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July
5-7, 2001
WW2 Photo Highlights
Jim
Murphy and WW2 Racing were among the elite 16 Nostalgia Top Fuel
Dragsters invited to the NHRA 50th Anniversary Nationals. Here
Jim makes his first burnout of the event during Thursday qualifying.
After an unexpected
storm delayed Thursday's qualifying and made the new track hard
to read. Many of the cars smoked the tires in the one session
allotted to the N/TF cars and Murphy was one of them. As Jim
leaves the starting line a wisp of smoke can already be seen
under the tire.
Once
the tire smoke negated any chance of a good run Jim shut the
car off early with an 8.40 ET at only 114 MPH and coasted through
the shutdown area.
Dismount.
Murphy exits the car on the other end of the track.
A hot
race track an too much power caused Murphy to smoke the tires
again during Friday's first qualifying session. Note the sell
out crowd! This was the first time thousands of NHRA fans had
ever seen the Nostalgia Top Fuel cars and boy, were they impressed.
In the
third and final qualifying session on Friday night, WW2 bounced
back to run a solid 6.13 @ 231 MPH to qualify # 6 in this stellar
field. Denver Schutz in the near lane failed to qualify.
The
Nostalgia Top Fuel pits saw a steady flow of fans all three days.
The WW2 OSH camp was one of the most visited as Jim Murphy is
not only well known, but fan and media friendly.
Murphy
gets into the car prior to his Thursday qualifying run.
The
tower at Pomona makes an impressive backdrop for the cars as
they are started prior to running.
Another angle of Murphy's Thursday attempt.
Backing up after a burnout is a crucial procedure.
The crew must make sure the car is put back in its "foot
prints" and properly placed in "the groove" to
assure maximum traction on the run.
WW2 Racing's weekend ended as it began - in tire
smoke. Once again they had too much horsepower for the track
and lost in Round One to the eventual runner-up, Rance McDaniel
who set low ET of the meet on this pass at 6.01. |
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