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Costa:
You had another great
season in Tom Tarlton’s car.
Murphy: Yes
we did! We won all 4 championships that the Bandit series had
that were up for the taking (Bandit, Hanford, Bakersfield and
Santa Maria). We also won the Bandit/VRA Grand Slam Series
championship this year too, making it the 2nd time
that we’ve won it (the other championship came in 2005). We
were very consistent this year.
Costa: What do you attribute
your success too?
Murphy: The
team! I have a great car owner and the guys that work on it
are really dedicated. It really is a team effort. We just keep
getting stronger-and-stronger. I’m getting older too, so I
think a lot more out on the race track. I’m also very
confident - I don’t mean that in an arrogant way. I just
know barring any mistakes or something going wrong, we’ll be
right there.
Costa: Was “the big fella”
(Steve Kinser) proud of you upon hearing of your successful
season?
Murphy: I
know that he knows that I’ve won a lot of races. When he was
in California at Chico (Gold Cup) we had a real fun time
together. I’m sure that he’s pretty happy with what I’ve
done. He’s helped me a lot in my career, and I can’t thank
him enough for that.
Costa: What race this season
makes you think, “Man that was an awesome race!”
Murphy: There’s
couple of them really. One came at the Bakersfield Grand Slam
race, and we started in the 10th or 11th position,
and we won it. Another great race was at Santa Maria for a
Bandit race. It started out with a battle with Greg Porte,
then it became a battle with Danny Faria, Jr. Danny got in
front and started pulling away a little bit, then I found the
rubber and I came back up on him. On the white flag lap I was
right on his bumper! It was an incredible race!
Costa: You won 12 main events
this year. Share one race that you won when things were going
downhill…
Murphy: One
night at Santa Maria we were running around 6th,
and we really weren’t running all that good. There was a red
flag and Blaine (Steele) made a change to the car. When the
green flag came out, I moved to the top of the race track and
I went from 6th to the lead – eventually winning
it. It was an incredible feeling.
Costa: You did some winged
racing this year. Are we going to see more of that next year?
Murphy: Yes!
We’re looking to run with the World of Outlaws at the
beginning and end of the year. We are also looking to compete
in races like the Gold Cup, Dirt Cup, Trophy Cup and some
Golden State Challenge races too. We’re not going to get
caught up in a points deal were we can’t run where we want.
Depending on how everything goes - what we’re looking to do
is run about 25-30 non-wing shows, with some 410 stuff thrown
in there, and about 20 winged shows.
Costa: You worked with NHRA
Funny Car driver Ron Capps recently. How was he to work with?
Murphy: Yeah,
he was racing a Multi-600 at Plaza Park (Visalia, CA).
He was cool, he was really cool! He handled himself so
well. To me he typifies anyone that’s really good at what
they do. He wasn’t ‘big headed’ or anything like that.
He was very easy to talk to, and he wanted to learn what he
should or shouldn’t be doing. It was really a great
experience and one that I’ll never forget.
What if Capps asked you to take
his Funny Car for a run, would you do it?
Murphy: (laughs)
probably not! He told me I’d have a blast in one of them and
I don’t doubt him one bit. We struck up a really good
friendship.
Costa: You own Pro Signs in
Fresno, CA. How’s that working out for you?
Murphy:
It’s going great, I really enjoy it. 90% of our work is on
race cars. The customers that I have are fantastic to work
with. Recently, we had the Indy Car that Bobby Unser drove in
the 1972 Indianapolis 500. It was the first car to go over
200mph, and it sat on the pole. We were asked to reproduce the
stickers for it. That’s a piece of history and that was way
cool. We also did the car that Capps drove at Plaza Park. It
was a tribute to the late Eric Medlen, and John Force’s
people were real happy with it.
Costa: Any parting comments?
Murphy: I
would like to thank everyone that supports the car. I would
also like to thank Tom and Tommy Tarlton and all the boys that
work on it. I would also like to thank all of the fans that
come out and support our sport.
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