Fighting Eighth for Murph

Qualifying in 11th place for the race, Murphy made a good start to be eighth at the completion of the first lap and managed to hold onto this position through to the end of the race.

Murphy was happy to have finished a Hamilton street race in the top 10.

“Eighth was a good result for the team,” Greg Murphy said.

“It was tough out there but we had a good solid run, something we needed to have.

“The car was definitely stronger early but the tyres started to go in the latter stages (of the race).

“Garth (Tander) was on my tail in the last several laps and I was lucky to keep him at bay.

“We were a little light on grip, we just needed to get more out of our tyres.

“Overall we learnt a lot and gathered some useful data.

“After the results I’ve had here (in Hamilton) it feels pretty good to be in the top ten.”

Murphy started the day well qualifying 11th, a big jump up the grid compared to yesterday’s first race.

“We had a good set of tyres left for qualifying today,” Murphy said.

“Eleventh was better than yesterday but I thought we had the speed to get in or at least near the top five. Had (Tim) Slade not put it in the wall and stopped the session early we could have achieved this.”

Jason Bargwanna’s day was not as positive, retiring on lap 11 thanks to a left rear hub failure.

“It’s a great event but I’m not leaving with a lot of happy memories,” lamented Jason Bargwanna.

“I kissed the wall and as I came off (the wall) Jason Richards came right up beside me and fired me back in.

“This ended my weekend.

“It’s a shame because I thought we were doing pretty well, the car felt good and there was potentially a good result in the taking.”

Source: www.sprintgasracing.co.nz