Motorsport: Friendly fight to the finish at Manfeild

Bad luck robs Evans' chance of beating Murphy in V8s Simon Evans (left car) and Greg Murphy battle it out at Manfeild and (below) celebrate their success. Pictures / Andrew Bright/www.championshipdigital.com

Bad luck robs Evans' chance of beating Murphy in V8s

Although it was long-time V8 racer Greg Murphy who won all three races at round two of the V8 SuperTourers at Manfeild it was Simon Evans who came of age.

The Auckland-based driver consistently pushed the former V8 Supercars driver and four-time Bathurst winner Murphy all the way in each of the three races but couldn't quite get the win.

Evans has steadily developed as a V8 pilot and realised his potential at Manfeild by setting the fastest lap in all three races, and it won't be long before he'll be consistently standing on the top step of the podium.

Although it was a depleted field with only 12 cars, and missing regular V8 Supercars racers such as Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, fans were treated to some hard and fast racing with Murphy by no means having it all his own way.

Over the weekend Evans announced himself as a serious championship contender. "I'm pretty happy with the weekend overall and it's great that we're becoming a bit of a contender," said Evans.

"I think we showed we're getting better and better and really challenged Greg.

"As a team we pushed hard and by the end of the weekend proved we had the quickest car.

"I was really close to beating Greg in the first race on Saturday and if I didn't have the gearbox problem I'm pretty sure we could have won.

"We've had good speed the whole time and now we're actually showing we can run at the front and we'll keep building on that for the rest of the season.

"We haven't had a lot of luck in the past but this weekend we had a trouble-free run and showed everyone what we can do getting three podiums."

Defending V8ST champion Murphy knew he had his work cut out for him in the first race on Saturday when he struggled in qualifying to start sixth.

Evans got off to a flyer and was comfortably in the lead over the opening laps. Fans expected Murphy to pounce on Evans but the young Aucklander kept his car just out of Murphy's grasp until an electrical problem kept cutting his engine power every time he changed gear.

"I could see that happening," said Murphy. "Eventually that helped me get a run on him down the back straight and I managed to get past him. That was a great job by Simon. If he hadn't had that issue I don't think I could have passed him.

"I'm almost sorry I won - he's had such shocking luck and he deserves a win. Simon drove beautifully all weekend. He just pushed and pushed - he didn't give up. It wasn't easy - I was pushing eleven-tenths all the way.

"If I relaxed a bit he was right on me again."

Evans comes from a real motor racing family. His father, Owen, was a top Porsche racer and land speed record setter, and his younger brother, Mitch, is expected to contest a second season of GP2 this year.

He has been steadily developing as a V8 driver, but was held back by some bad luck last year.

"I think we've definitely made a breakthrough. We've been chipping away and over the weekend we probably had the fastest car - we set a new lap record and got the fastest lap in each race."

Murphy also scored a clean sweep at the first round of the championship last month and increased his series lead.

The next round is at Pukekohe on March 22 and 23.

V8ST points

1. Greg Murphy - 553
2. Andre Heimgartner - 425
3. Ant Pedersen - 418
4. Richard Moore - 409
5. Simon Evans - 392