Greg Murphy, the V8 Supercars driver who traded more profanities and panels with Marcos Ambrose than any other rival, has welcomed the feisty former champion’s 2015 return to the category.
And Murphy acknowledges he might even find himself interviewing Ambrose as part of his expected 2015 V8 Supercars broadcasting duties.
“I don’t mind at all if that is the case,” he said. “I will find that quite amusing if that is something I end up having to do.”
While niggle was constant between Murphy and Ambrose, there were two massive flashpoints during the time they raced each other in V8 Supercars between 2001 and 2005. Back then the New Zealander was one of Holden’s biggest stars and the Tasmanian Ford’s leading contender.
The first came at the Gold Coast in 2004 when Murphy and Ambrose clashed post-race and then in a press conference after the Stone Brothers Racing driver was accused of ‘brake-checking’ Murphy’s young Kmart Racing teammate Rick Kelly.
Ambrose was subsequently fined $10,000 for the incident, which he continued to deny. Murphy told the assembled media: “It’s finally time he realised that we are not there to drive around behind him. You talk about sportsmanship but I think he needs to have a look at the meaning of it . . . himself.”
Ambrose wasn’t mincing words either: “It’s a crazy discussion . . . It’s an absolute joke the way that Greg (Murphy) carries on.”
The second time they clashed was the 2005 Bathurst 1000 when contact put them both out of the race and prompted an on-track on-camera verbal slanging match in which neither man held back.
“I told him ‘You can XXXX off right now, we will all chip in and buy you a ticket, you XXXXXXX XXXX’,” says Murphy, who nowadays contests only in the Pirtek Enduro Cup for the Holden Racing Team with James Courtney.
“I always apportioned the blame 50:50, but he never wanted to apportion any of the blame to himself. But that is past and … I think he has had an incredible career.
“Him coming back and having a go is a story-and-a-half. I think that’s brave, I think that’s courageous and he obviously likes the challenge, he obviously wants to go car racing.
“He has proven a lot as far as I am concerned. We might not be mates, best of friends or anything at all, but at the end of the day I have always said I have respect for what he has done and his ability.”
Murphy is certain Ambrose can come back and race competitively in V8 Supercars. He believes eight years in NASCAR will help him, although the structure project partners Team Penske and Dick Johnson Racing put around him will be crucial.
“The game has shifted, it has moved big time, but it’s not like he isn’t race fit. He spent more time in a race car this year than anyone in this pit lane has spent in a car in the last three years.
“He will have learned an incredible amount, the things he has learned driving those things is a lot of stuff that no-one in this pit lane ever learned – or ever will learn.
“So how will that put him? It depends who the people are, how smart they are. All the things have to come together to make that work.
“It is going to be it an interesting thing to watch and it’s going to bring a lot of people to the screens and to the tracks to witness. Some are going to want to see him not achieve and a lot of them are going to want him to achieve.”
Meanwhile, Rick Kelly played down the Gold Coast altercation. At the time he claimed Ambrose both swore at him and threatened him.
“I have had 13 years in the category and one million incidents on the track so I don’t care about one in particular,” he told v8supercars.com.au. “It’s one entertaining event and there have been many over the years.”
