 Murphy pilots Anderson / Curtis No. 18 to 8th place Dirt Cup finishAustralian Peter Murphy made his return to Skagit Speedway this past weekend for the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup. Mike & Shaylen Anderson and Kris Curtis teamed up to put Murphy in the No. 18m Shark-powered Rocket sponsored by Performance R/C Hobbies, Shark Racing Engines, Speedmart Inc, SignMart USA and Anderson Power Washing. After a long and at times sad weekend, Murphy would drive to a strong eighth place finish in the Dirt Cup A-Main event.Thursday first saw Murphy qualify tenth fastest with a time of 11.737 seconds around the 3/10-mile, high-banked clay oval, but miss the transfer out his heat race by just one position (only three transferred out of each heat). He would finish second in the B-Main race to secure the 17th starting spot in Thursday’s preliminary feature. Before the race, Peter got the awful news that his best friend, Brian Healey, had suffered a heart attack and passed away. Healey was the highly successful promoter of Parramatta City Raceway in Australia and helped bring the World of Outlaws “Down Under.”With the bad news fresh in his mind, Murphy promptly got back in his sprint car and made the run of the night, driving from 17th to finish in fourth place in the feature and picking up several valuable passing points in addition to his finishing points. After the race Peter, still in tears, dedicated the rest of his Dirt Cup to his friend Brian.Friday night saw Murphy qualify 19th with a time of 11.743 seconds, nearly identical to his time on Thursday. Peter ran in the fourth heat race and this time finished third to transfer. Starting inside the second row in the Friday preliminary feature, Murphy took the lead from Jared Ridge late and led a few laps before settling for fourth place. His efforts on Friday was good enough to put him third in points after two nights of competition. After Saturday’s A-Scramble race, Murphy was locked to start the 40-lap Dirt Cup main event in the fifth spot.Driving against several of the top drivers in the country, Murphy held his own in the Top 10 until a accident with 19 laps complete sent Murphy spinning around exiting Turn 4 and sliding onto the infield apron on the front stretch. That brought out the first yellow flag of the race.From there, Murphy slowly climbed his way back through the star-studded field and on Lap 36 he was back in the Top 10. With a couple of laps left Murphy moved up to the eighth position, where he was running when he spun out before. It wasn't the finish the team was looking for, but after what happened earlier in the race, eighth place was a rather strong finish for Murphy and the team.Murphy, one of sprint car racing’s most popular drivers and a longtime favorite of fans at Skagit, was one of 42 drivers to take part in the 38th annual Dirt Cup and one of only a handful of drivers who made the A-Main all three nights. Mike and Shaylen Anderson and Kris Curtis would like to thank Peter for making the trip to Washington to drive their car and they thank all of their sponsors for their help and support!- - -Sponsors for the No. 18m car owned by Mike & Shaylen Anderson and Kris CurtisPerformance R/C Hobbies
Shark Engines
Speedmart Inc.
SignMart USA
Burlington Collision
H2H Photo
Anderson Power Washing
Race Outfitters
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