Greg Murphy increased his lead in the BNT V8 SuperTourer championship as he and Australian co-driver Jack Perkins won the first stage of the Waikato 400 endurance meeting at Hampton Downs today.
The Holden pair achieved a clear-cut victory ahead of M3 team-mates Richard Moore-Tim Slade and the Tasman Ford of Daniel Gaunt-Andrew Waite.
Murphy took the first stint and steadily advanced from fourth to the lead within the first dozen laps. He took second with a spectacular move on Ant Pedersen’s Ford which saw the two cars side-by side through two corners.
V8 Supercar driver Tim Slade led but Murphy closed in and seized the lead with a clean pass up the inside into turn one.
“Our plan was simple – to win,” Murphy said. “But we didn’t know how we were going to do it.
“I got some pressure from Daniel [Gaunt], he was driving really well.”
His only regret was that early in the race he had nudged defending champion Scott McLaughlin, who went onto the grass and lost a few places coming out of the downhill hairpin.
“I tried to give him room but when I got on the gas it stepped out,” Murphy said.
Slade said he had not defended too vigorously as Murphy loomed in his mirrors.
“He had better speed plus he’s my team-mate so I didn’t want to put up too much of a fight.”
However the winners still had more work to do as after the compulsory pit stop to change drivers Perkins found himself second, behind the Tasman can now driven by Waite.
However Perkins put his car back in the lead with a classic dive inside at turn one, and then pulled away to establish a safe gap.
Moore took over from Slade and hunted down Waite to take over second place. Waite held on for third.
Slade was the only one of the seven full-time V8 Supercar drivers in the field to make the podium.
McLaughlin and Australian team-mate Jono Webb recovered to bring their Holden home fourth while Shane Van Gisbergen and Aussie Alex Davison put on the drive of the race, starting their Ford 14th and coming home fifth.
Pedersen, who had been second in the series, lost a lot of time when he had ti pit with a broken axle.
Tomorrow sees two 150km races for the SuperTourers, headline act in the Hankook Super Series.
