It’s not easy winning a track championship, let alone two in a row.
Kevin Murphy could have been chasing a rare third straight Mid-American title this summer at Grundy County Speedway.
Priorities can be such a bummer.
“We took the start off at the beginning of the season,” Murphy said. “I had some work commitments. I knew at the start of the year that I wouldn’t have the time to race for points in 2021.
“It was difficult, but I made peace with it. We’re just having some fun. Not having the stress of points racing is actually pretty nice.”
Murphy started his season in June. Going into Friday’s program, he was still looking for his first checkered flag.
“The new pavement kind of threw us for a loop,” Murphy said. “It seemed like what we had last year on the car wouldn’t work on this new stuff. But we’re working our way through it.”
Murphy is coming off one of the most exciting championship chases in track history.
He and Blake Brown battled throughout the shortened 2020 season. It came down to the final night.
Brown did what he could by winning the final feature race. Murphy’s third-place finish allowed him to win the title by one point.
“I knew it was tight going into the feature,” Murphy said. “All I could do was drive my race and hope we had enough at the end.”
After the checkered flag, Murphy had to hold his breath.
“I didn’t know if that was enough,” Murphy said. “Then my spotter said over the radio that they did the math on the race monitor and figured out we had won.
“I just came into the pits, went through tech and came back to the trailer and celebrated.”
Two-time thriller: For the second week in a row, Eddie Hoffman made a pass late in the race to post a feature victory.
This time, it happened with three laps remaining after Hoffman spent 23 laps chasing leader D.J. Weltmeyer.
“I wasn’t planning on doing a whole lot,” Hoffman said. “But as the race went on, we got better and the No. 16 got slower, so I had to try to make a move.”
After the pass, Weltmeyer spun between Turns 3 and 4. Second place went to Stan Zolodz, finishing ahead of Clay Curts and Keith Tolf.
Brown prevailed in the Mid-American feature over Tristan Batson and David Einhaus. Eddie Ligue cruised in the street stock feature. The 4-cylinder feature went to Jerry Legner. Carter Appleton won the Super Cup main.
Double figures: The 4-cylinder class has been, by far, the most competitive this summer at Grundy.
When Katie Hocking bested the 17-car field on July 23, she became the 10th different division driver to win a feature race.
The late models have had four different winners, while the Mid-Am and street stock classes each have had five.
“I think this year it definitely has become a lot more competitive,” Hocking said. “A lot of times in qualifying, we’ve all been within hundredths of a second of each other at least through the top 10.
“With some of the new rules they have implemented, I think everybody is getting the hang of their cars. And with all the new paving, the track itself is a lot faster as well. We’ve had a lot of issues with our car, and I think we have finally gotten everything fixed. That win was a good confidence booster.”
Good old days: The annual Chicagoland Racing Memorabilia Show and Reunion will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 8 at the Will County Fairgrounds atrium building in Peotone.
The event was originated more than two decades ago by Tommy “Turtle” Weckler and Stan Kalwasinski. It has been promoted by Steve Bechtel and Jim McCarthy for the past five years.
In 2020, the event was delayed from its usual March date due to COVID-19 concerns. Bechtel said they plan to return it being a spring event in 2022.
“It was really kind of tough last summer, but we felt it was important to keep doing it despite knowing we would take a loss,” Bechtel said. “We’re looking this summer for a rebound. This show is a Chicagoland tradition. We’re hoping the fans, drivers and vendors come out.”
