KEY POINTS:
Greg Murphy is finally smiling again. The four-time Bathurst champion has had a few lean years since he last won at Mt Panorama in 2004.
But yesterday his fellow Kiwi teammate Jason Richards shocked the big guns by clocking the second fastest time in qualifying for Holden before today's top-10 shootout.
The result has pretty much come from nowhere, with both Richards and Murphy struggling all year and sitting a respective 18th and 19th in the V8 Supercar championship.
Murphy said he was just happy to be amongst it again.
"I'm enjoying this weekend more than any other in probably the last two years," said Murphy, whose last round win came in 2005.
"[Bathurst] means a hell of a lot but we're more in the frame this year than I've been since 2004, when I last won with Rick [Kelly].
"This is the best car I've had since then by a long stretch and it makes a huge difference. It's been like trying to learn to drive the car all over again because of how well it's responding."
Murphy, 36, handed Richards, 32, the honour of qualifying for the Great Race and was confident his teammate was capable of securing pole in today's one-lap dash.
"We're just over the moon at the moment, we're absolutely rapt because we know we're in the top 10 come Sunday and Jason's fired up for tomorrow," Murphy said yesterday.
"Jason's pretty confident and I'm confident he can do the job but who knows what will happen? We've still got to string it all together."
Murphy said it was amazing how big a difference a good car made.
"Regardless of how good you are, if your car's not up to it these days then you're not going to achieve what you set out to achieve and that's been the biggest problem all year.
"We just haven't been able to get on top of things but hopefully that's behind us now."
Meanwhile Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom insists he's over last year's Bathurst nightmare and ready to set Mt Panorama alight in the top-10 shootout.
Winterbottom looks in great shape to secure a second successive pole at the Great Race, topping the charts in qualifying to determine spots one through 10 on the grid.
A year ago he led the Bathurst 1000 with 13 laps to go before he made the worst mistake of his career, overcooking the turn at about 200km/h and careering across The Chase, narrowly avoiding a collision with eventual winner Craig Lowndes.
"I'm over last year," Winterbottom said yesterday.
"Last year it burned pretty badly but you move on. There's always highs and lows in motorsport. It's not burning anymore. I won't do it again."
Winterbottom clocked 2m 07.19s in his last lap, with Richards 0.041s back.
There was a nasty incident in the day's earlier practice session when Team Kiwi Racing's Chris Pither T-boned Holden driver Paul Weel.
Pither walked away and Weel is expected to be cleared of any serious injury but the pair will take no further part in the weekend, with both cars suffering extreme damage.
- AAP
