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Murphy, Marino and Flower Winners at Chico

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Photo by Steven Cox [sprintcarphotos.com][/caption]CHICO, CA (8-19-11) - Peter Murphy took a gamble. The popular veteran sprint car driver decided to haul his team all the way up from the Fresno area to race Friday night at Chico. It is a five hour haul one way. Yet, the gamble paid off. Murphy took the lead on lap eight and withstood a furious charge from Kyle Hirst at the end of the race to win the $2,000 payday. "I had a great time up here," said Murphy. "The track was real good and when the #35 car went to high in turn one he opened the door on the bottom and I took advantage of it." Murphy is hopeful to return next week for the final 410 Friday night race of the year. I consider Murphy one of the true gentlemen of our sport. He also won the Dave Bradway Jr. King of the West main event earlier this year. Not a bad year in Chico. He also won $500 for the Tom Rolfe Trucking International Dash for Cash. All in all a total of 54 cars signed into the pit area for Wells Fargo Point championship racing event #14. Other winners during the night included Phil Marino and Joe Flower.

Chico's David Tarter shot out to the early lead. He is the most improved sprint car driver in America. Tarter led the first seven laps until he entered slower traffic. On lap eight he went to the top and underestimated his speed. He drifted up and over the cushion and lost the lead to Murphy. While the race for the lead was heating up so was Andy Forsberg right rear tire. The team sent him out with a plugged right rear tire. The tire ended up going flat and he had to go to the pits. Once he resumed at the rear of the field he got into more problems. Coming around turn four he didn't get a glimpse of the yellow flag that was being waived and ended up tagging Tyler Wolf in the rear end. This broke his shock tower and front nose wing. Luckily for Forsberg, Wolf's night did not fair much better. Wolf struggled with his set up and finished ninth. Forsberg ran 11th. Unofficially, Wolf will lead Forsberg by six points going into the next Friday's final night of racing.

The car owner championship tightened up. Brian Sperry has fielded a 410 car all year with Sean Becker. However, Becker missed two appearances that were filled in nicely by Daniel Becker. After tonight's combined points and unofficially, Sperry should be the new leader of the owner points.

Jason York held down the second spot for most of the race. As he ran around the bottom, Kyle Hirst was zinging it around the top. Lap after the lap the two were equal. On lap 19 Hirst finally found enough momentum to pass York for second. Hirst did catch Murphy the final five laps but needed about five more to apply enough pressure for the lead. Tarter finished in the fourth spot. Sean Becker finished fifth.

Joe Flower led all 15 laps to win the Hobby Stock main event. He beat Larry Button and Brian Compton to the finish line. Flower thanked his car owners in victory lane. It was the third and final appearance of the year by the Hobby Stock division. Look for more announcements over the winter about this division at Silver Dollar Speedway. Button earned the top honors in the heat race.

Phil Marino won Friday night's main event. It was his second in a row. "I am getting geared up for Pepsi night next week," Marino said. Marino is the defending champion of the race. Kevin Lesch and Kevin Ward each won heat races. The top two in the points each had an up and down main event. Lesch spun around and finished down the list. Ward battled back from some fender damage and finished second. The street stocks will wrap up their 2011 season this Friday night. It was wonderful to see Scott Rogers back at the track. Expect him plus Heather Bartlett to bring excitement to the Pepsi night main event. Richard Workman and Mike Slightom have been solid all year and each has earned a lot of respect from the drivers and fans.

Results on www.mylaps.com

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