Brad Murphey, American-Australian race car driver
Brad Murphey (born December 27, 1955 in Tucson, Arizona), is a former American racecar driver in the Indy Racing League. He raced in the 1996 and 1996-1997 seasons for Hemelgarn Racing with 3 career starts, including the Indianapolis 500 where he was credited with 23rd place, but never finished a race or led a lap. His last IRL race was the inaugural 500K at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where his right leg/pelvis was broken while involved in an accident with Eddie Cheever and Stephane Gregoire on lap 29.
He also has prior experience in Indy Lights, Trans-Am Series, Formula Super Vee, Formula Ford, and HotRod racing. In 1984 he attempted to qualify for the CART races at Mid Ohio and Las Vegas, but failed to do so.
Despite many websites stating that he is Australian, Murphey was born and raised in Arizona and has in fact never been to Australia. He believes the misconception was due to the fact that most of his race crew during his entire career was from Australia or New Zealand and that the phenomena of him being incorrectly identified as Australian predates the internet.
1955Dec, 27
Brad Murphey
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Events on 1955
- 7Jan
Metropolitan Opera
Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. - 13Feb
Dead Sea Scrolls
Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls. - 18Feb
Nevada Test Site
Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series. - 14May
Warsaw Pact
Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact. - 23Oct
State of Vietnam referendum, 1955
Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.