Motorsport: Murphy frustrated despite best Hamilton result

Greg Murphy finished eighth in race two of the Hamilton 400 yesterday. Photo / Alan Gibson

Crowd favourite Greg Murphy had his best result in the two years of the Hamilton 400 yesterday but still came away from the New Zealand round of the V8 Supercar Championship frustrated.

Murphy finished the weekend's second and final 200km race in eighth place in his Sprint Gas Racing Holden.

The result made him one of only two New Zealanders in the top 10, after up-and-comer Fabian Coulthard, who was fifth.

It was also a turnaround from race one on Saturday when he retired with an early crash caused by a puncture.

But Murphy was left frustrated and with a sense of helplessness because his car didn't have the speed to press for a higher placing.

"It's nice to finish in the top 10, but I wasn't able to push anybody - I wasn't able to hunt anyone down," he said.

"If I was able to sit on the back of those guys and stay right there and race, race, race, I would probably be a lot happier.

"The fact that they were pulling away, and I wasn't able to do anything about it, is not going to be an easy thing to fix."

Murphy, 36, ruled the New Zealand round when it was held at Pukekohe, being the overall winner on four of the seven years at the raceway south of Auckland.

But he has had far less luck at Hamilton, where his record last year in what was a three-race programme was 23rd, 25th and DNF (did not finish).

While Murphy's return to the 3.4km street circuit didn't bring total satisfaction, the same couldn't be said of defending V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup.

Last April, Whincup was bumped from behind and crashed in qualifying, wrecking his car and leaving him to occupy his time by doing race commentary.

This time around, he was virtually uncatchable, winning both races with some comfort, an outcome he put down to the speed of his Team Vodafone Ford.

The two victories continued the Victorian's 100 per cent start to the season, after he also took out both races in the Clipsal 500 at Adelaide last month.

Murphy said Whincup's dominance was beginning to be "quite disturbing".

"I don't know how long everyone is going to be able to handle the same car winning all the races," he said.

"It's already becoming a bit of a yawn."

He believed the other teams faced a huge task to try to bridge the gap in car performance.

"You have no idea how difficult," he said.

"They are just wiping the floor with everybody at the moment.

"I've got no idea what it is and I don't reckon too many people up pit lane have got any idea what it is, but Jamie is miles ahead and everyone else is racing for second."

- NZPA