Erebus rookie Cooper Murray is simply worried about converting, rather than a possible maiden podium after exceptional qualifying efforts at Albert Park.
The rookies have taken a giant leap forward in the Melbourne SuperSprint and leading the charge is Murray.
The 23-year-old was on the pace in the back to back qualifying sessions on Saturday morning and will start races 6 and 7 from fifth and third respectively.
As a result, not only beating his career-best finish of fifth is possible, but even a maiden podium could be on the cards.
However, Murray is not thinking about that and simply wants to stay out of trouble and collect a good haul of points.
“I feel good and we will see what happens,” he told Auto Action.
“I will just go and race my heart out and whatever happens happens.
“There is not much more you can do apart from trying your best.
“We have some good people around me and I am ready for some good hard racing and if we come away with a trophy that would be awesome.
“But even if we don’t there are still so many good learnings.”
The qualifying pace is the latest sign of Murray’s development as he takes steps forward almost every session.
After a tough Sydney 500 with a best result of 18th, Murray was hoping to get into the top 10 in the opener, but had a spin coming out of Turn 3.
But on Friday night he got his elbows out and battled hard to rise from 14th to score a maiden solo top 10 with ninth.
This gave him a boost ahead of this morning’s qualifying where he was one of the stars.
Having felt he left a bit on the table during Thursday’s sessions, Murray was delighted to put everything together.
“It was good to get a result and I was a bit disappointed with my first two qualifying sessions,” he said.
“We made a few changes overnight to fine tune the car.
“We knew the pace was there in the first two sessions, but I just did not maximise it myself.
“That was the big thing this morning, was just trying to get the best out of myself and managed to that getting two decent positions.
“The main target was just getting a clean lap and learning not to overdrive the car.
“I just had to touch back a little bit and the results speak for themselves.
“It was obvious in Sydney we struggled a bit with the car and it is good to roll out with a strong car, so this is a great step forward.”
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