Motorsport: Murphy hopes new car will kickstart season

Greg Murphy. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A new team and new car has given local favourite Greg Murphy the belief that he could be back mounting a charge at the New Zealand round of the V8 Supercar championship this weekend.

Murphy dominated on this side of the Tasman during the seven years when racing was held at Pukekohe, south of Auckland, before the move to Hamilton two years ago. He was the overall winner on four occasions, but he has struggled to be competitive since his last victory in 2005.

His move to Queensland-based Paul Morris Motorsport this year has boosted his confidence that he has the tools again to be a serious contender on the Hamilton street circuit.

His Holden Commodore is designed by Triple Eight Race Engineering, which runs Team Vodafone. Victorian Jamie Whincup has won the driver's championship for Vodafone in the past two years.

Whincup, who took out both races of the Hamilton round last year, is again at the top of the points table.

"We've got a very good, well-funded team and we've got a very good car," Murphy said yesterday.

"We have an alliance with Triple Eight Race Engineering, who have pretty much dominated over the last couple of years, so we haven't got a lot of reasons to doubt that we've got the right equipment and it's really up to the driver to do the job in a lot of ways."

Murphy said the situation he was in was different from his time at Tasman Motorsport, which he joined in 2007 and where "we didn't have everything we needed to do the job".

He said his car had shown good speed, although he was tweaking his driving technique to get the best out it.

"I'm having to change a little of my driving style to suit it, but I'm prepared to do it considering the product is proven," he said.

"It's just the technique on cornering, basically, generating the grip in the car and using the grip to its potential to maximise the cornering speed. It's an approach-thing, a braking-thing, and turning-thing - a combination of all that."

Murphy, 37, has had a mixed start to the season. He missed round one in Abu Dhabi in February to fulfil an agreement to appear on Top Gear Live in Auckland.

In round two in Bahrain, he had placings of 16th and 22nd, and then didn't complete either race at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

His best finish came in his last outing, when he was ninth in the final race of Australian Grand Prix meeting, which didn't carry championship points.

- NZPA