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Rain Wins VRA Finals
- Murphy & Harris Split Top Fuel Title
The 2004
Goodguys-VRA racing season came to an abrupt end when a strong
rain storm hit the track just as Jim Murphy and Jack Harris were
staging for the Top Fuel final. After two days of unseasonably
cold weather and countless oil downs, it was called a draw and
the prize money was split. Since only one final had been run
(Top Fuel B-Field) that left all the other classes without a
clear winner as well. Thus ended a less than satisfactory season
for Murphy and the WW2 Racing team. For myriad reasons that in
no way constitute an excuse, the 2003 World Championship team
unraveled soon after the VRA March Meet (which they won) and
never quite jelled for the remainder of the 2004 season. In spite
of finishing # 2 in the points standings and losing OSH as a
primary sponsor, Murphy vows to be back in 2005 to take the championship
back for an unprecedented 5th time.
That
said, here is the race report from the 2004 VRA Fuel & Gas
Championships.
Being
one of the rare two day meets, the Finals offered only 2 qualifying
sessions. The first started at 11:00 am Saturday morning and
Murphy chose to near the end of the session.
Jim
Murphy sporting the # 1 on his car for the last time (for at
least a year) was paired with rookie, Brad Thompson.
Murphy
laid down a great pass (5.822 @ 253.59) but made a severe sacrifice
to the Aluminum gods at the top end. The car sounded flat for
the last 200 to 300 feet and then disappeared behind a wall of
white smoke. Thompson got loose right after 60 feet, spun the
tires very hard, and clicked it to a 9.274 @ 91.54.
The WW2
Racing dragster had a mechanical problem on their second qualifying
attempt but it made no difference, Murphy still ended up in the
# 1 spot based on his first effort.
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Final Qualifying
order in Nostalgia Top Fuel at the Goodguys 6th Fuel & Gas
Finals:
Psn Driver
ET Speed
1. Jim
Murphy - 5.822 @ 253.59
2. Jack Harris - 5.826 @ 259.36
3. Denver Schutz - 5.859 @ 245.63
4. Rick McGee - 6.004 @ 239.23
5. Terry Cox - 6.036 @ 228.83
6. John Shoemaker - 6.089 @ 241.87
7. Bill Dunlap - 6.105 @ 245.90
8. Mendy Fry - 6.165 @ 205.85 |
Eliminations
- Sunday
For openers, this shot
kind of sums up the A&O (accidents and oildowns) day the
Goodguys crew had to deal with on Sunday. A top end accident
in the Hot Rod class pushed first round of Top Fuel back 45 minutes
and it went down hill from there.
In the
first round of eliminations Murphy was paired up the rookie phoneme,
Mendy Fry. After Bellemeur's DNQ, Fry was the only Plaza Hotel
car left in the show. Well, that didn't last long. As Fry staged
an oil line broke and covered the starting line. Fry moved up
against the guardrail in her lane while Murphy ignored the whole
mess and laid down a nice 5.837 @ 251.88.
After another very long clean up from
an A-Fuel incident, the first pair out for round two was Jim
Murphy and Terry Cox (no photos). By all accounts the wait was
worth it That was worth the wait as both cars were side by side
until about 1000 feet when Murphy pulled ahead for the win. The
clocks said: Murphy 5.942 @ 248.00 and Cox with a career best
5.962 @ 249.51... just missing the 250 MPH Club which Murphy
was the first to establish back in 1999.
The big dog final was
to feature the biggest dogs of all - Jim Murphy and Jack Harris.
But as mentioned on the header, the final round of Top Fuel was
called a draw when rain halted the event. The race will not be
re-run or made up.
If you or you company
would like to be part of WW2 Racing for the 2005 season contact
Jim Murphy for complete information WW2
Racing |
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