Last week in Sandown was special for Greg Murphy, the four time Bathurst winner and New Zealand’s greatest V8 Supercars driver.
The 42-year-old is no longer racing full time in the category and makes do in a co-driver role in the three endurance races, alongside James Courtney at HRT this season.
While he’s still ripping it up in the SuperTourers in New Zealand, for every driver in Australasia, it’s the V8 Supercars that means the most.
So when he was able to get his Holden from sixth to second during his stint at the Sandown 500 last weekend it was as if Murphy had rolled back the years to remind everyone what a great driver he still is.
“It’s an achievement really to be on a podium in one of these races,” Murphy told Sunday News.
“It’s what you strive for and it’s what was always my driving force in being a part of this, to achieve.
“I’m not a fan of making up the numbers and in the last few years, when I wasn’t fulltime, that’s all I was doing really, making up the numbers and that’s not what I want to do, so it’s nice to be a part of a team that’s doing what they’re doing.
“Last year didn’t go so good and there could have been a couple more podiums there as well, but this year we’ve moved and it’s looking really good at the moment.
“Sandown was a good result, we’ve still got a bit of work to do, to bridge a little gap (to Red Bull Racing), but it was really encouraging.
“That’s what it’s all about for me, being with a bunch of people that want to succeed and helping them to achieve that.”
Murphy told Sunday News before Sandown that testing had gone well in the HRT car and he was hopeful he and Courtney could pull out a good result. But they drove so well last weekend they can be optimistic of what can be achieved at Bathurst on October 12.
“We would have liked to have been one spot further up and even though we had two cars on the podium (with Garth Tander and Warren Luff finishing third in the other HRT), we’re not going to be patting ourselves on the back for too long because we’ve got a job to do in a couple of weeks and that one is bigger than this one.
“There’s only one place that the four drivers in the HRT cars want to finish and it’s a challenge, but this is one step in the right direction.
“We came to Sandown to be on the podium, but to be on the top step which we didn’t quite achieve.”
Being in a fast car, having a quality team-mate and quick himself has led to Murphy getting his hunger back, although being a co-driver means he knows he’s got to make the most of his time behind the wheel.
“To be honest it’s a bit nerve-racking not being fulltime, being a co-driver and having to perform when you don’t get as much time in the car,” he said.
“So Sandown was really good in that respect, because I managed to spend a lot of time in the car and drive it pretty competitively.
“That just gives you confidence and confidence is the thing you need the most to do a good job.”
However, Murphy showed no signs of rustiness last weekend and only Paul Dumbrell in the Red Bull Racing No 1 car would be able to say they drove as well as him at Sandown.
He says that it’s almost like riding a bike, in that you never forget what you need to do to driver a V8 Supercar, but admits it’s always harder for the co-driver to be as quick as the fulltime driver.
“I know from being fulltime and bringing in a co-driver to do a job, that it’s really hard to be level pegging with the main guy,” he said.
“They spend so much time with the car that they do the little things that build time around a race track better.
“It’s like anything that you spend a lot of time practising, you get really good at it and the fact that we don’t get to spend that time in the cars, that’s the challenge that we’ve got to get on top of really quickly.
“Yes, you get back on the bike and you understand many facets of driving one of these cars, but to be on the limit all of the time and to drive them as fast as they can go is quite difficult.”
