Motorsport: Murph disappointed for home fans

Greg Murphy isn't happy that Kiwi fans went home disappointed this weekend. Photo / Alan Gibson

Greg Murphy feels frustrated that the home fans didn't have more to cheer about at the New Zealand round of the V8 Supercars championship at the weekend.

The ITM 400 was dominated for the second year in a row by Team Vodafone driver Jamie Whincup, whose Holden took the chequered flag in both races on the Hamilton street circuit.

Whincup, who has now won six of this season's eight races and is on target for his third successive V8 Supercar series title, beat home Toll Holden Racing's Garth Tander on both occasions.

Hopes had been high going into the event that the six-strong contingent of New Zealand drivers would mount a stern challenge, but they ended up producing only one top-10 placing.

That went to young gun Shane Van Gisbergen, who came home eighth in his Stone Brothers Racing Ford in race two yesterday.

Even that result was a disappointment, given that the 20-year-old had had two podium finishes this year and began the weekend sitting fourth on the points table.

After impressing by being third fastest in practice on Friday, Van Gisbergen was off the pace in both qualifying sessions and in race one on Saturday crashed out on the first lap after being hit from behind.

Murphy said the New Zealand drivers got huge backing from the Hamilton crowd and he would have like to have given them something back.

"I really appreciate their support," he said.

"You want to repay them and it's very frustrating when you can't. That's really the first thing on my mind."

The highest scoring New Zealander over the two races was Jason Richards, with an 11th and a 12th in his Team BOC Holden.

Murphy's pair of 18ths in his Castrol Edge Racing Holden was enough to make him the next best New Zealander in points accumulated.

That he and his compatriots didn't do better did come as a big surprise to Murphy.

"I'm quite shocked by the end result of all the Kiwis," he said.

"I would have bet a lot of money that someone was going to have a great weekend and no-one did."

The overall winner four times in the seven years that the New Zealand round was held at Pukekohe, Murphy had been upbeat about his own prospects in Hamilton

He joined a new team this year in Queensland-based Paul Morris Motorsport and is driving a new Holden that is similar to Whincup's.

However, he said learning how to get the best out of the car was proving "a very, very difficult process".

"Jamie's very in tune with his car and ours is quite new," he said.

"We're obviously a lot further away than what I thought we were potentially from getting on top of it. We've been struggling with issues and we somehow have to get on top of it."

- NZPA