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April
8-10, 2002
OSH-WW2 Racing
Photo Highlights
Photo credits: Don Ewald, Suzanne St.Pierre,
John Ewald and Jim Phillipson
Murphy Sets Top Speed: 240.98
After their 5.81 - 255 at Bakersfield, Jim Murphy, Tim Beebe
and the WW2-OSH Racing team came to Sonoma with high hopes of
a 5.7 run. Drag racing being the unpredictable and heartless
beast it is, those hopes were dashed by parts and human failure.
Murphy qualified an uncharacteristic 13th then lost a very close
first round race to Bob Muravez.
After spinning
the tires in his first qualifying attempt, Murphy got into the
show in session two in spite of severe engine problems. Here
the WW2 car leaves ahead of Rance McDaniel who clicked off a
5.95. At the finish line Murphy wasn't that far behind (below)
with a shut off 6.26
at just 182 MPH. The car was running very good until an engine
failure toward the finish line forced Murphy to shut it down.
Backing
up to Friday afternoon, every race starts with the time consuming
but necessary "set-up". Here the new WW2-OSH trailer
is in place and the crew is starting to make the pit "battle
ready".
Until the awning, tables
and other facilities necessary to work on the car are ready,
the dragster remains "in the box".
The first
round of qualifying brought a mixed bag of results. In spite
of a few stout times, most of the cars had trouble hooking up
after the eighth mile mark. Here both Murphy and John Shoemaker
were very busy in their respective lanes both ending up to the
right. Murphy 6.39 @ 172 -- Shoemaker 6.48 @ 197.
Murphy had no trouble launching like a rocket on
every pass - the problems bit him on the other end.
Don Ewald
Photo
After
the second qualifying session the crew had to replace the damaged
supercharger that cut the run short after it "banged"
at about the 1000 foot mark. The failure was due to a faulty
valve in the fuel system. Although its one of the best prepped
cars at any race, nobody can foresee the "little things"
that can bite you every time these big nitro burning engines
go down the track.
After
the second qualifying session the WW2-OSH dragster was in pieces.
The problem that caused the blower backfire also caused an internal
engine parts failure. The failure necessitated a complete engine
change - something nobody likes to do at a race.
The
damage engine is stripped of useable parts as the spare is installed
in the race car. An experienced crew, such as this can change
engines in a surprisingly short period of time - usually less
than 90 minutes.
Car repair or even normal maintenance
is always a group effort. Even the wives have jobs to do. Fortunately
this was after the last qualifying session on Saturday so there
was no panic to get the car back together in record time. They
had until the next day to make sure it was repaired correctly.
In the first round of eliminations Bob Muravez got
a slight starting line advantage over Murphy and that was what
he needed to win the race.
In an incredibly close finish Muravez's 0.487 to
a 0.526 advantage allowed him to capture the win 6.069 @ 230.76
to Murphy's quicker and faster 6.052 @ 240.98 (top speed of the
event). This one falls under the category of "that's drag
racing".
Murphy's
margin of defeat was about 3 feet!
After
the first round loss, even more engine damage was present. Jim
Murphy and Tim Beebe vow that these kinds of problems will come
to an end with a new and much more aggressive maintenance program.
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