From Gary Costa
BAKERSFIELD, CA (March 27, 2010) — The popular Peter Murphy “Murphy’s Law” T-shirt says, “If it bloody can, it bloody will”. Those words would ring true and were never more evident than this past Saturday evening at Bakersfield Speedway, during the third round of West Coast 360 Sprint Car action held on the 1/3-mile clay oval.
After being “snake bitten” two consecutive weekends in a row, the team had high-hopes to leave their unusual string of bad luck behind them, but it would be for naught as the Tom Tarlton-owned, Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Tarlton & Son, Inc. immaculately prepared No 21 would end on the trailer, for the third race in a row.
Murphy was the second to last car to go out for qualifying and with multiple divisions on the card, the track was “gone” when Murphy tried to negotiate the slick surface. Murphy checked out in his heat however, and won in dominating fashion, leading all 8-laps.
Peter would start tenth on the field. When the green flag flew, Murphy went to the top of the racetrack where he stayed during the opening laps. Midway through the race, a spirited battle developed for the fourth position that included Murphy, Rusty Carlile, Craig Stidham, Danny Faria, Jr., and Jimmy Thompson. However, during a lap-15 restart, two cars got together in front of Murphy, and the No 21 had no where to go and plowed into the stopped cars.
Murphy was towed to the pit area, where Paul Baines, Blaine Steele and Jason Wheelock went to work and made the necessary repairs to the injured mount. Murphy was able to rejoin the field, but was the victim of yet another wreck, that would once again occur in front of him, thus ending a night that the team would like to soon forget.
“I just can’t believe it. Three weeks in a row and we’ve had something happen to us – we just can’t catch a break,” a dejected Murphy said. “I know that we’re better than what we’re doing – we just need some luck on our side. The boys worked real hard tonight and I can’t thank them enough. We’ll just load it up and look toward Tulare .”
Up Next For Tarlton Motorsports!
Tommy Tarlton will begin his quest to repeat as champion at Ocean Speedway this Friday, April 2.
Peter Murphy will look to turn his luck around at the Tulare Thunderbowl on Saturday, April 3.
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.