The master of V8 racing at Pukekohe, Greg Murphy, had his cage rattled over the weekend at round three of the V8 SuperTourers series, but experience and race cunning allowed him to hang tough for the win.
Murphy was untroubled in the first race on Sunday. Starting from P3 he was soon past Simon Evans and shortly afterwards lined up Ant Pedersen to take the win. It was in race two and race three of the weekend that Murphy had to endure a few hold-ups.
A resurgent Angus Fogg, having completely rebuilt his car after a big shunt at the opening round at Highlands Park, was on fire and leapt away at the start of race two to cross the line comfortably in front of Pedersen and Murphy. Within minutes of the race finishing, he and five other drivers were deemed to have jumped the start handing the win to Pedersen. Murphy's streak of seven straight wins came to an end with his third place finish. "It doesn't feel like I've been away at all because I've spent every minute fixing the car," said Fogg. "It's great to be back and the car's on fire - at last. It's been a struggle right from the start. We've now got our heads around the car and qualified well for a change. Unfortunately we've been caught up in some official stuff. Despite that, the cars feels good and even Murph came up to me after the race and said: 'Where the hell did that come from?' "
Pedersen said he was disappointed for Fogg, who was officially second, but would take the victory anyway. His grandfather, also a great motorsport enthusiast, died during the week and he was on the driver's mind during the weekend. "He was the man and I'll miss him," he said.
