Townsville Not So Cool For Castrol's Murph

Again, the Castrol EDGE Holden Commodore showed good speed in sectors and was on the pace in the Sucrogen Townsville 400 early in Sunday’s race, but problems with overheating brakes and Murphy’s cool-suit would pose other dramas for the veteran V8 Supercar driver.

Going into the ninth round of the Championship, Murphy looked at the mid-season round as season defining despite his results he still remains confident of turning in strong results in the rounds at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

“We were unable again to get a handle on this car, it’s really not playing ball with us,” Murphy said.

“Qualifying wasn’t great on Saturday and then we suffered a puncture after an incident with another car, that then prompted us to use up our tyres and all we could do was battle around.”

Murphy would eventually finish 27th and looked ahead to Sunday, trying to put the day’s results behind him. Sunday would start better for Murphy, just missing the top 10 in qualifying and coming out of 13th for the second 200km race on the Townsville parklands/street circuit.

“We got a good start and got to a respectable sixth which was quite pleasing,” Murphy said.

“Again though, my brakes were a problem and we would suffer with grip and temperature from them, which was unfortunate considering where we were running.”

On lap 15 Murphy would start to feel the effects of a cool-suit that just would not stay cool. Murphy admitting for the second time this year his suit would expire and had trouble concentrating due to the extreme cabin heat.

“In the last few laps of the race I really had to back off, just because I was so hot,” Murphy said.

“It was a real battle, I was not okay. It can be awful for a driver not to be kept cool by his cool suit. It was really affecting me and taking its toll on my ability to really race hard.”

Murphy and his Castrol EDGE team will now enjoy a nine week hiatus until the next round of the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship is held at Phillip Island on September 10-12.

“The break is a bit yes and no for me,” said the four-time Bathurst 1000 winner.

“It doesn’t make the car go any better and just means it’s a long time until we can get a run in it again. That will be a test day for us and I think that’s our final test time for the year, so it’s going to be tough to sort this car out, but we’ll soldier on.

“A lot of effort, information and data will need to go into our efforts as we look towards the enduros, but I’ve just got to remain fairly optimistic about the rest of the year.”

Murphy and his Paul Morris Motorsport teammate Russell Ingall are seasoned endurance drivers and already beginning to look towards the L& H 500 at Phillip Island and the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on October 7-10.