Motorsport: Murph back at Grand Prix

Greg Murphy says it's great the V8 SuperTourers will be part of the Grand Prix weekend. Picture / Geoff Ridder

Big turnout of fans and drivers expected for Manfeild action

The depleted V8 SuperTourers field made the long and difficult trip down to the Highlands Motorsport Park, near Cromwell, recently but are back in the North Island for the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting at Manfeild this weekend.

Fans of the category should expect a bigger field this weekend with a number of teams opting to drop the opening round and rejoin the series in Feilding. Two long-standing V8 drivers, Greg Murphy and John McIntyre, are chuffed the longstanding schism between Motorsport New Zealand and the breakaway V8ST class might just be thawing at last.

It will be the first time the SuperTourers will be on the dance card of a fully fledged MotorSport New Zealand national championship meeting. "It's great to be part of the Grand Prix weekend," said Murphy.

"The New Zealand Grand Prix has such a massive heritage and being part of it gives us a chance to show how important we rate as a category and to demonstrate how well we fit into the premier meeting of the domestic season, especially at meetings also featuring the Toyota Racing Series."

The rest of the field is no doubt happy to be part of the most important domestic meeting of the year and reckon it'll be a special weekend, February 8-9. Murphy in particular will have to be on his game and with a bigger field might just feel a bit of pressure. He is the defending champion, and the Manfeild meeting is a bit of a homecoming event for him. No pressure then.

Murphy may have made the opening round at Highlands Motorsport Park look easy, winning all three races, but young Andre Heimgartner pushed him hard in two of the races.

"This opening round has been a bit easier than last year when we had a full field and with the likes of Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin and others competing," Murphy said. "We were a pretty well-oiled machine at the first round and we certainly didn't have it all our way last year.

"That was only the first round of the season and there's a long way to go yet. We're expecting bigger and better numbers at Manfeild so there's still a lot of work to do."

Murphy, of course, has a direct link with the NZGP at Manfeild. Before becoming one of the best V8 drivers in the Aussie championship he had a very successful single-seater career, including winning the 1994 New Zealand Grand Prix in a Reynard 92H Holden.

Another who's pleased to be back at Manfeild as part of an official MSNZ meeting is three-time NZV8 champion John McIntyre.

"We're out to impress," said McIntyre. "This is a golden opportunity for motorsport to move forward, show positivity and put past history to bed. Manfeild has provided the best racing we have ever had and is perfect for the pace of the cars.

"The layout suits the car particularly well and there are plenty of places to pass. I think the cars are pretty exciting at Manfeild, not just to drive but also to watch."

Fans of the bellowing V8s will get a double dose of the big saloons thundering around Manfeild as the New Zealand V8 Touring Cars are also on the programme. The cars may look similar but they're quite different beasts. They run different tyres, different engine capacities and have different chassis, which all goes to make for added on-track action and each category will provide its own crash-and-bash action.

"I think we might be a little bit quicker but it's quite hard, really, to compare them. There would be just a few seconds' difference in lap times at most. Really, though, each class would do its own thing and the fans would be the real winners," said Murphy.

Support classes to the TRS and V8 categories include the TR86 Series, NZGT, GT1 and GT2 Championships, the NZ Six and Saloon Car Championship, the 2014 Super Mini Challenge combined with NZ Star Touring Car Championship, and Production GT class.

V8ST points

1. Greg Murphy - 291
2. Andre Heimgartner - 228
3. Richard Moore - 213
4. Ant Pedersen - 192
5. Mark Gibson - 172
6. Morgan Haber - 158