Motorsport: Murphy grabs opening victory at Pukekohe

New Zealand's favourite motoring son, Greg Murphy, won the opening race in the V8 International Supercar series at Pukekohe in south Auckland yesterday.

Murphy celebrated victory for his new Super Cheap Auto Holden team on his favourite circuit after controlling the opening 100km race following the early demise of Marcos Ambrose and Craig Lowndes, who collided on the third turn of the opening lap.

It was Murphy's seventh race win at the circuit after a clean sweep in 2001, a single win in 2002 and two wins in 2003. He claimed the overall round victory in each of those years.

Yesterday, he finished three seconds clear of Russell Ingall (Caltex Ford) and five-time champion Mark Skaife (Holden Racing) in the first of three races this weekend in the second round of the championship.

Ambrose still leads the championship from Lowndes and Todd Kelly (Holden Racing), although stewards were to hold an inquiry into the opening lap incident between the two front-row protagonists.

Queensland's Steve Ellery (Betta Electrical Ford) finished fourth from 11th on the grid, ahead of Ambrose, who recovered from his opening lap clash with Lowndes to finish fifth.

There was cause for celebration in the Team Kiwi camp when Paul Radisich pushed through from 14th on the grid to finish sixth.

That confirmed the gains the only New Zealand-owned team have made in this season's series.

The improved surface of the Pukekohe track provided the platform for some spectacular speed, with 30 of the 32-strong field going under the race lap record and Murphy being than one second inside the old mark.

Murphy is not getting carried away with his victory in front of nearly 30,000 delighted fans.

"It's a great day today for the team. But we have two longer races tomorrow and they will be a different story," Murphy said.

"We benefited from the drama ahead of us and I managed to get through on the inside of Steven Richards. My team had a great pit stop and we managed to get out ahead of Russell Ingall."

Murphy gradually cleared away from Ingall over the closing laps with the Stone Brothers driver holding off a fast-finishing Skaife for second.

"It was a good result after a very average top-10 effort," Skaife said.

"The car was pretty good, still not good enough."

Skaife recovered after losing several spots on the start line and was satisfied overall with the result in a closely fought encounter.

"There was only one second covering the field on race pace and that shows how strong the whole field is."

There was plenty of action in the opening races of the New Zealand classes with a crash in the New Zealand V8 touring cars delaying racing as repairs were carried out to the Armco barrier.

- NZPA