NEW YORK — Paula Murphy, a Corridor of Fame racer and the primary girl licensed to drive a Humorous Automotive, died Thursday. She was 95.
The Nationwide Sizzling Rod Affiliation introduced Murphy’s demise on Friday. It didn’t present any particulars.
Murphy was a pioneer for girls in racing. She had set a girls’s land-speed file of 161 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats for Andy Granatelli in 1963. It was Granatelli who sponsored a brand new Humorous Automotive drag racing entry for Murphy, who grew to become generally known as “Miss STP.”
“I was a real oddity, and I think a lot of strip operators thought it was pretty good to sell tickets,” Murphy mentioned, in response to the NHRA web site.
“I didn’t have problems getting booking dates. I was very well accepted not only by the tracks but by my fellow racers. Back then, there was a lot of camaraderie between the teams helping one another out. We were a big family.”
Murphy drove at Talladega Superspeedway in 1971 within the STP Dodge of Freddie Lorenzen, going 171.499 mph.
She powered a dragster to a 258-mph run on the Winternationals in 1973. She suffered a damaged neck in a crash in early 1974 at Sears Level Raceway when her automotive would not shut down and flipped again and again after touchdown.
She returned to tug racing in 1976 and toured the nation earlier than retiring.
Murphy was inducted into the Worldwide Drag Racing Corridor of Fame in 1992 and the Motorsports Corridor of Fame of America in 2017.
“I got really, really lucky,” she mentioned, in response to the NHRA. “I don’t suppose many individuals have gotten the chance to do a few of the issues that I did.”
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