MURPHY BEATS HOWELL TO TULARE CHECKERED

 


Tulare, CA……..Peter Murphy of Clovis, Calif. led the final four laps in his Eberhardt Special to win Saturday night’s 30-lap USAC West Coast 360 Sprint race at the Gropetti Automotive Thunderbowl Speedway. Dennis Howell finished second ahead of Richard VanderWeerd, Greg Alexander and Jace VanderWeerd. Former series point leader Ryan Bernal led laps 2-26 but dropped to 15th in the official finish and now trails Jace VanderWeerd by five points in the new series standings going into a May 14 race at Tulare. T.J. Smith was Saturday’s fastest qualifier.


 


USAC WEST COAST 360 SPRINT RACE RESULTS: April 30, 2011 – Tulare, California – Thunderbowl Raceway


 


QUALIFICATIONS: 1. T.J. Smith, 14, LeGras-15.181; 2. Wes Gutierrez, 007, WG-15.214; 3. Ryan Bernal, 11D, Olmstead-15.336; 4. Richard VanderWeerd, 10, VanderWeerd-15.492; 5. Dennis Howell, 62, Howell-15.577; 6. Greg Alexander, 72, Tyler-15.683; 7. Jace VanderWeerd, 88, VanderWeerd-15.696; 8. Danny Faria Jr., 2, Bowman-15.755; 9. Rusty Carlile, 51, Carlile-15.815; 10. Justyne Hamblin, 8, JH-15.844; 11. Peter Murphy, 4, Eberhardt-16.090; 12. Jared Little, 25, Little-16.178; 13. Ricky Kirkbride, 87, Van Meter-16.182; 14. Dave Knott, 28, Knott-16.259; 15. Marty Hawkins, 3M, Hawkins-16.343; 16. Andrew Murray, 18, Murray-16.694; 17. Geoffrey Strole, 09S, Strole-17.231; 18. Jeff Miller, 5X, Swaim-17.330; 19. Nico Russo, 3N, Russo-17.341; 20. Cole Peard, 58, Peard-NT; 21. Matt Day, 97, Day-NT.


 


FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Kirkbride, 2. R.VanderWeerd, 3. J.VanderWeerd, 4. Smith, 5. Hamblin, 6. Murray, 7. Russo. NT


 


SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Gutierrez, 2. Murphy, 3. Howell, 4. Faria, 5. Knott, 6. Strole, 7. Peard. NT


 


THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hawkins, 2. Bernal, 3. Carlile, 4. Alexander, 5. Little, 6. Miller, 7. Day. NT


 


FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Peter Murphy, 2. Dennis Howell, 3. Richard VanderWeerd, 4. Greg Alexander, 5. Jace VanderWeerd, 6. Jared Little, 7. Wes Gutierrez, 8. Rusty Carlile, 9. Marty Hawkins, 10. Justyne Hamblin, 11. Ricky Kirkbride, 12. Nico Russo, 13. Jeff Miller, 14. Matt Day, 15. Ryan Bernal, 16. Cole Peard, 17. Danny Faria Jr., 18. T.J. Smith, 19. Dave Knott, 20. Geoffrey Strole, 21. Andrew Murray. NT


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**Knott flipped during the feature.


 


FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 R.VanderWeerd, Laps 2-26 Bernal, Laps 27-30 Murphy.


 


NEW WEST COAST 360 SPRINT POINTS: 1-J.VanderWeerd-224; 2-Bernal-219; 3-Gutierrez-216; 4-Alexander-198; 5-R.VanderWeerd-197; 6-Hamblin-173; 7-Howell-151; 8-Smith-149; 9-Bud Kaeding-148; 10-Faria-138.


 


NEXT WEST COAST 360 SPRINT RACE: May 14 - Tulare, California - Thunderbowl Raceway