Dylan Murry News

November update- AMP Legends race

Yesterday was the third and final road course race. It was at Atlanta Motorsports Park, and I had a ball! It was 30 minutes of practice, a 6 lap heat race, and a 10 lap feature race. The king of Legends Cars, Doug Stevens, was also racing in that race. In practice, we were about the same speed. After that, he changed the gear ratio in his car so he could get off the corner a little better. We left ours where it was. In the heat race, I drew to start last. After the first few laps, I was in second, right behind Mr. Stevens. On the restart, I was able to hang with him, but I dropped a wheel in the grass and locked up my brakes, which allowed him to get away. I ended up finishing second. 

iRacing Report, August 14

I had quite a few races in the past couple of weeks and not a lot of time at home. I had my last Thursday Thunder race, a late model race at Caraway Speedway, and watched the K&N, Xfinity, and Sprint Cup races at Watkins Glen. I also started an online school program to be able to travel more often.  The Legends race was the last Thursday Thunder of the season. The practice before that race on Wednesday  night, my crankshaft broke. Thankfully, Mr. Ragan was kind enough to lend us a house car for that race to finish off the season. The car was great for the age. I qualified fourth out of 13 cars. In the race I was in second for most of the race and hanging with first, but on a green-white-checkered, my brake pedal went to the floor and lost my brakes. I hit the car on the outside of me and we both spun. I was barely able to finish the race. I am super thankful that Mr. Ragan let me use the car to finish off the season.  At the late model race, we were running 6th in qualifying only a couple of hundredths off of 5th. It was supposed to be a 200 lap race with a pit stop, but the track changed it to twin 50 lap races. In the first race, I worked my way up to fifth and towards the end was catching fourth. I never caught him in time and finished fifth. In the second race, they inverted the top five and I got to start on the pole. The second place jumped the start and got a huge run on me going into turn 1. I ended up getting shuffled to the back and got caught on the outside of someone. I let them go and tried to pass him back. I couldn’t get around as quick as I hoped, so we were running side-by-side for about ten laps. I finally got around, but by that time everyone else pulled away. I was working my car as hard as it would go. Thanks to the effort by Spraker Racing, I was able to have the fastest laps on the track in the last 15 laps of the race. By the end of the race I was only a couple of car lengths behind 4th and 5th. I am so fortunate to be able to work with Spraker Racing. They are a great team. At the NASCAR race in Watkins Glen, we were able to get Sprint Cup hot pit and garage passes thanks to Hendrick Motorsports. I had a great time learning how the race processes worked. We got there a couple of days early to watch the K&N race. I had sponsorship for the race, but NASCAR wants me to race on a half mile oval before I do a road course in K&N. That is still very good to be approved for K&N after only 4 late model races.   It was awesome to see the K&N cars book it around the track. Congratulations to Austin Cindric for the win there. Harrison Burton was doing great until he lost his breaks and spun.  The Xfinity race was also really cool. I had a great time watching Mr. Todd Bodine race. It really stinks that he got caught up in a big wreck at the beginning of the race. I wished he could have gone back out there.  On Sunday , we got to watch from pit lane. Sprint Cup races are awesome. I really hope I get to that level one day.  The best part about that whole weekend was Mr. Scott Welliver offered us to stay at his house for the weekend. It is an amazing house, and I had a lot of fun playing with his dog, Marco. He’s a great dog, he really is. Also Mr. John Gorsline offered for us to stay at a  cabin that he rented near the track, but we already commited to Mr. Welliver’s offer. Thank you to both of you for the offers.  Video and pictures below:         iRacing video: Dylan late model qualifying Caraway July 23, 2016 Click this link if video does not appear.

iRacing report, July 13

These last two weeks have been both busy and exciting. I have had a couple of Thursday Thunder races, a late model race, and watched the NASCAR Xfinity race with Spraker Racing from their pit box at Daytona.  

On June 30, I had a Legends race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The car has not been gone over or nut and bolted in a while and we were not very fast. I ended up qualifying 5th out of 12. In the race, I worked my way up to 3rd. I fell back down to fourth and finished the race in 4th.

On the first of July, Jeff Spraker invited us to come down and watch the Xfinity race in Daytona from his pit box. I had a great time and Spraker Racing did a great job building, working on the car, and running it in the race.

July 6th and 7th was a double header at AMS. I qualified in 7th on Wednesday. In the race, it started raining, and I was one of the fastest cars out there. On the first restart, I tried to avoid a big pile up in front of me, but was pushed from behind and spun right into the wreck. When they restarted the race, I was running mid-pack and gaining positions, but then my exhaust fell off. It lost power and I took it easy for the rest of the race, because I didn’t know what was going on and didn’t want to hurt the motor. I finished 10th. Thanks to Doug Stevens and Advanced Technology Motorsports, we were able to have the car fixed for the race on Thursday.

On the Thursday race, I qualified 6th out of 13. The race had many red flags due to non-intentional reasons. I worked my way up the field, but spun in oil and got sent to the back. I ended up finishing fifth right behind the leaders.

I also had a late model race at Motor Mile Speedway on July 9th with Spraker Racing Enterprises. We had to adjust the car to make it looser in practice. I qualified 8th out of 14. It was a 150 lap race, so I tried to conserve my tires. I was running 7th for a while and made a couple of passes throughout the race. I was running fifth on the lead lap right behind the leaders, and on lap 123, the 3rd and 4th place cars ran into each other and I had to go low to try and avoid the crash, but they both came low and I got wedged between the wall and the other cars. I was lucky enough to finish the race, but my right front caliper was dragging my brakes so I didn’t have any straight line speed and finished 7th.

I also got some good news. NASCAR called and after only a few late model races have approved me to run the K&N series on ovals up to 1/2 mile. It normally takes a full season in late model racing to advance to K&N. This is very exciting as the NASCAR K&N series is one of the top tier NASCAR series and very well respected by everyone including the Cup teams and drivers.

All in all, these past few weeks have given me a lot more experience. Winning the Gorsline Scholarship with Performance Prime has helped me a lot.

Dylan

iRacing update- June 28

Last week I had a Thursday Thunder Legends race and a late model race at Motor Mile Speedway. 

iRacing report, June 20

 

Wednesday was the first day of the Group 52 event and I was supposed to drive a Hooters Pro Cup car with Vecchio Racing on the second day and a smaller car on the first day to learn the track, but there was a 90% chance of rain on Thursday, so we decided to drive the stock car on Wednesday and couldn’t learn the track in a familiar car. I got loose coming out of the toe of the boot and had to correct it, but I had to reposition my hands because I ran out of room. By the time I did that, I had to turn back, but I couldn’t turn in time and ran into the guard rail. I was very fortunate that a couple of people offered for me to drive their car afterwards. The first car I drove was a BMW M3 (Thank you Ike) with slicks and racing shocks. I drove that for an hour on the short course. The other car was a Porsche Cayman (thank you Speedsport Tuning!, Spencer Cox and Joe Liuzzi). I drove that for one and a half days. At the end of the second day, I started to really feel comfortable with the track and car. I learned so much in those two days.

 

On Saturday, I had my first late model race. Mr. Spraker rented out the track for two hours before the race to help me get dialed back in to a late model. I ended up qualifying 8th out of ten cars, 0.5 second off of the pole position and in the race I got within 0.4 of the fastest lap. This was my first 125 lap race. I got shuffled to the back on the start, but I was still hanging with a couple of other cars. I passed one of them, but then they got back around a few laps later. The tires started to get hot and the car got really loose. The track bar was all the way down and we tried to lower the right rear tire pressure two times, but it wasn’t enough for me to keep up with everyone else. A car right in front of me about half way through the race ran into the back of another car and I barely cleared the cars. I ended up finishing 8th. The team did a great job trying to get the car tighter. This race helped me learn a lot about longer races and heavier cars. I hope to learn more next weekend at Greenville Pickens.

 

I hope everyone had a great Father’s Day.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dylan Murry

 

iRacing Report- May 2016

iRacing report- April

I had a Legends race in Cordele, Ga last Saturday. It's a 3/8 mile oval and we used 4th gear instead of 3rd like AMS. We were almost 100mph top speed.I really liked the track. We practiced during the day and raced that night.

We drew for heat race starting position. I started 6th and finished 3rd. Since there were two separate heat races with half the cars in each I started 5th in the feature race. My car was loose in the heat race so I adjusted it with cross weight but we went the wrong way and made it worse for the feature race. Watch the video and you can see how loose it was. I was still able to run a close third and even tried a pass for second but didn't have enough rear grip to make it work. I still won the semi-pro class.

Next weekend is my final winter series Legends race at AMS. I still have the points lead and this race will determine the championship.

I am working hard on driving a K&N car at Watkins Glen, August 5 during the NASCAR Sprint Cup weekend. We are planning to drive with "Spraker Racing" there and a Late Model at Caraway, NC May 28. Fingers crossed it all happens and goes well.

Thanks to all that have and are helping me. You know who you are!

Dylan

iRacing report- February update

iRacing Report January 2016

iRacing Report- Late Model test at Caraway Speedway with Spraker Racing