In 1965?

MURPHY: It was the little jet dragster that Bobby Tatroe drove and he must have gone for a Land Speed record, but the salt was so bad, cause they only had about 3 miles of salt so they called me up and wanted to know if I wanted to go for another Land Speed Record, but in the jet dragster, and I said was the thing safe? I had never seen one and they said, well, come on up and take a look. I got in the thing and off I went both ways, ended up in the first run out in the water and got all wet. It was quite a ride.

And how fast did you go with that?

MURPHY: Two hundred twenty-five or something.

This had an afterburner and I didn't turn it on. They didn't want to scare me to death I guess because I'd never even gone 200 miles an hour.

So, I'm just trying to keep this chronologically correct. This is all right around that time you went to Indy. But that wasn't during the 500?

MURPHY: No, no. There was nobody in the grandstand, but all the drivers were there. In fact, I have a picture of Eddy Sachs giving me a pat on the head when I'm sitting in the racecar -

This had to be '64, because he was killed at Indy in May of '64.

MURPHY: I know. That year I spent the whole month there. It was really neat.

Well, you just had to feel like queen of the hop.

MURPHY: I think they looked at me like one of their peers. 'Cause Richard Petty was just a super great man, and all his crew kidded me. We had a good rapport because that time, the first time I drove his car -- no, I take that back -- the first time I drove the Freddy Lorenzo car, they wouldn't even let me in the pit. They brought the car out on the track and I was allowed to walk up there and get in the car -

Amazing. Did you find that to be bullshit?

MURPHY: No. You know, that's tradition.

(to be continued)