|
THREE-PEAT, FOUR-PEAT FOR MURPHY
By Dan Fleisher
Title seem confusing? Not really. Peter Murphy, the man from down under, won this third straight SCRA 360 c.i. non-wing Sprint car feature of the season and his fourth straight at Kings Speedway in Hanford, CA. Only Davey Pombo’s in-between victory at Bakersfield in May disrupted Murphy’s continuity.
Driving the potent Tom Tarlton owned, Tachi Palace sponsored No. 21, Murphy led wire-to-wire in the 30-lap feature despite the concerted, but futile, efforts of Jonathan Logan to dislodge him from the number one spot.
By virtue of his third Dash win of the season, Murphy started on the pole and “out-dragged” front row companion Logan to the first turn. Hold on however: starter Lee Jaskowiak called it a false start and the field realigned for a restart. As the green reappeared, Murphy repeated his quick start and led the field for three-quarters of a lap when Jim Riddell spun in turn four bringing out the first yellow of the evening. Start number three was another repeat with Murphy beating Logan into turn one and for all intensive purposes, that was that. Murphy diligently worked the track, which was for the most part a one-groove track, and the traffic to perfection to garner the well-earned victory. The low-keyed Australian was quite blunt during his interview in the winner’s circle. “It was an advantage to start on the pole.”
After a sensational third-place finish last time out, Logan showed signs of his 2006 SCRA championship form by following Murphy for the entire distance, attempting to stick his nose under or waiting for the leader to open the door by committing an error, but it was not to be. He crossed the stripe a few scant yards back. Third place went to visiting Clark Templeman, a long-time USAC/CRA competitor, whose father “Shorty” was a multi-time National Midget Champion back in the 1950s. Templeman showed many of the youngsters how it’s done, working his way through traffic from his ninth-place starting position. By lap six, he moved to sixth, by lap 11 he was fourth and finally gained the podium spot on lap 24 when he slid by 17-year-old John Niggli. Niggli finished a credible fifth for his best finish in weeks.
Davey Pombo started far back in the field (13th) as a result of being collected in his heat by a spinning Adam Frith-Smith. Pombo’s crew installed a new front axle for the feature but by not transferring out of the heat, his second-quick qualifying time went out-the-window. As expected by the crowd, he used all his talents to move through the field, slowly but surely. He reached ninth on lap five, seventh on lap 10, sixth on lap 16 and then seemed to just settle in, a long way back from the leaders. However, on lap 21 Brett Lowder spun and the field was bunched up via the second yellow of the night. Pombo then passed rookies Myles Bishop on lap 25 and Niggli on lap 29 to finish fourth before the checkers appeared. His strong finish enabled him to retain his season point lead (650) over Murphy's 631.
Rounding out top-ten were Justyne Hamblin, who started 10th and edged Bishop by inches at the line, Steve Conrad, another first-time SCRA visitor, Jeff Gardner and Albert Pombo, who came from dead-last place on the grid. Hamblin’s sixth-place finish over Bishop was so close, only the car’s transponder could determine the finish.
Heat winners included Hamblin, Carlile and Templeman while Logan recorded quick qualifying time of 15.909 on the 3/8th clay track.
RESULTS:
Qualifying:
#32 Jonathan Logan 15.909, #38 Davey Pombo 15.982, #7 Myles Bishop 16.167, #11 Grig Bragg, 16.211, #21 Peter Murphy 16.244, #9 John Niggli 16.297, #51t Jeff Gardner 16.386, #17 Jim Riddell 16.420, #35 Albert Pombo 16.493, #44 Brett Lowder 16.551, #51 Rusty Carlile 16.604, #18t Clark Templeman 16.635, #8 Justyne Hamblin 16.697, #14 Adam FrithSmith, 16.780, #56 Steve Conrad 16.816
EXTREME MUFFLERS #1-10 Laps: Hamblin, Logan, Gardner, Lowder, Bragg DNF
KAEDING PERFORMANCE/KEIZER WHEELS HEAT #2-10 Laps: Carlile, Murphy, Riddell, Frith-Smith DNF, D. Pombo DNF
SPIN TECH MUFFLERS HEAT #3- 10 Laps: Templeman, Niggli, Conrad, Bishop, A. Pombo
RIDDELL ENT. DASH 6-Laps: Murphy, Logan, Bishop, Niggli, Gardner, Riddell
MAIN-30 Laps
Murphy, Logan, Templeman, D. Pombo, Niggli, Hamblin, Bishop, Conrad, Gardner, A. Pombo, Bragg, Riddell, Lowder, Carlile, FrithSmith
TOP 25 POINTS STANDINGS JULY 7
Davey Pombo, 650, Peter Murphy, 631, Rusty Carlile 503, Jeff Gardner 453, Jonathan Logan 450, Kiwi Alexander 382, John Niggli, 372, Justyne Hamblin 342, Richard Harvey Jr. 333, Kevin Barnes 254, Myles Bishop 254, Ryan Kaplan 190, John Iturriria 186, Adam Frith-Smith 185, Albert Pombo 146, Garrett Ishii 141, Brian Schuler 135, Jace VanderWeerd 119, Jesse Mack, 118, Michael Faccinto, 118, Brett Lowder 110, Daniel Hood 109, Matt Day 101, Brandon Thomson 98, Dwayne Marcum 97
|
|
