Bitter Sweet Day for Sprint Gas Racing in Tasmania

The day started on a high with Greg Murphy qualifying third for Sunday’s race, backing up the previous day’s front row start.

Bargwanna also improved his starting position, but really shone through during the race. A great drive and a strong strategy moved him up the grid to be in contention for a top five finish. He fell just short of this.

“We’re enjoying a good run;  the team has had a car in the top ten at every event this year, which suggests we’re going along pretty well,” Bargwanna said.

“We were good today, we had a good strategy, good stops and good speed, it was a well deserved result.

“It’s satisfying to see so much improvement over the course of the event.

“As Jeff (Grech) said, I think that our performance this weekend is a sign of better things to come. We’re improving each round.”

Murphy was also driving well, putting himself in the running for a second top 10 result of the weekend, but Ford Performance Racing put an end to that plan.

Murphy was hit by both Steven Richards and Mark Winterbottom in quick succession.

“I am absolutely flabbergasted that both Steven Richards and Mark Winterbottom hit me today and got away with it; they were out of control,” Murphy said.

“I don’t know how many times Richards hit me before he drilled me off the track. He destroyed my car and destroyed my race.

“We’d just patched up the car and rejoined the race, then I got hit again. Yes, I was ahead of Winterbottom, but down two laps so I wasn’t going to hold him up. I gave him plenty of room to pass and then he drove straight into me. 

“They are both good drivers but I expected a lot more from them, a lot more. They obviously weren’t using their brains.”

Sprint Gas Racing Sporting Director Jeff Grech was encouraged by the weekend’s results and is looking forward to bigger and better results.

“Our performance this weekend is a sign of more things to come, it is not a one off,” Grech said.

“We had genuine pace this weekend. Obviously it was extremely satisfying to have Greg (Murphy) qualify both races inside the top three. We missed out on pole both days by the smallest of margins, only several hundredths of a second. That’s pretty good.

“Both our drivers have performed well this weekend. What’s more, it is not a fluke. Everyone has worked extremely hard - the engineers, the engine department and the mechanics - to tune these cars into something fast and competitive.

"We’ve done a lot of development work on the chassis and engine and this weekend we showed we were going in the right direction.

“I think we can go past what we achieved this weekend, but at the moment we’re looking for consistency.

“We’ve found a platform to work off now, the drivers are gaining in confidence and things are coming together.

“Everyone is looking forward to Darwin.”

Source: www.sprintgasracing.co.nz