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Murphy grabs fifth March Meet title By David Beitler
The NHRA Heritage Series made its final stop at Famoso Dragstrip on October 13-15 for the Wally Parks NHRA Nostalgia Nationals formerly known as the California Hot Rod Reunion . While the Funny Car championship already had been decided at the last event in Tulsa and went once more to the seemingly unbeatable Bobby Cottrell , the Top Fuel championship was still open to contention . With Tyler Hilton sitting in No . 1 and Jim Murphy No . 2 in points , they both had a legit chance of grabbing the 2023 crown . But that had to wait for Sunday . Before that , some unfinished business had to be taken care of . Since the Top Fuel eliminations rounds couldn ’ t be contested at this year ’ s March Meet due to a rain delay on Sunday , the qualifying rounds of the Nostalgia Nationals also counted as elimination runs . As qualifying progressed , Jim Murphy beat reigning champ Tyler Hilton in the first round and Tyler Hester in a rerun of the second round , which was necessary due to a temporary timing system malfunction , on his route to the final against Pete Wittenberg . Murphy was off the line first and never looked back , beating Wittenberg
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in a real close race , 5.773 at 252 mph to Wittenberg ’ s 5.807 at 249 mph . This milestone win made Murphy a five-time March Meet winner . He ’ s now tied with none other than “ Big Daddy ” Don Garlits .
As far as the Nostalgia Nationals Top Fuel qualifying goes , Pete Kaiser went a stout 5.631
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at 259 mph to grab the top spot just in front of Hilton , who posted a 5.657 at 238 mph to the boards , and Wittenberg with his best of 5.716 at 251 mph sitting third .
On race day , Wittenberg went 5.718 at 252 mph to beat Bret Williamson ’ s slower 5.947 at 202 mph in the first round and reigning world champ Hilton in the second round in a close race on a holeshot , 5.702 at 252 mph to Hilton ’ s slightly quicker 5.697 at 251 mph to end up in the finals , where he met Frank McBee Jr . On the opposite side of the ladder , McBee scored an upset win against Murphy in the first round , 5.836 at 260 mph to Murphy ’ s 6.051 at 184 mph . He went on to beat Hester in the second round , 5.935 at 238 mph to an aborted 12.480 at 56 mph , on his way to the finals against Wittenberg . Wittenberg was a tick slower on the tree but faster on the track – he beat McBee with a 5.717 at 252 mph to McBee ’ s 6.237 at 193 mph to take home the event trophy and the 2023 championship crown for a second consecutive time .
Twenty Nostalgia Funny Cars showed up to enter the 16-car field . After qualifying concluded , Jerry Espeseth was sitting on top with his best run of 5.595 at 259 mph , trailed by Billy Morris 5.601 at 257 mph , and Bobby Cottrell 5.629 at 258 mph . Cottrell took the win against Drew Austin in the first round and beat Tim Boychuk in the second to advance to the semifinals against Derrick Moreira . Cottrell got off the line first and never looked back , beating Moreira with a 5.652 at 258 mph run to Moreira ’ s 5.965 at 231 mph run .
On the other side of the ladder , Brad Thompson ran consistent 5.70s to beat Cory Lee in the first and Jim Maroney in the second round on his way to the semifinals , where he met James Day , the No . 4 qualifier . Day ran a strong 5.765 at 259
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID BEITLER |