As much as race car drivers are protected, cinched tight by a five-point harness inside a unique cockpit of custom tubing, the sport is dangerous.

The saying goes, “Racers are safer going 125 mph and battling wheel to wheel only inches apart on the race track than the average person going 65 mph on the freeway.” Maybe that is true in comparison to crashes and maybe it isn’t, but an undeniable truth is that every time a driver straps in, he or she is risking death.

Peter Murphy and those closest to him swallowed that pill in July 2013 when the Australian winged sprint car driver nearly died following a vicious crash at a dirt oval in his home state of California.

“I don’t have any memory of that night,” Murphy said. “I don’t have any memory from eight or nine weeks after. I got hit in the head by another car. I was running second to (Jonathan) Allard and got tangled by a lapped car. Another car got in the cage and hit me in the head. It took them five minutes to find my pulse.

“It was a big deal when we crashed. There are not too many people who get airlifted from a track and live. The doctors told me I can’t race anymore because if I get hit in the head again, even a simple hit would end everything. It was a long process. I had to learn how to have a shower. I had to learn to tell time. I had to learn so many things again. I had to learn mathematics. I had to learn how to walk.”

The unnerving incident ended Murphy’s 25-year racing career. In addition to relearning some of the simplicities of life, Murphy had to adjust where his passion of racing fit into his new plan.

“By October or November, I went to a race,” he said. “I went to a race at Tulare and I figured I could roll in there and nobody would know I was there. It took me an hour to walk a bloody 100 feet.

“The Scelzi family got me to come and mentor Dominic a bit. I was helping with the setups. They helped me a lot to get me going that very next year. I couldn’t bend over so I couldn’t work on the car, but I could tell them what I thought.”

Murphy has tried a little bit of everything involved with racing and he found an interest in promoting.

He signed a five-year lease to be the promoter at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, Calif., prior to the 2020 season.

“I got it at the prime time to get a race track and get shut down with the way the world is rolling,” Murphy quipped. “Once we get through this, it will be golden.

“I’ve got a lot of people that back me up, a lot of partners that help. They want to see sprint car racing survive. In California it’s hard to do anything in normal life. We paid all our bills last year, so I believe we were successful.”

Murphy is part of a growing list of former drivers who have hung up the helmet in favor of a promoter’s cap. One of the newest to join the club is Shane Stewart, a winner of 36 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series features.

Stewart and longtime racing supporter Kevin Rudeen purchased Oklahoma’s Port City Raceway in January.

This marks the first time that Stewart will be a promoter and it’s a big change from his routine of driving.

“I think I’m done done,” he said. “The thing is I’m super competitive and I don’t feel like I can be competitive if I jump into a car once or twice a year. Those one or two races I could possibly jump in are really big-paying races. I don’t feel like I could be competitive doing that. I’m content right now just concentrating on the race track. This is a huge step for myself and my family. There is so much that goes into preparing a race track from year to year. We’ve been blessed to have Mike and Megan Eubanks, the previous owners, sticking around and helping us.”

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