MURPHY: MODERN SUPERCAR DIFFERENT TO WHAT I REMEMBER

Today at Winton Motor Raceway, Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway turned their first laps in the Erebus Motorsport ZB Commodore they will race at the Bathurst 1000.

The Boost Mobile backed Wildcard entry hit the track for the first time today with four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Murphy and former Sandown 500 winner Stanaway completing many laps throughout the day.

The duo was set to race as a Wildcard in the Bathurst 1000 last year, however due to COVID-19 both were unable to travel from New Zealand.

Prior to today’s test, Murphy had not driven a Supercar since he took part in a co-driver practice session at The Bend Motorsport Park in 2019, with his last Supercars race taking place back in 2014.

The veteran explained the Gen2 Supercar is not how he remembered; he found the miles at Winton extremely beneficial.

“Luckily when I went out the pit lane for the first time Richie had already warmed the tyres up so I didn’t have to even put any temperature in them,” Murphy said to Supercars.com.

“It was a nice feeling just to be able to put your foot down and not have to wait for some tyre temp.

“Winton is Winton, I’ve done 1000’s of laps (of this track), but trying to extract the best out of a modern Supercar is a little bit different to what I remember.”

Murphy and Stanaway shared the track with a number of other Supercars and Super2 machines, but all eyes were on the Erebus Wildcard

Murphy did cause a red flag mid-way through the day, he slid off a wet kerb, becoming beached in the gravel at Turn 4.

The 49-year-old was incredibly impressed by Stanaway, who himself has not raced a Supercar since the final round of the 2019 championship.

“Seeing him today turn up and be straight in the groove, being a proper race car driver again, actually being enthusiastic and happy to be driving a car, it’s been awesome to watch that,” Murphy said.

“He had basically left the sport behind at the end of 2019, the last couple of years for him in his car racing career and Supercars were not enjoyable.

“If nothing else happens at the end of this year, I think it’d be a great way for him to sign off from a professional career, but I sort of feel that there’s going to be more to his story than just the Bathurst 1000 this year.”

Both Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway thoroughly enjoyed being back behind the wheel of a Supercar

Stanaway explained that while Murphy was impressed, there is still more to come.

“Getting close-ish to the limit is one thing, but when you’re racing 25 of the best guys that are in them every two weeks (that’s different),” Stanaway said.

“When we’re at Bathurst it will just be a matter of chipping away and just trying to find that last bit.

“I’m looking forward to working with Greg, it’s just awesome for me to share a car with him and have the car number 51, it’s pretty special for me, I’m really enjoying it.

“It’s nice to actually turn a pit limiter off, get out there and do some laps,” he said during the day. “Today, we’re just focusing on mileage and getting a bit of the dust off getting a bit of muscle memory back, so it’s good fun.”

Stanaway and Murphy’s will have two more tests before the Bathurst 1000, with the next to take place on August 16.

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