Deby
Nitro Member
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INDIANAPOLIS (August 28, 2006) - Back in May, when Phil Burkart arrived in Columbus to take on the competition at the Pontiac Performance Nationals, nobody on-site missed his appearance. It's hard to remain unnoticed, after all, when your race car is bright yellow and it features the cartoonish visage of a "Madman" on the hood. Now, as the summer of 2006 passes into history, Burkart will bring his "Madman Murray" Monte Carlo to the most prestigious drag race on the planet, giving his Murray's Discount Auto Funny Car one last dance on its four-race tour. Cue Donna Summer, spin up the mirror ball, and hit those strobe lights. Madman Murray will be in the house, and he's aiming to make his mark at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.
As Burkart and his Murray's crew arrive in Indianapolis for this year's 52nd running of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, they do so after earning their way to a second-round finish at the rain-delayed O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals in Memphis. That hot and steamy event was followed immediately by two days of testing on the same Indy track upon which they will be competing this weekend, and the combination of those two racing activities give Burkart a good reason to be optimistic.
"Our car was coming around a bit in Memphis, under just about the worst possible conditions," Burkart said. "We got a big round win there, beating a car that qualified better than we did, and we raced Eric Medlen pretty much heads-up in round two but just got beat by bit. With that race ending on Monday, it was a mad dash to get up here to Indy to test for two days. We got here Monday night, worked on the car for half the day Tuesday, and then spent a day and a half making as many runs as we could.
"All in all, the testing we did here was outstanding. Testing isn't easy in this sport, because the track has to be so well prepped and maintained. Teams in other forms of racing can rent time on any old track and just make lap after lap, but most of our testing has to be done on the Monday after a race, while the track is still good. If you go to a track any other time, you usually don't have enough grip to get any good data, but the staff at Indy did a fantastic job getting the surface race-ready. We were able to try things, tweak the tune-up, and attempt some new directions, and the track was good enough to hold what we were doing. We learned a lot, and the car gave us great feedback."
As Burkart begins the four-day marathon that is Indy, he also plans to put one other thing out of his mind. Like players in other sports, who follow the competition closely by "scoreboard watching," Burkart and his team can't deny keeping tabs on both their POWERade points, as well as those earned (or not earned) by the competition. The driver of the Madman car can tell you, without hesitation, that such analysis can drive you mad.
"I think we need to stop worrying about the points and just focus on making every lap the best it can be," he said. "We'll have good runs and bad runs, everybody does, and we'll win what we deserve to win. If we keep learning, and keep pushing to get better, the points will come. I'm kind of tired of adding scenarios up in my head and thinking 'If we go three rounds, and that guy goes out in the first, we can move up to whatever spot in the points.'
"The points will come. We're not in the championship hunt now, so the best thing for us is to just focus on what we're doing and where we're going. Every run we make, we'll be tuning the car for a purpose and trying to add to the bank of data we're building. Do we want to win every round? Yes, beyond any doubt we do, but we also want to run as well as we can. If we do that, we'll win our share of rounds and earn our share of points."
If any form of "scoreboard watching" is of any importance, it might the long-range version. Looking back a full year, one sees some interesting comparisons between Burkart's '05 season and his current campaign. Last year, he entered the Indy event with a 10-15 record, the exact same mark he has compiled this season, but he garnered those 10 round wins in a much different way. In 2005, Burkart won five rounds at the first two races, and then went roughly four and a half months before winning another one. On that Denver weekend, he not only managed to pick up round one, he advanced all the way to the final round before bowing out. All that added up to winning eight of his 10 rounds at only three events.
This year, Burkart's points were earned in a more consistent fashion, as he started the season with two semi-finals, three second-round finishes, and one first round defeat at the first six races. Three more round wins over the next 11 races lead us into Indy, with the aforementioned 10-15 record on the books.
"We have six races left, but like I said before, we're not here to count points or press ourselves into wasting valuable laps," Burkart said. "We would love to finish the season over .500, in terms of our record, and we'd like nothing more than to win as many rounds as possible, but we have the luxury of being able to go out there right now with a plan to work on something every lap.
"We're going to take on every round by racing to win, instead of racing not to lose. There's a big difference in those two approaches. Racing to win means taking some chances and and being aggressive, without being afraid of the consequences. Racing not to lose means you're being conservative and you're afraid to make a mistake. It's our time to be aggressive right now, so that's what we're going to do. We have one last race with the Murray's car, so we're going to take that big Madman for a twirl around the dance floor."
An aggressive approach, combined with optimism born from solid testing, lead Burkart and his team into "The Big Go" with the Madman in tow. Will Madman Murray's last dance lead to multiple round wins or, perhaps, the Indianapolis winner's circle? Only time (or perhaps Donna Summer) will tell.
IT'S THE MADMAN'S LAST DANCE, AT "THE BIG GO"
INDIANAPOLIS (August 28, 2006) - Back in May, when Phil Burkart arrived in Columbus to take on the competition at the Pontiac Performance Nationals, nobody on-site missed his appearance. It's hard to remain unnoticed, after all, when your race car is bright yellow and it features the cartoonish visage of a "Madman" on the hood. Now, as the summer of 2006 passes into history, Burkart will bring his "Madman Murray" Monte Carlo to the most prestigious drag race on the planet, giving his Murray's Discount Auto Funny Car one last dance on its four-race tour. Cue Donna Summer, spin up the mirror ball, and hit those strobe lights. Madman Murray will be in the house, and he's aiming to make his mark at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.
As Burkart and his Murray's crew arrive in Indianapolis for this year's 52nd running of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, they do so after earning their way to a second-round finish at the rain-delayed O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals in Memphis. That hot and steamy event was followed immediately by two days of testing on the same Indy track upon which they will be competing this weekend, and the combination of those two racing activities give Burkart a good reason to be optimistic.
"Our car was coming around a bit in Memphis, under just about the worst possible conditions," Burkart said. "We got a big round win there, beating a car that qualified better than we did, and we raced Eric Medlen pretty much heads-up in round two but just got beat by bit. With that race ending on Monday, it was a mad dash to get up here to Indy to test for two days. We got here Monday night, worked on the car for half the day Tuesday, and then spent a day and a half making as many runs as we could.
"All in all, the testing we did here was outstanding. Testing isn't easy in this sport, because the track has to be so well prepped and maintained. Teams in other forms of racing can rent time on any old track and just make lap after lap, but most of our testing has to be done on the Monday after a race, while the track is still good. If you go to a track any other time, you usually don't have enough grip to get any good data, but the staff at Indy did a fantastic job getting the surface race-ready. We were able to try things, tweak the tune-up, and attempt some new directions, and the track was good enough to hold what we were doing. We learned a lot, and the car gave us great feedback."
As Burkart begins the four-day marathon that is Indy, he also plans to put one other thing out of his mind. Like players in other sports, who follow the competition closely by "scoreboard watching," Burkart and his team can't deny keeping tabs on both their POWERade points, as well as those earned (or not earned) by the competition. The driver of the Madman car can tell you, without hesitation, that such analysis can drive you mad.
"I think we need to stop worrying about the points and just focus on making every lap the best it can be," he said. "We'll have good runs and bad runs, everybody does, and we'll win what we deserve to win. If we keep learning, and keep pushing to get better, the points will come. I'm kind of tired of adding scenarios up in my head and thinking 'If we go three rounds, and that guy goes out in the first, we can move up to whatever spot in the points.'
"The points will come. We're not in the championship hunt now, so the best thing for us is to just focus on what we're doing and where we're going. Every run we make, we'll be tuning the car for a purpose and trying to add to the bank of data we're building. Do we want to win every round? Yes, beyond any doubt we do, but we also want to run as well as we can. If we do that, we'll win our share of rounds and earn our share of points."
If any form of "scoreboard watching" is of any importance, it might the long-range version. Looking back a full year, one sees some interesting comparisons between Burkart's '05 season and his current campaign. Last year, he entered the Indy event with a 10-15 record, the exact same mark he has compiled this season, but he garnered those 10 round wins in a much different way. In 2005, Burkart won five rounds at the first two races, and then went roughly four and a half months before winning another one. On that Denver weekend, he not only managed to pick up round one, he advanced all the way to the final round before bowing out. All that added up to winning eight of his 10 rounds at only three events.
This year, Burkart's points were earned in a more consistent fashion, as he started the season with two semi-finals, three second-round finishes, and one first round defeat at the first six races. Three more round wins over the next 11 races lead us into Indy, with the aforementioned 10-15 record on the books.
"We have six races left, but like I said before, we're not here to count points or press ourselves into wasting valuable laps," Burkart said. "We would love to finish the season over .500, in terms of our record, and we'd like nothing more than to win as many rounds as possible, but we have the luxury of being able to go out there right now with a plan to work on something every lap.
"We're going to take on every round by racing to win, instead of racing not to lose. There's a big difference in those two approaches. Racing to win means taking some chances and and being aggressive, without being afraid of the consequences. Racing not to lose means you're being conservative and you're afraid to make a mistake. It's our time to be aggressive right now, so that's what we're going to do. We have one last race with the Murray's car, so we're going to take that big Madman for a twirl around the dance floor."
An aggressive approach, combined with optimism born from solid testing, lead Burkart and his team into "The Big Go" with the Madman in tow. Will Madman Murray's last dance lead to multiple round wins or, perhaps, the Indianapolis winner's circle? Only time (or perhaps Donna Summer) will tell.
