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No Fifth March Meet for Murphy
close 2nd round loss

 

 

Bakersfield, CA - March 12, 2013:

The 55th edition of the fabled March Meet truly offered a mixed bag of weather and racing. The temps on Thursday (50's) morphed into the mid 70's by Sunday. Saturday saw a high temperature of just 61 degrees with track temps in the mid 60's. With the Friday fuel sessions canceled, two sessions were crammed into Saturday with round one of eliminations put off until Sunday which was a perfect 72 degrees.

Friday was a total rain out that obviously put the event schedule in the trash can. Along with the other teams, all the weather issues put Jim Murphy and the WW2 Racing team off their program. Forced into two qualifying sessions on cold track Saturday, Murphy was unable to accomplish what they wanted with the car and was left behind the 8-ball for eliminations.

Murphy's quest for an unprecedented fifth March Meet win was foiled in the second round of competition when Jim Young was able to drive by him after the 1000' mark. The good news was they experienced very little parts damage, the bad news was they could not win the event.

The next outing for the team will be June 15 at Famoso Raceway for Saturday Night Nitro. Now enjoy the photos from the March Meet.

 

 

For Murphy the weekend started on Thursday when the track was open for time trials/testing.

 

 

Mike Beebe backed Jim up as always.

 

 

Paired with Jim Young who won the 2012 March Meet Jim had a strong leave.

 

 

 

A time slip of 5.855 at just 213.16 told them they were on the right track.

 

 

 

After every run this would be the typical scene in the WW2 Racing pit as the team does routing maintenance. The engine has all 8 pistons removed, and often replaced, after every run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was one qualifying session scheduled for Friday and one for Saturday followed by first round. But a constant rain storm literally wash Friday out. Thus they had to get two sessions in on Saturday and run the entire elimination portion on Sunday.

 

1st Qualifying Session

Saturday, 2:27 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 58 degrees, relative humidity 60 percent, barometer 29.54 inches, adjusted altitude 561 feet, track temperature 71 degrees.

 

By the time Murphy's turn came the track was deemed flawless and ready for anything the tuners could throw at it. Jim was paired with Larry Gotelli who is the new driver for Bob Richardson's Circuit Breaker.

 

 

Both cars had decent early numbers and both experienced problems after the 660' mark.

 

 

By half track Murphy's car was experiencing some handling problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murphy danced his way to a 6.097 at 184.80 while Gotelli coasted through with a 6.451 at 169.06. Not the numbers they were looking for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qualifying Session Two

6:35 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 61 degrees, relative humidity 62 percent, barometer 29.55 inches, adjusted altitude 760 feet, track temperature 59 degrees.

 

Due to the late hour and diminished track conditions only a few of the cars opted to come out for the second session. Two that did were Jim Murphy and Bill Dunlap.

 

 

 

 

Nobody was shooting in Dunlap's lane. They left close together and were just 0.001 different at sixty feet. Murphy stayed close to right at the 660 lights, where Dunlap's' header flames go down. Murphy stayed on the power until near the 1000 foot lights, where his engine went silent too. Murphy was now behind the 8-ball with two failed qualifying attempts.

 

 

 

Dan Wilkison and Jim working on the fuel system.

 

 

 

Top Fuel Round One

Sunday, 11:38 a.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 60 degrees, relative humidity 59 percent, barometer 29.62 inches, adjusted altitude 571 feet, track temperature 66 degrees.

 

Following the marathon clean up the final pair of round one pitted Jim Murphy and Bill Dunlap.

 

 

 

 

 

This race was over before it started when Dunlap red lighted.

 

 

 

 

 

Murphy had a strong leave then gradually moved toward the guard wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murphy did the right thing by not yanking the car away from the wall. He just maintained control and coasted through with a 5.904 at 215.20. Dunlap followed.

 

 

 

Top Fuel Round Two

2:48 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 72 degrees, relative humidity 35 percent, barometer 29.58 inches, adjusted altitude 1,449 feet, track temperature 109 degrees.

 

Second round was a pair of Jim's... Young and Murphy.

 

 

 

Murphy nailed the lights with a stellar 0.022 RT (0.098 for Young) and pulled away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the tire chatter marks that denote some slippage. This did not help Jim on the topend.

 

Once again Murphy's fuse was too short and Young went by for the win with a 5.689 at a huge speed of 266.11 which made him the third member of the LON 265 Club. Murphy faded to a 5.802 at 245.40 ending yet another chance to win his elusive 5th MM win.

Jim Young's incremental margins (negative if behind): 60ft(-0.051), 330 ft(-0.063), 660ft(-0.049), 1,000ft(-0.017). MOV: 0.0374 seconds (approximately 13 feet).

*The engine broke a roller lifter at about 900'. Did not hurt any serious parts but did cause the cylinder to drop, possibly costing them the race.

 

 

 

Check out where Murphy and Team are racing next....
2013 Schedule

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