Motorsport: Greg Murphy retires from rallying

Greg Murphy in action during Rally Canterbury. Photo / Geoff Ridder

Four-time Bathurst winner Greg Murphy's short foray into rallying will come to an end this weekend at the Raglan Rally of the Coast.

The 46-year-old, one of the country's most successful circuit racers, has competed in the New Zealand Rally Championship for the past two seasons and made significant strides in posting stage times that mixed it with the best rally drivers in the country.

The Havelock North-based Murphy is a television commentator for the Supercars Championship, traveling to every round of the Australian series while he also co-hosts the weekly Sky Speed motorsport show on Sky Sport – both extremely time-consuming when you factor in the travel from the Hawke's Bay.

So while Murphy has enjoyed his time competing on gravel the demands of his television commitments have meant he's had to pull stumps on rallying.

"It will be the last round of the championship for the foreseeable future for me unfortunately," Murphy told The Herald.

"I just have too much going on and too many other things happening around the place and so it is just a time thing. I love driving the car and it has been an amazing experience and I had planned for it to continue on for a bit longer but I am just under the pump with a whole lot of things with mainly work stuff but also family stuff that I need to be focused on.

"As much as I enjoy the experience and everything it is still very time consuming with the preparation and logistics and I have had a bit of a reality check on time.

"I have made the decision to call it time on the rallying side of things for the time being. Hopefully maybe one day I will be able to justify doing some more but it will be at a much lower or lesser level."

It is a frustrating conundrum for Murphy. He has really developed as a rally driver and it is not unreasonable to think that he would have been in a position to challenge for rally wins had he continued competing.

"I don't deny there haven't been some improvements," Murphy said. "Some of the stages this year we have been reasonably competitive. That is what I was looking for – I wanted to see some improvement and gain against a really good depth of talent in this country.

"To be consistent and deal with all the conditions and circumstances you need to be doing a lot of rallying and more than I have been doing.

"My schedule has meant that I have missed a lot of time over the last couple of years and every time you get back into the car it takes a little time to get back up to speed again.

"It is also difficult to maintain those sponsorships and ability to get support for it when you aren't turning up to some of the rallies you should be at."