Motorsport: Murphy still man to beat in V8 series

Greg Murphy leads Simon Evans at Manfeild in February. Their duel will continue at Taupo today.

The first race of the renamed V8 SuperTourers - now the NZ SuperTourers - 2014 calendar has arrived at the Taupo Motorsport Park today for the first of three endurance rounds. It's been a long time between drinks for many of the main drivers in the field; their last outing was back in April.

Regular drivers in the series without a V8 Supercars or Development Series co-driver will be at a bit of a disadvantage this weekend as the Australian-based racers have been plying their trade regularly since March.

Defending champion Greg Murphy and main game V8 Supercars co-driver Jack Perkins are going to be hard to beat. Not only has Perkins had heaps of seat time this year, Murphy has also been flinging himself about as James Courtney's co-driver in the V8 Supercars endurance series. Murphy drove sublimely at the recent Sandown 500, where the pair finished second to Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell.

"Jack ticks all the boxes you could ask from a co-driver. He's extremely fast, drives a clean race and provides accurate feedback to the team on car set-up. I genuinely didn't consider anyone else and I'm very grateful he agreed to return to the series this year," said Murphy.

"I'm looking forward to getting going and we should have a good car and I hope it all goes to plan. It's really good to go racing on a level playing field where we all know the cars are very similar where you have to use your skills, rather than spend heaps of money."

Murphy has been around motor racing long enough to realise what looks good on paper may not translate to the track. He and Perkins may be the odds-on pairing to take out the first round, but Murphy knows there are a number of threats in the compact but talent-filled pack.

Regular driver Simon Evans may not have had much time in his car, but his co-driver Shane van Gisbergen has turned a great number of laps this year and is the best of the Kiwis in the V8 Supercars championship, sitting fourth. His recent form has been fast and consistent and combined with the find of the local series last season they will be leading the charge to knock Murphy of his throne.

"The plan is to take it to Murph and Jack but Simon did that all by himself last season challenging Murph," said van Gisbergen. "Hopefully I'll be able to do the same to Jack and I should be able to beat him but Murph will be tough. Simon's been improving as a driver and in our testing he really surprised me how quick he was and that was good to see.

"He's definitely improved during the last season and we should be okay this weekend, but there are some fast combinations in the field. You have to watch for Tim [Slade] and Richard [Moore] and Andre [Heimgartner] and Paul [Morris] as they went all right last year."

Evans finished second last season to Murphy and towards the end of the series was the driver harassing the four-time Bathurst winner all race through.

"The only advantage the Aussie guys [V8 Supercars] are going to have over the Kiwis is that they've been racing and we haven't," said Evans. "Our cars are all the same so there's no advantage there.

"It's great that I can be racing with Shane as he's one of my best mates and we're happy having done a few tests and now just have to see what everyone else brings to the table.

"Murph is still going to be the man to beat and looking at him at Sandown he's still got it all. We had a good season last time and we just have to build on that and get some momentum going for the rest of this season."

The race won't just be between those two pairings as there are a few top-notch Aussie main game racers who have made the trip including Tim Slade and Dale Wood along with a number of V8 Supercars endurance co-drivers, the likes of Steve Owen, Tony D'Alberto, Shae Davies, Cameron Waters and Paul Morris and former full-time driver Jonny Reid.

It would be churlish to rule out local pairings, the likes of Mark Gibson and former NZV8 champion John McIntyre, Shaun Varney and John Penny and Chris Hanley and Daniel Gaunt, but they will have their work cut out.

Also on the dance card for the weekend's racing are the Toyota TR86s, V8 Utes, a big grid of BMWs and it's the inaugural race for the SsangYong Actyon Utes.

NZ SuperTourers
Driver pairings
Main co-driver
Greg Murphy - Jack Perkins
Angus Fogg - Tony D'Alberto
Simon Evans - S van Gisbergen
Tim Edgell - Steve Owen
Richard Moore - Tim Slade
Paul Manual - Shae Davies
Andre Heimgartner - Paul Morris
Ant Pedersen - Jonny Reid
Mark Gibson - John McIntyre
Mitch Cunningham - Cam Waters
Chris Hanley - Daniel Gaunt
Shaun Varney - John Penny
Dominic Storey - Dale Wood