Archive for July 2015

CONCORD, N.C. - Many racers who finish fourth, seventh and sixth in their last three events would be unhappy. Not Alex Murray.

The 15-year-old from Concord, North Carolina had so much bad luck in the middle rounds of the ten race Bojangles Summer Shootout Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway that he's just happy to have three solid finishes in a row and is excited to go out tonight in the final series race on a high note.

"When we came into the series, we knew we were going to have to learn how to step up into being a team that could race with the guys in the Pro division," Alex said. "We expected to get better each week and hopefully chase some top three finishes by the end of the shootout. Then we had all the motor problems and we spent about three or four races just trying to get all of that straightened out instead of working on going faster."

Alex pulled out of two straight features due to the mechanical issues, and the team tried changing everything in the car that was electrical or power-related in nature, except the motor. Nothing helped, and the motor finally blew up in race 6.

"That was our rock bottom, but at the same time it was almost a relief to now know what the problem was. When that motor blew, our other one was being rebuilt and freshened. Once we got it back and put it in the car for race 7, everything started falling into place again. We lost about three races of making progress because we were having motor problems. That's why I'm happy with our runs the past three races. Fourth, seventh and then last night we got sixth and were as high as fourth at one time. We're a tenth or two off but the car is racing well and I'm learning each time out again."

Turning to tonight's final race, Alex says he thinks a top five finish is definitely possible and would be a nice way to finish the series.

"I'd love to say we can go win a race, and I do believe that is possible, but these guys we're racing against have been doing this at this level a lot longer than we have. If I can go out and get a solid top three to top five finish then I would be happy with that. I am so lucky just to be able to race at all, and my whole family works really hard to keep us going along with some close friends who believe in me enough to help and encourage me. I want to run well as much for them as for myself. I'd love to see the Shamrock Auto Car, Racing With Ryan No. 22 in the top five at the end of tonight's race. I'm going to try my hardest to make that happen."

If you can't make it out to the speedway to watch Alex on Tuesday night, check out www.goprn.com for information on the internet pay-per-view video broadcast for this summer's racing, or follow Alex Murray Racing on Facebook, or his website (www.alexmurrayracing.com) to keep up with the latest news.

CONCORD, N.C. - Alex Murray, 15, of Concord broke his streak of bad luck Tuesday night in round 7 of the Bojangles Summer Shootout Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway, charging his way to a fourth place finish in the legends pro division on the 1/4-mile track.

His career best shootout finish came after he was forced to pull out of the last three races early due to mechanical problems on his sharp looking Shamrock Auto Care No. 22.

Last week, the motor blew, forcing the team to change to their spare motor, which had just been rebuilt, for Tuesday's race.

When the race ended, you could find nothing but smiles in the Murray team's garage.

"This has been a great day," Alex grinned. "I can't thank my family and all of my supporters enough for believing in me all through the first six races when we were struggling. This Pro class is so competitive that almost all of us are within a tenth of a second on lap time, so you really have to race hard to pass cars. Tonight, we had the car and motor to do that and to take advantage when things fall our way."

Alex continued on, discussing details of the day.

"We didn't qualify as well as we want to but that was my fault. I overdrove the car and was thinking too much. We started sixth and I got caught on the outside and got shuffled back to tenth or eleventh on the first lap before I could get down to the bottom. I got stuck behind Reid Wilson for a few laps before I finally was able to get by him and then start running down the rest of the pack. I needed a caution to get me back up into the mix, and that happened with 11 laps left. I was able to use the driver "choose" cone to restart sixth. Then on the last lap (Jared) Irvan got loose and slid up into (Evan) Swilling and we were able to get by those two to finish fourth. It was a good battle the last bunch of laps with all of us right there tight. It just felt good to have the speed to run with the leaders finally and show what we could do."

Pausing for a minute to think about the rest of the series, Alex reaffirmed his excitement for what's ahead.

"Now that we seem to have the motor situation under control and the car is running right, I'm really looking forward to the last three races because we can work on making me and the car faster instead of having to fix mechanical problems. It's hard to work on building speed when the car isn't working right. I"m glad I could give my team something to smile about tonight, because they've really worked hard for the whole series to get us to this point."

Next Monday, July 20th is the usual Monday night practice session at the track, while qualifying and racing get underway on Tuesday afternoon, July 21st for round 8 of the Bojangles Summer shootout Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

If you can't make it out to the speedway to watch Alex on Tuesday night, check out www.goprn.com for information on the internet pay-per-view video broadcast for this summer's racing, or follow Alex Murray Racing on Facebook, or his website (www.alexmurrayracing.com) to keep up with the latest news.

CONCORD, N.C. - Several weeks of frustration came to a head for Alex Murray last Tuesday as the motor blew in his Shamrock Auto Care No. 22 at the Bojangles Summer Shootout Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

If it is possible to be relieved at such a circumstance, the 15-year-old Concord racer was.

"We kept telling there was something wrong with it," Murray said. "But we couldn't find the problem. For about three weeks I would lose power when the motor got hot. We tried everything to figure it out. We would run fast for a lap or two and then it would just slow down. It was so frustrating because we know the car has speed. You're never happy when a motor blows, but in this case we now know something was going bad on it for the whole time."

The team has another motor that was being refreshed by 600 Racing, the motor builders (and builder of all legends cars worldwide). That motor was installed this weekend and the team expects to be in the garage area for practice Monday night.

"This whole shootout has been so challenging," Murray said. "We got caught up in a couple of wrecks in the first few races then the motor stuff started happening. We know the car is fast enough to race up front. With the rebuilt motor in for this week, we're hopeful we won't have any more issues and we can spend the last few races just getting better each week and ending the series on a strong note. I'm excited to get to the track today and get back in the car!"

Tonight is the usual Monday night practice session at the track, while qualifying and racing get underway on Tuesday afternoon.

If you can't make it out to the speedway to watch Alex on Tuesday night, check out www.goprn.com for information on the internet pay-per-view video broadcast for this summer's racing, or follow Alex Murray Racing on Facebook, or his website (www.alexmurrayracing.com) to keep up with the latest news.

CONCORD, N.C. - Alex Murray, 15, of Concord has not had a lot of cooperation from lady luck in the first five races of the ten race 22nd Annual Bojangles Summer Shootout Series for INEX Legends and Bandolero cars at the Charlotte Motor Speedway this summer.

Showing speed at times but also being caught up in others' incidents or pitting early with mechanical issues throughout the first half of the series, Alex and his team are heading to the famed track tonight with the goal of making the last five races a much better showing of what they are capable of.

"The last couple of weeks, we've been bothered by some sort of power or fuel pickup issue or something," Alex said. "When the motor gets hot it starts bogging and just has no speed. We've worked all week to figure it out. I'm optimistic that if we can just put that behind us, the car has the speed and the setup it needs to have for me to race competitively in the pro division, which is a new division for us this year. I have faith in the car and in myself, but sometimes these power issues can be hard to find, especially if they're electrical in nature. I'm ready to go race for top fives and wins in the second five races. I want to put this Racing with Ryan/Shamrock Auto Care No. 22 up front where it belongs!"

Tonight is the usual Monday night practice session at the track, while qualifying and racing get underway on Tuesday afternoon.

If you can't make it out to the speedway to watch Alex on Tuesday night, check out www.goprn.com for information on the internet pay-per-view video broadcast for this summer's racing, or follow Alex Murray Racing on Facebook, or his website (www.alexmurrayracing.com) to keep up with the latest news.