|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| PETER MURPHY CONTINUES
BANDIT-VRA GRAND SLAM DOMINATION by Gary Jacob & Don Low |
|
|
|
Wingless 360 Sprint Cars |
|
Oildale, CA..August 20....Australia's Peter Murphy took just 15 laps to
battle from the fifth row to the lead and he went on to win Saturday night's
round three of the four track Bandit-VRA Grand Slam Series at Bakersfield's
Speedway Park. Murphy was second in the series opener at Hanford, won the Santa
Maria leg worth $3000 and took another $2000 win tonight. He holds a huge 1070
point lead with his incredible record in a car owned by the Tarlton family of
winged sprint car fame. Murphy took the lead from Rusty Carlile on lap 15 with
an outside pass. Carlile ran second until he got into the fence for a lap 25
caution. Making his first appearance in the series, Stinger Chassis car builder
Richard Harvey Jr worked from sixth starting to run second for the final two
laps. Despite getting on the track just after 10 PM, the 11 PM curfew forced the
event to be called three laps short of the scheduled 30 lap distance. Rob
Kershaw ran third ahead of Greg Taylor and Hanford winner Kevin Kierce. Kierce
is fourth in points, 65 behind the tied duo of Blake Miller and Clark Templeman
III. Ten cars finished on the lead lap as a 23 car field started the A Main on
the tight confines. An incredible 48 car field had checked in to race, split
evenly between the VRA and Bandit ranks. They time trialed the big field and Bandit racer Greg Porte from Atascadero was quickest at 13.008. Murphy ran a 13.017 and young Santa Cruz racer Evan Suggs ran a 13.056. Ventura star B Miller ranked fourth at 13.271 and Templeman ran a 13.289. A former dirt late model star at Bakerfield, Rick Gifford claimed the fifth slot at 13.333 and the son of Southern California late model legend Oren Prosser, Oren Prosser Jr ranked 7th ahead of Todd Hunsaker, NorCal's Jim Richardson and Darren Simas. The five heat races had six car inversions and transferred just the top 3 finishers into the A Main so fast timer Porte lined up sixth in heat 1. The heat races ran for 8 laps and outside front row starter Carlile won heat 1 over pole starter Greg Taylor and third starter Harvey as Porte settled for a non transferring fourth. Outside front row starter John Burnett gave the Bandits another win in heat 2 ahead of sixth starter Murphy and third starter Steve Conrad. Jonathan Logan impressed with his drive from 4th to win heat 3 ahead of pole starter Tom Stansberry of Bakersfield, a former VRA champion. Outside front row starter Wes Richardson, a graduate of the IMCA Modifieds ran third. Luis Espinoza gave the VRA bunch their first heat win with a win from 2nd starting in heat 4 over fourth starter Chris Wakim and sixth starter B Miller. Bandit racer Jimmy Reeves, also a graduate of the IMCA Modifieds, won heat 5 from the pole ahead of third starter Kershaw and outside front row starter Ryan Devitt. The heat results left the two B Mains stacked with A Main caliber entries. The first B Main was fairly smooth for the ten lap distance with Porte winning from the pole over fellow front row starter Templeman and 10th starter Kierce. Darren Simas started fourth and got the final transfer just ahead of dwarf car graduate Angel Figueroa and VRA Senior star Bruce Douglas. Hunsaker flipped without injury. Three cautions and a red forced the second B Main to be checkered after just 3 laps had been scored. J Richardson got the win ahead of Gifford, Daniel Hood and Bobby Elliott. Ron Bach and Joe Henderson just missed in the fifth and sixth slots. Shawn Kautz was involved in the race ending flip. The ten car inversion for the scheduled 30 lap feature put W Richardson and Burnett in the front row ahead of Carlile, Kershaw, Conrad, Harvey Jr, Wakim, Logan, b Miller and Murphy as B Main winners Porte and J Richardson shared row 6. Burnett led the first 7 laps from his outside front row start. Carlile took second from W Richardson on lap 2 and Conrad was third on lap 3. Devitt fell out on lap 3 and Hood pitted on lap 6. Carlile was making an inside groove challenge at leader Burnett when Burnett got into the fence for the first yellow flag on lap 7. Burnett's race was over and both Logan and Simas also retired. Carlile was the new leader over Conrad and Harvey. Murphy had passed Harvey for third when Templeman flipped for a lap 10 red flag. Templeman's night was over. Third place continued to be traded between Murphy, Harvey and Wakim as Carlile led Conrad. Leaping into the high line, Murphy took second from Conrad on lap 14 and the lead from Carlile on lap 15. Wakim raced by Conrad for third on lap 16 and Harvey settled into fifth. After running green from lap 10, the race slowed down as Reeves flipped for a lap 14 red flag and Gifford fell out. B Miller flipped for another red on lap 25 and both Wakim pitted and Conrad was done. Carlile got into the fence while second to end his great night and the race was checkered at lap 27 with Murphy leading Harvey, Kershaw, former VRA champion Greg Taylor, Kierce, Stansberry, J Richardson, Elliott, Wakim and Espinoza, the final lead lap finisher. The series ends with a two night special in Ventura on Sept 2-3. A dwarf car national hosted the VRA dwarf cars will support the two nights of wingless 360 sprint car action. Porte is fifth in points, 30 behind Kierce and 440 ahead of Wakim. Elliott, Conrad, Espinoza and Carlile round out the current top ten. Summary Fast Time-Greg Porte 13.008 Heat 1-Rusty Carlile, Greg Taylor, Richard Harvey Jr, Porte, Bobby Elliott. Heat 2-John Burnett, Peter Murphy, Steve Conrad, Kevin Kierce, Angel Figueroa. Heat 3-Jonathan Logan, Tom Stansberry, Wes Richardson, Todd Hunsaker, Dennis Rodriguez. Heat 4-Luis Espinoza, Chris Wakim, Blake Miller, Jim Richardson, Jeff Fiscus. Heat 5-Jimmy Reeves, Rob Kershaw, Ryan Devitt, Clark Templeman III, Daniel Hood. 1st B Main-Porte, Templeman, Kierce, Darren Simas, Figueroa, Bruce Douglas, Bobby Ferro, Thad Bennett, Victor Davis, Charles Turner. 2nd B Main-J Richardson, Rick Gifford, Hood, Elliott, Ron Bach, Joe Henderson, Roy Guy III, Shawn Kautz, Mike Larson, Joey Layman. A Main-Murphy, Harvey, Kershaw, Taylor, Kierce, Stansberry, J Richardson, Elliott, Wakim, Espinoza, Porte, Carlile, Conrad, B Miller, W Richardson, Reeves, Gifford, Templeman, Burnett, Logan, Simas, Hood, Devitt. |
