From Gary Costa, Bryan Lugo Photo
HANFORD, CA (March 13) — If it wasn’t for bad luck, Tarlton Motorsports driver, Peter Murphy would have no luck at all, as he was caught-up in another incident for the second consecutive weekend in a row. The popular driver of the potent Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Tarlton & Son, Inc. No. 21 KPC was running second in West Coast 360 Series main event action, when disaster would strike once again.
The Clovis driver started his night out by drilling the Kings Speedway 3/8-mile clay oval, laying down a blazing 15.290 qualifying lap in front of the packed grandstand. The lap would be the quickest of the evening, and it sent a message throughout the pit area, that the Tarlton Motorsports camp had done their homework once again. In heat race action, Murphy was the show, as the fiercely competitive driver charged under the checkered flag in the second position.
Tarlton Motorsports’ Blaine Steele, Jason Wheelock, and Paul Baines, had the car set-up to perfection for the 30-lap feature event. Starting out of his eighth position, Murphy immediately began to move forward when the green lights flashed on around the wicked fast speedway. The car was fast, and it would “stick” anywhere that Murphy decided that he wanted to place it. During the mid-part of the event, Murphy positioned himself into second, and began to stalk race leader, Wes Gutierrez. However on lap-15, race leader Gutierrez, suffered front end damage, and with Murphy right on his rear-bumper, he had nowhere to go, and was collected in the incident. Murphy was towed to the pit area and scored with a disappointing 19th place finish.
“This car is just so fast! The boys hit the set-up just right, and we were going to contend for the win,” said Murphy. “We just ran up on Wes so fast, that we just had nowhere to go. It’s real unfortunate. The track was in great shape and you were able to run the top or the bottom. The people at Kings Speedway are doing a great job so far, and I can’t wait to go back there again!”
Up Next For Tarlton Motorsports!
Tarlton Motorsports will take this weekend off and fire back-up on March 27, as Peter Murphy will look to capture his first main event of the season at Bakersfield Speedway, during West Coast 360 Series competition.
April 2, Tommy Tarlton will begin his quest to defend his 2009 Ocean Sprints Winged Sprint Car championship at Ocean Speedway. Tommy is itching to get behind the wheel, as the scheduled Mini Gold Cup in Chico, fell victim to the wet weather.
For schedule information, please go to www.tarltonandson.com
Special thanks to: The Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Ridgeline Framing, Corporate American Lending, Shark Racing Engines, Matt & Glass, M & S Motorsports, Sharp Insurance, Elite Racing, BG Products, Pro Signs, VMAC, Kaeding Performance, Pro Shocks, Sander Engineering, Astro Titanium, Simpson, BR Motorsports, Willwood, and Brown & Miller Racing Solutions.