Back to the Mountain FOUR-TIMES BATHURST 1000 WINNER GREG MURPHY IS A STALWART IN AUSTRALASIAN MOTORSPORT CIRCLES, AND A REAL TALENT BEHIND THE WHEEL OF ALMOST ANYTHING reg’s career has seen him pedal open wheelers, tin-tops, rally cars, and a host of other machinery in some of the most iconic locations around the world, before hanging up the helmet from full-time racing in 2014. We decided to catch up with Murph to relive some of his most memorable moments from under the visor, and catch up on life after racing, including his entry in this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 alongside fellow Kiwi Richie Stanaway in a Boost mobile—backed Erebus entry. NZV8: What have been some of the most memorable machines that you have raced? Murph: I was always a single-seater lover really. That’s what I always wanted to do from the beginning of my career. I didn’t get a chance to do as much as I wanted to do, but I loved all the singleseater stuff that I did drive. The Formula Atlantics and Formula Holdens from the early days were more of the purist race car stuff so they were always a highlight. The last time I raced a Formula Holden was in 1998, and I also raced one at Adelaide at the Grand Prix. They were mega memorable moments when F1 was still there — running on a F1 track in a single-seater and dreaming of making it big time overseas. I always enjoyed those opportunities. Some of the wild stuff, such as the first time I got to drive a Supercar/Group A Touring car, was in Peter Brock’s actual 05 race car — totally crazy, being I was a complete Brock super fan. So it was a pretty significant moment with the Holden Racing Team back then. I got to race at Daytona
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and LeMans in 1996 in a Porsche 911 GT2. That was pretty out there, and it was an awesome car on one of the world’s most iconic race tracks. I also had the chance to drive a Panoz — which is a wild, out-there crazy batmobile-style GT1 race car with a seven-litre Ford — along with David Brabham and Jason Bright. Another would be Shane Helms’ Zakspeed Capri, it is such an iconic piece of motorsport history and one of the most beautiful cars I have ever driven. Most of us know you for your exploits in V8 Supercars, but we seem to forget all the other stuff you have raced too. What has been the hardest of the lot to master? Definitely rallying. Circuit racing is circuit racing. Yeah, the cars are very different and they vary a bit, but at the end of the day racetracks are racetracks, and they don’t change that much. Weather, cars, tyres, power, and aero changes, but the tracks remain pretty constant. Whereas in rallying, nothing is the same from one second to the next. It is an ever-evolving world from the moment the countdown clock reaches zero at the start of stage one to the moment you finish the last stage of the day. It is just totally captivating. The buzz and the thrill, and adrenaline — I have never felt anything like it. The concentration combined with someone else in the car was something I was not used to at all, and supporting you with information designed to make you go faster was just crazy. When it came to rallying, do you feel your
