Greg Murphy Team Choices

[Wats_in_a_name]

Hi Guys,

A bit of a historical question for you. Greg Murphy as we know didn't win an Australian Touring Car Championship although he finished second twice. In 2005 he changed teams from what was to become the Toll HSV Dealer Team to Super Cheap Auto Racing. The Toll HSV Dealer Team ended up winning championships in 2006 and 2007.

My question is had he stayed could he have won that elusive touring car championship? Or would the team not won the championships they did without Garth Tander. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I can understand Murphy's reason for leaving when he did but given that he never won the title I am interested in people's opinions on Greg Murphy as a driver and whether he was worthy of a touring car championship.

 

[Sandman]

To put briefly, his move to SCAR at the time seemed like a very good one, in the guise of PWR Racing in 2004 the team got runners up with Jason Bright but with a few changes over the offseason including from walkinshaw to Perkins engines saw the start of their downfall as a team. Had he stayed at Kmart/Toll HSV he may very well have won a championship as both Rick and Garth did in 06 and 07, as they had a very strong team behind them, which came undone from '08 after they put many of the good team to HRT. As a driver he certainly is a very good steerer but was notoriously useless at giving feedback about the cars performance to engineers. As the series progressed and became more about fine changes and detail coupled with not overly flash cars he drifted further back, hence most of his success being earlier in his career when the series was a bit more about 'driving skill'. He certainly had the skill and at times the car to win the championship, it just never stacked up for him.

 

[Ed]

I don't believe so, he couldn't get it done in 02-04 when with the same team that was essentially toll HSV dealer team and they were in my opinion stronger during those years with the cars they had, in kellys and tanders championship years they weren't really fast cars but always competitive and very reliable

 

[Immortality]

The fates never quite aligned for Murphy + the fact that the racing officials didn't seem to want a Kiwi to win the series. I saw plenty of occasions where Murphy was penalised heavily when other drivers had done the same and were let off. My favourite is the 5 minute penalty given during Bathurst one year for a pit lane infringement.

Then there was that season where he came first but they had that stupid rule where you drop your worst round so on count back he came 2nd.

It does seem though that he always changed teams at the wrong time but no matter how you look at it, you don't win 4 Bathurst titles and always finish at the pointy end of the field unless you have some talent.

 

[Munz]

regardless of not winning a championship, I will always remember the Kmart Commodore crossing the line at bathurst.....

 

[Immortality]

^^^^ Yep, I'll never forget the lap of the gods.