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(Photo courtesy John's Racing Photos)

Despite Crash, Murphy Has Good Gold Cup Showing

By Gary Costa

Chico, CA – (September 10-12, 2009) - Peter Murphy made the tow to Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, CA for the 56^th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions. Murphy turned in a strong Thursday preliminary showing by finishing sixth is the star-studded event and proceeded to lock himself into Saturday's 40 lap A main event.

"What a feeling it is to come here and run with these cats. We had a great weekend, and I'm real proud of my team," Murphy said. "We don't have any spares. As a matter of fact, we only have one wing, and it's on the car!"

Murphy immediately showed that he hasn't forgotten how to get it done with the wing, as in Thursday's qualifying he rounded the speedway in the 11^th spot in qualifying. The likeable Murphy then cruised his way into first place in his heat race, from his outside front row starting spot, tossing Rick Eberhardt's Ridgeline Framing No. 13 into the 8 lap Crane Cams Dash where he would go onto finish second, chasing winner Sammy Swindell in the event.

"The car was moving right along. Getting into the dash is critical," he said. "If you miss the dash against these guys, you're going to have a long night ahead of you. I felt pretty confident going into the main event."

When the 30 lap event went green, Murphy would be on the charge in the Maxim, however, a problem with the throttle linkage on the car would immediately take its toll on the racy Murphy, but he would amazingly hold onto seventh place, as he wasn't able to utilize full throttle during the event. "I couldn't use the entire throttle. We had a bit of a problem there, but things still turned out good for us."

Murphy would score enough points to lock himself into Saturday's A main event. Ironically, Murphy would start in the 13^th position in the Eberhardt Motorsports No. 13. When the field took the green, Murphy would begin his charge, however lap 8 would essentially end Murphy's night as another car got into him, and he got out of shape. Bobby McMahan, who had nowhere to go, plowed into Murphy. Murphy would be able to rejoin the field, but chose to pull off of the racetrack so he wouldn't interfere with the leaders as his car suffered wing damage during the crash. He officially finished 22^nd.

"I pulled off because I didn't want to mess up the race leaders. I could've stayed out there, but for what?" Murphy explained. "I don't race like that. I would never want to get in their way. With the damage to the wing, they would've caught me real quick. We'll just load her up and save it for another day."

Catch Peter Murphy this Saturday at Santa Maria Speedway as he will do battle in the Tarlton Motorsports No. 21 during West Coast 360 Sprint Car competition.

Peter Murphy 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