Greg Murphy set himself up for his second straight BNT V8 SuperTourers championship by qualifying fastest today for his races at Pukekohe’s ITM 500 meeting.

Murphy said before the meeting – where the Kiwi cars support the V8 Supercars — that he needed to improve his qualifying performance and that is just what he did. However he was slightly frustrated he had not been able to go even faster than the time of 1 minute 04.1110 seconds he set early in the session.

“I didn’t get a good lap on the second set [of new tyres], I just didn’t put the lap together,” he said. “The car felt really good at a couple of spots.”

The bumps were worse than they had been at the same meeting last year, but Murphy was not worried about that.

“The bumps are just a challenge,” he said. “If the track was silky smooth it would take a bit of the experience and bravery out of it.

“The guys who have confidence in their cars will just manage it and take a few more risks.”

Second fastest – less than a tenth of a second behind Murphy’s Holden – was Hamilton driver Ant Pedersen, sporting a new purple colour scheme on his Ford.

“I’m disappointed we couldn’t get pole,” he said. “We had a right rear tyre go down on our first set and maybe the track was faster earlier in the session.
“We’ll just go out tomorrow and race him hard and fair.”

Three Auckland-based Holden drivers took the next three places, Simon Evans, Richard Moore and Andre Heimgartner respectively.

Moore, one of Murphy’s M3 team-mates, said he had hoped to be third fastest but had lost time with an awkward moment on what should have been his fastest lap.

Angus Fogg, who won a race at the previous round, spun his Holden in qualifying but came back to be seventh, behind the Ford of fellow Aucklander Mitch Cunningham.

This is the final round of the 2014 championship and since Murphy leads Pedersen by 170 points he can clinch the title simply by avoiding disaster in the four races. But driving cautiously is not his style and he said was aiming to win his races.

The BNT V8 SuperTourers have two races tomorrow and two more on Sunday.