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Murphy Qualifies # 1
- Tough Loss in Semis
The Boise
Nightfire Nationals came to a dramatic conclusion on Sunday night
and for the huge crowd in attendance, it was a drag racing experience
that will go down as one of the best in the thirty-three year
history of Firebird's "Signature Event". The
temperatures finally simmered a bit from triple digit highs on
Friday and Saturday, as the day time temps climbed to just over
90-degrees under partly cloudy-hazy skies during the opening
round of eliminations.
Final Order of Qualifying
for Top Fuel
1. Jim Murphy, 5.937 at 247.25
2. Jack Harris, 5.985 at 247.86
3. Bill Dunlap, 6.110 at 221.02
4. Sean Bellemeur, 6.140 at 220.15
5. Scott Mason, 6.215 at 231.24
6. Jason Richey, 6.222 at 233.88
7. Mendy Fry, 6.253 at 231.30
8. Brendan Murray, 6.265 at 213.37
DNQ
9. Lee Jennings, 6.301 at 209.83
10. John Cox, 6.331 at 238.79
11. Howard Haight, 12.218 at 69.68 |
The first qualifying session was held Friday evening
and Murphy and the OSH-WW2 Racing team got a good baseline on
the tune-up.
The final qualifying session on Saturday
night allowed everyone to get more aggressive with their tune-up
and several cars that were on the outside looking in qualified
in the night air. Murphy did them one better ripping off a stellar
5.937 at 247.25 to land him in the # 1 spot.
First round found
Murphy paired against his old buddy, Brendan Murry.
Steve Wallace Photo
Tim Beebe makes
his final inspection of the engine before Murphy stages.
Steve
Wallace Photo
After the burnouts
it became a moot point when Murray lost fire on the starting
line. Murphy gets a single and clicks early with a 6.19 at just
192.14.
Steve Wallace Photo
Round two pitted the OSH car against
Sean Bellemeur in the Plaza Hotel entry. According to Murphy,
"The car was starting to run like it did at the end of last
year and we had taken the weight off the front end as it did
not appear it was needed (it has been carrying the front about
40 or 50 feet and just setting it down so nice). In the race
with Bellemeur, the car left great but carried the wheels at
about 3 or 4 inches all the way to the 330 foot mark and started
to move out of the groove (see photos below). I tried to bring
it back but it would not steer as the wheels were off the ground.
Well, as you know the groove is quite narrow at Boise and as
one tire got outside it set the front end down and the wheels
were turned so the car darted and got up on two wheels. All turned
fine but we lost another race we feel we could have won. The
air was getting better every round but, OH WELL that's racing.
We'll try again at Sacramento." JIM
While Murphy was
playing stunt driver, Bellemeur went on to a solid 6.06 @ 218.49
win.
Check for the next event
for OSH-WW2 Racing: Race Schedule
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