Greg Murphy claimed his first title in 17 years as he came through a day of crashes and controversy at Taupo’s Gull 250 meeting, fourth round of the BNT V8 SuperTourers championship.
Murphy retained his points lead, despite copping a drive-through penalty in the final race, to claim the sprint series title for Holden from Ford rivals Ant Pedersen and Shane Van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen took the round victory after a fantastic drive in the final race, coming from last to take second behind Andy Booth’s Holden.
8 crownMurphy eclipsed some much younger rivals, including full-time V8 Supercar drivers Van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, over the four-round sprint series but said he did not feel he had proved a point.

“We have respect for one another,” he said. “We laugh it up about the age thing.

“The great thing about this series is that everybody’s in with a chance because the equipment is equal, it’s a control series. But you’ve still got to be in the right car with the right team to do the job.”

The Kiwi hero’s last title came in 1996 when, driving for the Holden Racing Team, he won the Mobil Sprint Series which took in races at Pukekohe and the Wellington street circuit. He twice finished second in the V8 Supercars championship, and four times won the classic Bathurst event.

This year he does not have a full-time Supercar drive but joins the Holden Racing Team as a co-driver for Bathurst and two other events.

Murphy started the weekend with a comfortable lead over Pedersen and retained it with finishes of seventh, fourth and 10th.

The final race started in chaos with several cars caught up in chain-reaction collisions off the start line, which started when pole-sitter Van Gisbergen was slow away. Defending champion McLaughlin was among those eliminated.

Van Gisbergen restarted at the tail of the field and charged right through to second. “Passing everybody was pretty cool,” he said.

Nelson driver John McIntyre led early but was forced out when Murphy spun his Ford round and Andre Heimgartner hit him, causing extensive damage. That earned Murphy his penalty and later he publicly apologised to McIntyre.

Pedersen won the second race and was in contention in race three till he copped a drive-through penalty because he had cut across the grass while passing McIntyre at the end of the main straight.

Van Gisbergen won race one just ahead of McLaughlin and Heimgartner.

McLaughlin was the big loser of the day. After qualifying fastest yesterday for today’s first two races, he lost race one when his Holden started misfiring near the end and in race two he took a big hit at the first corner. Simon Evans was penalised for that collision.

Through all the confusion in race three came former NZV8 champion Booth, driving fast and sensibly to record his first victory in SuperTourers. “We had led 60 or 70 laps [in earlier races] without getting a win so it’s fantastic to get this win,” the Aucklander said.

Booth had also finished third in race two, behind Pedersen and McIntyre, after withstanding huge pressure from Murphy. He finished second for the round, behind Van Gisbergen and ahead of Pedersen.

The overall BNT V8 SuperTourers championship now continues with three endurance races.

Murphy is a V8 champion once more