Bakersfield, CA - 10/23/17: Jim Murphy and his "best ever" WW2 Racing team set out at the March Meet to win the championship. Five races in 4 states later, mission accomplished.

Murphy came into the weekend leading the points over Mendy Fry and Adam Sorokin in Nostalgia Top Fuel. He first won the postponed Firebird Raceway Nightfire Nationals final round on Saturday to extend his points lead. In Sunday's California Hot Rod Reunion eliminations he again beat out Sorokin in the semifinals to seal up his second championship. Fry lost to event winner Jim Young in the semifinals to secure the number two spot in the championship.

Both Murphy and Fry won their first round of racing on Sunday as did Sorokin and Jim Young. This left the four best cars in the country to dictate the champion. If Sorokin beats Murphy and Fry beats Young, the title would go to the winner of the final. If Fry won she would be the champ. However, none of this happened.

In the semis, Murphy got the best of Sorokin again. Although Adam grabbed a hunk on the tree his 5.724 at 241.37 was not enough to keep Jim's 5.604 at 246.08 from running him down. Murphy's MOV: 0.0650 seconds (approximately 23 feet).

At that point is was over, we had a champion. However, on the run Murphy suffered an oil in and scraped the left guardwall, damaging the left front suspension and canard. Although they had another engine, Mushy and Leong decided to err on the the side of caution and not run the final. Jim had won the war, but lost this battle.

That still left Jim Young and Mendy Fry to see who would single for the event win. In another great drag race Young left first and needed it. His 5.653 at 261.78 held off Fry's quicker and faster 5.638 at 260.66. Young's MOV: 0.0240 seconds (approximately 9 feet). He would single for the win although we know he would have given Murphy one hell of a race.

Murphy finished the season with two wins in four final rounds taking wins in Bowling Green, Ky., and at the Nightfire in Boise, Idaho, along with final round finishes at the season opening March Meet and the California reunion to close out the year.

1st Qualifying Session   After an endless Funny Car session that featured 6 oil downs, After over 2 hours in the staging lanes, at 5:30 the TF cars were finally pulled out to run. The track had cooled down with left conditions less than desireable.   Next to last pair of the session was points leader Jim Murphy who came into the weekend with a heavy heart after his home town of Santa Rosa, CA. suffered a series of devastating and deadly wild fires just 2 weeks prior. Murphy, a general contractor, lost over 40 residential and and business properties he was involved in. Those included 3 of his associate's homes. This also leaves Murphy's plans for racing next year in limbo. In the other lane was the only true SBC car in the class of Phil Ruskowski who came down from Victoria, BC, in his Total Machine sponsored car.       Murphy had a stong leave but it was shortlived.             The tune-up was too aggressive for the track conditions and Murphy went up in smoke before the tree.                 Murphy shut it off and coasted through.       2nd Qualifying Session   Nitro Saturday opened up with the second session of Top Fuel qualifying pairing Jim Muprhy and Tyler Hilton; both smoked the tires in Q1.                                       At the expense of several pistons, Murphy ran a 5.70 at 220.84 which was good for the #1 spot for the day.       Between sessions the crew replaced the burned pistons and did routine maintainace.           3rd Qualifying Session   The final session went off late afternoon and the last pair featured two heavy hitters, Jim Murphy and Adam Sorokin. This was the final round of the rained out 2017 Boise Night Fire Nationals to decide the Top Fuel champion of that race. This had major points implications. If Murphy won he would have a 27 point lead, if not he would stay just 7 points ahead of Mendy Fry.                     Murphy unloaded a solid 5.651 @ 249.30 to secure the #! qualifying spot.     Top Fuel Final Order 1. Jim Murphy 5.651 @ 249.30 2. Mendy Fry 5.660 @ 224.47 3. Jim Young 5.673 @ 255.24 4. Adam Sorokin 5.742 @ 243.06 5. Pete Wittenberg 5.906 @ 205.01 6. Rick McGee 6.031 @ 199.76 7. Bret Williamson 6.179 @ 175.34 8. Brendan Murry 6.656 @ 153.89 ------------ Not Qualified ------------ 9. Phil Ruskowski 6.756 @ 178.90 10. Tyler Hilton  8.053 @ 159.59     Page Two, Eliminations     Return to Photo Archive