Coming from the Back
By Gary Costa
Hanford, CA – (August 29, 2009) – One thing that you know that can count on that Peter Murphy will never do is quit under any circumstance. He carries that same attitude off the racetrack as well. Murphy had more than his fair share of circumstances thrown at him during the Jim Turner Memorial event held at Kings Speedway, Saturday night in West Coast Non-Wing 360 action.
"I really wanted to win this one. Jim Turner was a great guy," Murphy said. "I have a lot of respect for the man; he was genuinely one of the nicest guys that you'd want to meet."
Murphy who has scored six main event victories to his credit this season aboard the always well maintained Tarlton & Son, Inc., Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino No 21 was looking to add victory No. 7 in the Blaine Steele/Jason Wheelock tuned Maxim.
The Tarlton Motorsports team had the black No. 21 tuned to perfection as Murphy laid it on the 3/8-mile speedway. He qualified with a 16.249 time, which was second quick out of the 19 cars that were in attendance to pay their respects to their fallen competitor. Jim Turner sadly passed away during a crash in September 2007. Jim and his familiar No. 28T remain sadly missed.
In his heat race, Murphy would stay calm, cool, and collected, and crossed the line in the third position. Murphy would start fifth for the scheduled 30 lapper. As soon as the green flag dropped, things went crazy out on the racetrack. Murphy moved-up in the field, but on lap 13, Jonathan Logan hit an infield tractor tire and flipped his mount. The tractor tire rolled out in front of Murphy, and with nowhere to go, Peter hit the tire, damaging the front suspension.
The talented Tarlton Motorsports team did what they could to get Murphy back out to rejoin the field. On the restart Murphy would take it easy with the injured front end. During another red, the team was able to stick in another front axle. However, there was confusion on where Murphy was to rejoin the pack, and race officials would place Murphy 15th. When the green flag waved, Murphy raced as if he was shot out of cannon, and he picked off four cars in just one lap. Murphy was moving up nicely, but the race was cut short to 25 laps, and Murphy would take the checkered flag in the fourth position.
"The car was good. My team worked real hard all night long. I don't understand what happened with the scoring, but somebody made a mistake, particularly on lap 14," a frustrated Murphy said. "I was put in the wrong spot…period! It's sad, because the track was racy, and I feel that we had something for them. I'm not trying to make excuses of where I finished; I just would like to have raced the full thirty laps, and see what happened."
The next race for Peter Murphy will be this Friday at Petaluma Speedway, and then it's on to Calistoga Speedway for the USAC Non-Winged races there Saturday and Sunday.
Tarlton Motorsports efforts are supported by: The Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Ridgeline Framing, Shark Racing Engines, Matt & Glass, M & S Motorsports, Sharp Insurance, McLellan Equipment, Elite Racing, BG Products, Pro Signs, VMAC, Kaeding Performance, Pro Shocks, Sander Engineering, Astro Titanium, Simpson, BR Motorsports, Willwood, and Brown & Miller Racing Solutions.
Be sure to follow Tarlton Motorsports on the web at www.tarltonandson.com
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