Kelley Murphy, who works on the JEGS.com \/ White Castle car of Troy Coughlin Jr. for Elite Motorsports, will be fulfilling a 28-year dream when he makes his Pro Stock debut at the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway March 8-10.<\/p>\n
Murphy, whose father Tim worked with Pro Stock legends Steve Schmidt and Mark Ingersoll in the 90s, finished his Pro Stock licensing process on Wednesday, February 21st with two full passes of 6.64 seconds at 188 mph and 6.63 at 190 at Tulsa Raceway Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cRolling up there on Friday for the first time I\u2019m definitely going to be excited. Probably going to be nervous as can be,\u201d said Murphy who will have Mark Ingersoll and Tim Freeman tuning his car with Matt Hasara on the engine and Steven Hurley on the clutch. \u201cI know that as long as I do what I did in Tulsa, I\u2019ll be fine. Just need to take a breath and just do what we know how to do. There are a lot of people who would love to get the chance to do this, professionally race, and I have the opportunity. There are going to be a lot of eyeballs on us, its\u2019 the season opener.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy, a native of Indiana, has been around drag racing all his life with the U.S. Nationals, NHRA\u2019s biggest race of the year, in his back yard, but he didn\u2019t step into the driver\u2019s seat until 2020. Murphy first drove his father\u2019s 5-speed bracket car and then a retired 2006 Pro Stock Car and the well-known burnout car, \u201cThe Buggie\u201d, from the Cuadra family before starting his licensing process late in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an awesome experience. I\u2019ve wanted to do this my whole life,\u201d said Murphy who will be driving the Jim Butner Auto\/Industrial Rubber Technologies\/JEGS Pro Stock entry. \u201cIt all started with a conversation at World Series of Pro Mod last year. It got real when Richard Freeman gave me a number to rent the car that I knew I could manage. I\u2019ve gotten a handful of passes under my belt and with the teachers I have in the Elite Motorsports camp, I\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to Bo and Randi Lyn Butner of Jim Butner Auto, Nick & Tammy White with Industrial Rubber Technologies and Jeg Coughlin Jr. with JEGS, Murphy\u2019s dream of licensing and driving in a national event has also been backed by numerous friends and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really couldn\u2019t have made this happen without the crazy amount of support I\u2019ve received. The list is long but these people and companies are important to me: Joe Nott at Raabe Ford, Chris Avaritt with Cross Threaded Customs, Mike Morehead and his family with Lift Truck Service Center, Mike Harrell with Mike\u2019s Fab Shop, Craig Sullivan at Sullivan\u2019s Equipment Inc., Dane Ward and his family with Hatfield Lumber, Scott and Jennifer Woodruff with Benmit, Adam Lambert with PRS and Rick and Rickie Jones with Quarter Max and RJ Race Cars,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cAnd then there are what I\u2019ll call silent investors who don\u2019t have a sticker on the car but helped make this possible: Vincent Nobile, Erica Enders, Mark Ingersoll, Tim Freeman, Kyle Bates, Chase Freeman, and Michael Brotherton. I hope I don\u2019t embarrass them out there, I know we\u2019re going to have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway will begin with four rounds of qualifying Friday at 2 and 4:30 p.m., and Saturday at noon and 3 p.m. with eliminations for the Pro Stock category beginning Sunday at 11:30 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The post Elite Motorsports\u2019 Kelley Murphy Fulfills Lifelong Dream<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kelley Murphy, who works on the JEGS.com \/ White Castle car of Troy Coughlin Jr. for Elite Motorsports, will be fulfilling a 28-year dream when he makes his Pro Stock debut at the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway March 8-10. Murphy, whose father Tim worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}