KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Supercar V8 driver Greg Murphy will take to the new Hamilton street circuit next weekend in a brand new car.
The event, the third round of the Australian Supercar series, takes up residence in Hamilton after six years at Pukekohe and Murphy is impressed having driven
- albeit at a relatively sedate pace - around the track last week.
"I always look forward to the New Zealand round of the series," said Murphy. "And of course being a Kiwi it's good to come back and race at home.
"The circuit's looking really, really good. They've done a fantastic job. It's a good layout with some interesting corners and there's a good mix of things going on. I like street circuits and it's a good mix between Indy and Adelaide."
Australian veteran Russell Ingall is not as impressed. The old stager said the race was going to be a crash-fest.
"It's got long straights and tight, 90 degree corners so there'll be a lot of drivers making big lunges under brakes," said Ingall. There's lots of concrete and not a lot of run-off so there's going to be some carnage - lots of crashes."
Murphy suggests an ulterior motive for Ingall's comments.
"That's just typical Ingall trying to drum up a bit of media attention," said Murphy. "It's nothing to be worried about. He's just playing a bit of a game. As far as I know he hasn't even been to the circuit."
Tasman Motorsport were due to have new cars for both Murphy and his teammate Jason Richards at the beginning of the season but the cars weren't ready. However, after a private shakedown test at Winton earlier this week, Murphy will debut his new car at Hamilton and Richards will have his ready for Sandown.
"We didn't get as much time in the car as we would have liked," said Murphy. "We had a few problems that limited the amount of laps we could do which was unfortunate. It's significantly different in feel to the old car and it's much more like we've been looking for. It's definitely going in the right direction, there's no doubt about that."
The team would have liked more time with the car before heading across the Tasman. Next Friday's practice in Hamilton is the only other chance Murphy will get to drive the new Commodore before qualifying starts on Saturday.
"The car's been built to be used as fast as we possibly could," said Murphy. "The initial indication is that it will be a very good race car because we can do more with it."
Lying seventh after two rounds Murphy is not resting on his laurels and doesn't believe that just because no one's been around Hamilton in anger it'll be a level playing field.
"We've been finishing races when a lot of other guys haven't," said Murphy. "Other teams have had a lot better cars and equipment than we've had but they've had crashes or got involved in other stuff while we've had consistent finishes.
"All the teams in the championship are professionals. The good ones get on with the job very quickly and you won't find any surprises in Hamilton as it'll be the same people doing the job at the front."
