Murph’s keys to success,Right place, right time, right people

GOOD MEMORIES: Greg Murphy with a modern kart at the Emerald Hotel, before Eastland Kart Club’s prize-giving function on Saturday night. Murphy, guest speaker at the awards, travelled widely with his father in the 1980s, racing at kart meetings that helped him develop the skill that brought him four Bathurst 1000 wins. Picture by Liam Clayton

IT’S a story four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy has told maybe a hundred times, and he tells it as if he’d be happy to tell it a thousand more.

And, no, it’s not about his “Lap of the Gods” record at Mount Panorama.

He told it before speaking at the prize-giving function of the Eastland Kart Club at the Emerald Hotel on Saturday night.

“I was about eight years old. My dad and I were wandering around on a Sunday and we found the Hawke’s Bay Kart Club at Bridge Pa.

“Before long we were heavily entrenched in the environment, both racing. We became strong members and started travelling around the countryside competing across lots of venues. That became our hobby. It was pretty serious. We were right into it, and very competitive. Dad (Kevin Murphy) became president of the club.”

Greg Murphy’s progress was such that in 1990, the year he turned 18, he won a scholarship organised in conjunction with Shell Oil and Richard Lester out of Manfeild. It covered the cost of his racing in the Formula Ford national championship.

“That gave me my first chance to race in a proper racing car. Once I did that I decided I would do anything I possibly could to keep doing it. I thought, ‘this is what I want to do’, and I went about working to achieve it.

“A lot of people want to be a racing car driver, to have it as a career, and the selection process is not necessarily related to how much ability you have. It comes down to putting yourself in the right situation at the right time and place, in front of the right people. You need funding to achieve that.

Some are given opportunities, others create them“Some people get given opportunities. Others fight their way through any way they can and scrape together enough money to create opportunities. A very small percentage get through. For the rest, it is really a hobby.

“Karting is still the stepping stone, the beginning. It teaches so many skills that you take all the way with you.

“A lot of people enjoy racing just at this level, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

What advice would he give an eager young karter wanting to race for a living?

“It’s not a matter of how much advice I give . . . there’s no guarantee, no golden rule. Plenty of people have had a crack, spending a huge amount of money, and not achieved it.

“It’s not just about work and desire. The financial side of it comes into play. Plenty of people racing at a high level are paying for the privilege. That’s the challenge of the sport and it always will be. It’s not like tennis, golf or football where it comes down to personal skill and how much you work on it.

“You have a big mechanical piece of equipment that requires a huge amount of maintenance and investment . . . you are just one component.”

Did he ever look back and marvel at his luck?

“Well, I worked hard for it, and I made some good decisions at the right time. If I had done different things at different times, none of this would have happened.

“It’s timing. I don’t think about it as luck. You have to generate your own luck. It’s about being dedicated and committed to what you are doing. I managed to do the things I needed to do to get recognised and be given opportunities. When you get those chances, if you don’t make the most of them, you don’t get a second chance.”

These days Murphy has a television show, SkySpeed, once a week and does a lot of media commentary work. It’s not the same as V8 Supercar racing, but he still gets to go to the track and talk with like-minded people about the sport he loves.

Away from the world of V8 Supercars, Murphy has agreed to contest the 2017 New Zealand Rally Championship in a team backed by Holden, who else . . . it’ll do.