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| Murphy Gets Win #6 Batesburg, SC (July 23,
2007) - Greg Murphy chalked up win #6 on the season in David finished second in his heat race and, like Greg, lined up 3rd in his Main behind Donnie Shealy (#99) and Bubba Hartley (#8). From the drop of the green Hartley took off and would not be denied the win. Shealy captured second and David finished third. David loves racing with both of these excellent drivers and our Team likes them too. Both are excellent drivers and good sportsmen. Congratulations to Bubba on his win! I had a prior commitment this weekend and could not make the show. Sam also couldn't be there so there are no photos of this past week's action. Both of us will be back this weekend and look forward to another great night of racing. July 16, 2007 (Batesburg-Leesville, SC) – Rain, rain, rain. The rain won again this weekend, washing out all racing activities at the I-20 Speedway. This makes three weekends in a row without racing at the Batesburg facility! July 14 – Rain out David Scott got bored waiting for a green flag so he took his #65 to Carolina Speedway on Friday night, July 13th. David didn’t make many changes to the setup of the car, leaving it with the I-20 setup for the night. David scored a win in his heat race and finished a respectable third in the main, even though the car didn’t handle very well. We hope to be racing again this coming weekend when
I-20 has some big racing on tap for the Racing for A Cancer Cure benefit
for the Palmetto Children’s Hospital. This includes a big $8,000
to win purse for the Super Late Model division. Murphy gets fifth win at I-20 Batesburg-Leesville, SC (June 24, 2007) – After last week’s bad luck and crash, Greg Murphy returned to his winning ways capturing his fifth win in the Stock 4 division at I-20 Speedway this week. Vic Evans looked like he might have something for Greg this week but the handle went away on the #07 of Evans and he faded to fourth. Vince Sanford (#38) finished second with Levi Carrigan (#31) in third. David Scott won his heat race and started on the pole with Donnie Shealy (#33) on the outside. Scott and Shealy put on an awesome race with Shealy coming in with the win. David finished second, followed by Eric Griffin (#101), Travis Greene, Jr. (#131) and Justin Hinson (#33). MacD and Sam both took the weekend off from racing to visit with friends in Myrtle Beach. Protests and track dirt were replaced with sunburns and hangovers. It’ll be nice to get back to normal. Because Sam didn’t go racing this weekend we don’t have our usual big batch of photos.
David Scott Gets Win #2 Batesburg-Leesville, SC (June 17, 2006) – David Scott returned to winning ways this past Saturday night, grabbing his second win of the season at I-20 Speedway. David started fourth in the second Super Stock 4 heat race and finished second, behind Travis Greene, Jr. (#131), setting him up to start outside of the second row in the Main. The first heat was won by last week’s feature winner, Banjo Duke (#28) followed by Donnie Shealy (#99). Duke was found to be missing a rule required muffler prior to the start of the main event and was relegated to starting scratch in the 11 car field. This moved Donnie Shealy to the pole with Bubba Hartley (#8) moving into the 3rd starting spot. Travis Greene got a jump on Shealy and took off into first place with Shealy following and Hartley in pursuit. David worked to get past Hartley and then Shealy, setting his sights on the leader Greene. David made a good, clean pass on Greene with a few laps to spare and held the lead for the win. At the checkered flag it was David Scott, Travis Greene, Donnie Shealy, Eric Griffin (#101), Bubba Hartley, Ken Appleton (#56), Bill O’Cain (#21), Chad Rice (#0), Bryan Addy (#47) and Josh Hartley (#15). The Greene team filed a protest on David’s win, asking the track to check the CCs on our motor. This required us to wait until the conclusion of all events to then take the top end off the motor for the track Tech Man to check it out. Our motor proved to be legal, as usual, and we were pleased to take the protest money home added to our winnings but the hassle is getting to be a pain. This is the second week in a row our team has had to endure a major tear down on our motors. This time we were not finished until well after 2:00 a.m. It makes for a very long night. We have now had two very thorough, very invasive and extensive inspections of both of our motors and have been found legal – as expected. Unfortunately that will still not satisfy some. I recall the winning season at Carolina Speedway when we were protested 9 times out of 13 wins and found legal on every single protest. Hopefully we can avoid a similar situation at I-20 Speedway. Banjo Duke and Bubba Hartley came by our pits after the race to talk to David about the night’s racing competition, rules and usual BS drivers like to talk about. We like these guys and are glad they come by to talk.
Greg Murphy’s night of racing wasn’t a good one. After handily winning his heat race and starting on the pole, the Main event quickly turned to disappointment following a crash. Coming out of turn two on lap one the car broke loose, sending Greg into the inside wall. There was just enough of a berm to get the car airborne and up and onto the backstretch wall, where the car came to rest. While the car sustained some damage it was not especially serious so Greg will have it fixed and back up front in the Street Stock 4 races next week. Greg was unhurt in the incident. The main proceeded with the win going to Sumter’s Tony Rabon (#01), followed by Vic Evans (#07), Matthew Harden (#71), James Maas (#38) and Greg.
Some fun things took place on Saturday night. First, our friends, Bob and Michelle Johnson visited the team with their family. Bob is from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina and it was his family’s first trip to I-20 Speedway and they loved it. We look forward to having them back again soon!
Another cool thing that happened on Saturday night was James Murphy winning a new bicycle. A pair of bicycles was donated to the Trackside Camp for Kids by the Richard Clew family. Richard and 13-year old daughter, Stephanie, both compete in the Open Wheel Modified division at I-20 Speedway. James was thrilled to win the new bike and sends a big “thank you” to the Trackside Camp and to the Clew family. |
Finally, some favorite drivers of Team 65 from other tracks dropped in for some I-20 style racing action and did awesome. Jay Sessoms (#84 Super Late Model), who can be seen at I-77 Speedway, stole the show in the Super Late Model division. Jay got the win! Congratulations, Jay.
Lancaster Motor Speedway Crate Late Model Champion Andy Blackwood (#57) and his family made the trip to I-20 for the first time. Andy got caught up in someone else’s wreck in the heat race and started dead last in the Main. He recovered to a very strong second place and may have had something for back-to-back series winner David Lankford (#33) had he not run out of laps. We hope Andy will consider coming back to I-20 again soon.
Murphy Takes Win, Scott Recovers for Good Finish Batesburg-Leesville, SC (June 10, 2007) – Greg Murphy continues to dominate the Stock 4 class at I-20 Speedway and brought his win total on the season to four. This week Greg won the “Welcome to the Neighborhood” Stock 4 Main event, getting a double purse payout. Greg set the pace by winning the heat race and starting on pole in the Main. He led flag to flag and took the checkers ahead of Vince Sanford, driving John Keisler’s #38 and Ray Weatherford, driving James Rushton’s #51. Vic Evans (#07) finished fourth followed by Ricky Rule (#61) and Levi Carrington (#31).
Track officials announced that the top three finishers would be inspected to ensure they were legal. Greg and David had to pull the engine apart for the most thorough inspection we have ever witnessed at any track in any division. Greg is fast at I-20 and there are some who have suspected we were running illegal parts but the very thorough inspection proved them all wrong. Greg is indeed stock and was rewarded with his win, trophy and a nice check! David
came prepared for another win in the Super Stock 4 division. Starting
a distant 6th in his heat he quickly got to the second place following
a very fast Ken Appleton (#56). Ken is a great friend of Team 65 and
we were thrilled – and cheering – for his race leading performance.
David worked hard to get by cleanly and in turn three of the last lap
pulled along side Ken. A fast moving Banjo Duke (#28) got into the back
of David, sending him into the #56. David and Ken both spun while Duke
continued past and won the race. David wound up starting the Main event
in 15th with Appleton in 14th. Pole sitter Travis Greene, Jr. (#131) set a very fast past for the first five laps of the 16 car field, putting a half a lap on everyone. Greene’s night ended early as engine trouble forced him out of the race while leading. Banjo Duke took over the lead with Donnie Shealy (#99), Greg Carroll (#11), Eric Griffin (#101) and Bubba Hartley (#8) setting the pace in the top five. David and Ken were making their way through the field, making for some awesome racing. At the checkered flag the win went to Banjo Duke, followed by Donnie Shealy, Greg Carroll, David Scott, Bubba Hartley and Ken Appleton. As with the Stock 4 top three, the top three in this division were also inspected by the track. All three were found to be legal. Along with our good friends
Denise Lewis, daughter Britney and Marcia Caviness we had some first
timers to I-20. Cecil Redman and his son Justin joined us as did a pair
of Buckners. Robbie Buckner and Tammy Buckner both joined us and they
are not related! They just have the same last name.
I had a great time this week providing the winners of all 7 divisions with trophies. I hope to do that again soon.
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