06/02/08

Nancy and I decided to go drag racing about six years ago. We did not have a car at the time and set out to build one. Nothing too major, just fast enough to be a lot of fun.

Being a little bit Old School, we decided the car needed to have a name. We kicked some different car names around but nothing really did anything for us. So one day we're sitting around watching an old James Garner / Sally Field movie, "Murphy's Romance". Naturally the same thought hit us at the same time.

Now, it gets even cornier than that. Nancy and I first started 'hanging out' back in 1992 or so when I was helping her brother Doug with his '37 Chev out at Seattle International Raceways. We began dating (Nancy and I, not Doug and I), although most of those dates were spent street racing my 351 Cleveland powered '51 Ford F1 pickup or going to Big Daddy's Drive-In in Auburn.

The following summer I propped Nancy up on the fender of 'our' recently acquired 401 powered '65 Buick Gran Sport in the pits at SIR and popped the question. She said yes, and we got out the Goodguys Cruise Calendar to plan our honeymoon. We entered our GS in a Buick meet in Portland on our honeymoon and took 3rd in class for our efforts.

So it's more than just the name of a movie. Racing and cars have been as romantic to Nancy and I as long walks on the beach are to 'normal' people.

Unfortunately that first car we set out to build did not make it off of the garage floor. We then moved our efforts to a 2nd car and that one too did not get completed. So now we are on our 3rd attempt and this one has actually been down the track. Unfortunately the name no longer fits the car, so we escalated the name to Murphys Romance Racing as our team name.

The car itself still does not have a name, although when pressed we often refer to it as "Blowed the Fuck Up". We just don't think we can pass tech with that on the side of the car.

So we continue to seek out just the right moniker to tag it with. I'm confident it will name itself when it's ready. I just hope it isn't something like "Wall Eater".

Murff