Friday was in a word, cold. Here
the team warmed up the engine prior to the first of two Friday
qualifying sessions.
Mike Beebe waits in the
seat while Chris Godleski buttons up the engine.
As he always does, Jim
mixes the nitro.
Crew Chief Time Beebe
lights the engine.
1st
Qualifying Session
Friday, 2:05 p.m. Weather conditions:
cold
Murphy and Rick White chose to
be the first pair out on the untried track (for fuel cars) for
the first session. A gutsy call by the two veteran drivers.
After the burnout Mike
Beebe guided Jim back to the line in his groove.
Crew Chief Tim Beebe making the
final adjustments before sending Jim to the line.
Murphy's solid baseline 5.801
at 238.89 would be good for #3 at the end of the session.
2nd
Qualifying Session
Friday, 5:02 p.m. Weather conditions:
colder
Once
again Murphy chose to run first, this time in the opposite lane.
Murphy
left good but McGee literally jumped out of the gate.
McGee
had the lead at the 60' mark and never looked back.
In the lights
McGee shocked everyone with a 5.653 (low ET of the round) at
244.78 and he clicked it at the 1000' mark. Murphy also shut
off early with a 5.801 at 238.89.
3rd
Qualifying Session
Saturday, 5:02 p.m. Weather conditions:
perfect
For the third and last
qualifying session Murphy was paired with Terry Cox.
Murphy was away first.
Murphy clocked a stout
5.716 at 235.84 while nipping a couple of piston.
Cox scored a 5.866 at
259.46 which was top speed of the session.
Here's a great look at the new
Famoso return road which offers the fuel teams a choice to tow
back to the pits in front of the fans. Unfortunately not a majority
of the teams took advantage of it.
1st
Round of Eliminations
Saturday, 3.30 p.m. Weather conditions:
beautiful
For the first round heavily favored
Jim Murphy matched with TF rookie John Rasmussen.
Murphy eased it back
into this own lane but the damage was done.
Team Statement:
After reviewing some videos of
the run and inspection the car after the run, we are mostly sure
of this.
We had selected the right lane
prior to the 1st round run via low qualifying ET. Brendan Murry
oiled the right lane severely during the run just before us.
We then changed to the left lane. A lot of ash sweep was put
down to clean up the mess, so much so that it spilled over into
the right side of the left lane. So much that they ran the sweeper
on the right side of the left lane, but it didn't get it cleaned
very well.
As Jim motored down through to
what looked like by the incremental times as an easy win, the
car drifted to the right, Jim corrected to the center, the car
drifted a little more severely to the right and Jim corrected
harder to the center. Then the car darted to the right, crossing
the line. In watching the videos, you can see a cloud of ash
sweep boil up each time the car moved to the right. The car had
ash sweep residue all over the right side after the run. Bummer,
that's Drag Racing.
Check out where Murphy
and Team are racing next....
2012
Schedule
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