Top End Tussle for Castrol Murph

Despite the Castrol EDGE Holden Commodore repeatedly banging on the door of the top 10 in race two he just failed and was then dealt a cruel blow at the end of the race.

Going into the seventh round of the V8 Supercars championship, Murphy had one win under his belt after the four-time Bathurst winner beat his Paul Morris Motorsports teammate,
Russell Ingall in the Supercar Challenge at the Castrol EDGE V8 Winternationals the week prior.

It was good form for Murphy to be carrying into the SKYCITY Triple Crown at Darwin and despite the popular Kiwi forcing his way into the top 10 by lap six of Sunday’s 200km
race missed in the end finishing 18th.

Murphy’s Castrol Commodore then grabbed the headlines at the end of the race when the front suspension spectacularly broke as he crossed the finish line.

He went into the Darwin round looking to improve on his best result during the last three years at the track where he grabbed 10th placing in 2008.

Murphy qualified his car in 20th on Sunday and raced hard on soft rubber but quickly burned the tyres off and found it hard from there. The car became difficult to drive, like many others on standard tyres and a coarse surface.

With Sunday looming and expectations high, it would prove the same as Saturday.
Murphy came out of grid position 13 and just like the previous day, moved up the order quickly, showing some solid speed and jumping into the top 10 before scheduled pit stops.
A rare human error would then play a role in Murphy’s race as a situation with a tyre change saw the #51 Castrol EDGE Commodore delayed severely in the pits and would emerge effectively in 16th position.

Murphy would regain one spot but lost it to Sunday’s pole sitter Alex Davison in the closing laps.

The Castrol EDGE team will now take to the streets of the tropical Queensland city of Townsville for the next race in the V8 Supercars championship – the Sucrogen Townsville 400 to be held from July 9-11.

It will be only the second time the V8 Supercars have visited Townsville and Murphy will be hoping to bounce back into some serious contention before the annual V8 endurance races, the L&H 500 at Phillip Island and the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in coming months.