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MURRAY MISSILE HITS THE TARGET…AGAIN!

By Phil Michell 15-01-07

Murray Bridge based Sprintcar driver Darryl Wright took out his second feature of 2007 as he destroyed the opposition in Round 3 of the All Transport Crash Speedway City 360ci Sprintcar Track Championship. Driving his Murray Machining and Sheds #28 Eagle he led the entire journey after starting from the pole leading home defending Track Champion Michael Burford and round 2 winner Mark Caruso.

After securing a heat victory and a second placed result Wright top qualified for the 25 lap final with Burford, Owen Pitt, Josh Ruhs, Mark Causo, Chad Ely, Chris Evans and Ryan Jones completing the top half of the 16 car field.

On the start Wright got the jump into turn one but the caution lights were on immediately as Jamie Cobby, who started out of position 14 after encountering a driveline failure during the heats, slammed the turn 1 wall tearing out the front end of his #1 Maxim.  On the restart it was a similar story as Wright lead away from Burford, Pitt, Ruhs, Caruso and Ely.

The order remained this way until the half way point of the race when the lapped traffic would play a major part in the outcome. As Burford was attempting to lap the slower car of Alan Gates he spun right in front of the second placed driver with Burford lucky to escape without any major damage after making slight contact with the spinning car. The third and fourth placed drivers (Ruhs and Pitt) were not so lucky as they had nowhere to go with both cars spinning to a halt as they attempted to avoid the stationary car.

This would be the last real incident of the race as Wright went on to win comfortably ahead of Burford, Mark Caruso, Chris Evans and Murray Bridge youngster Ryan Jones. Rookie Stephen Lovegrove was next with Ruhs, Shane Hendry, who was put back two spots for passing gates on the infield, Michael Lovegrove and Dennis Burford completed the top ten.

The next Sprintcar meeting at Speedway City will be on February 2 and 3 with the running of the 3^rd Annual Australian Sprintcar Nationals.