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Murphy Upset In Round
One
April
23-24, 2005, Sonoma, CA - The Goodguys 17th Nitro Nationals was
marked with iffy weather conditions, a record number of oil downs
and some of the closest Top Fuel racing in memory. The teams
came in Friday to overcast and rainy skies and a chance of rain
over the weekend. Being just a two day event scheduling would
be tight at best with two qualifying sessions Saturday for all
classes so any interference from Mother Nature or unforeseen
on-track incidences would, and in this case did, throw everything
off. Because of a weather delayed start and TF engine carnage,
most (if not all) classes only got one shot to make the show.
With 24 TF cars on the grounds that meant if you missed your
tune-up, you would be one of the eight cars going home. However,
that was not the case with the WW 2 Racing entry as Murphy made
his one shot count with a 6.147 @ 245.32. Here's how it went....
Final
Top Fuel Qualifying
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Psn Driver
ET Speed
1. Brett
Harris 5.908 @ 246.30
2. Bill Dunlap 5.911 @ 248.20
3. Brendan Murry 5.930 @ 230.96
4. Rick McGee 5.952 @ 245.27
5. Jason Richey 6.015 @ 252.19
6. Denver Schutz 6.053 @ 241.80
7. Terry Cox 6.058 @ 246.44
8. Rick Williamson 6.077 @ 199.43
9. Jim Murphy 6.147 @ 245.32
10. Jeff Diehl 6.202 @ 225.56
11. Howard Haight 6.212 @ 236.30
12. Mendy Fry 6.250 @ 230.80
13. Pete Kaiser 6.330 @ 218.62
14. Mark Malde 6.401 @ 217.70
15. Rick White 6.469 @ 217.11
16. Bob Hallock 6.769 @ 141.98
--------- Not Qualified ---------
17. Sean Bellemeur 6.974 @ 226.43
18. Brad Thompson 9.239 @ 108.06
19. Lee Jennings 10.230 @ 76.89
20. Fred Farndon 14.660 @ 51.86
21. Adam
Sorokin DNQ
22. Chuck Tanko DNQ |
Qualifying
For his one and only
qualifying attempt Jim Murphy in his WW 2 Racing fueler was paired
with Bill Dunlap in Mike Fuller's "Bat Car".
Murphy and Crew Chief,
Tim Beebe played it safe on the tune-up (making sure they got
into the show) and carded a nice 6.147 @ 245.32.
Eliminations
In round one Murphy
was paired with Sean Bellemeur.
Bellemeur left first cutting an almost superhuman
light and carded a 6.007 @ 247.57 to Murphy's quicker and faster
5.965 @ 252.05. Bellemeur's Margin of Victory: 0.0350 seconds
(approximately 13 feet). Bellemeur's 0.017 reaction time is unheard
of in Top Fuel and Murphy's 0.094 light would be considered good
any other time. A disappointing loss for the WW 2 team for sure.
See the WW2
Racing Schedule for upcoming events
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